Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-04-28

Miss Robinette." he began, COM
ing forward, II realize that all this
needs some explanation. Especially
and he halted. "about myself"
Houston came directly to the
question.
ITS simply this. Miss Robinette.
n ! am guilty of those things. you
don't want to have anything to do
with me. But ] am here to tell you
that l am not guilty. and that it all
has been a horrible blunder of cir
cumstance. 1t is very true in one
sense" and his voice lowered
! that about two years ago in Boston.
I was arrested and tried for muir
der"
so Mr.. Thayer said"
81 was acquitted-but not for tn.
reason Thayer gave. They couldn ;
make a Ease. A worthless cousin.
Tom Langdon, was murdered. They
said 1 did 1t with a wooden MALE:
which / had taken from a prize
fight, and which had been used TO
hammer on the gong for the begin
ming and the end of the rounds. ]
had been seen to take 1t from the
fight, and 1t was found the next
morning beside Langdon. There was
human blood on it. i had been the
last person seen with Langdon. But
they couldn't convince the jury: Z
went free, as / should have done. 1
was Innocent"
Houston, white now with the
memories and with the necessity o.
retailing again in the presence of a
girl who, to him, stood for all that
could mean happiness. gritted his
teeth for the determination to go on
with the grisly thing. to hide moth
ING IN tho anCurarG IN tho nnaeftap
which she might ask. But Medaine
Robinette, standing beside the win
dow, the color gone from her cheeks.
one hand lingering the curtains. eyes
turned without, gave no evidence
that she had heard.
81 hadn't seen Tom Langdon In
five years. Always had looked OF
him as a sort of black sheep. He
asked for my father and appeared
anxious to see him. I told him that
father was out of town. Then he
said he would stay in Boston until
he came back. that he had informal
ton for him that was of the greatest
importance, and that when he told
father what 1t was. that he, Lang
don. could have anything my father
possessed in the way of a job and
competence for life. 1t sounded like
blackmail-I could think of nothing
else coming from Tom Langdon-
and l told him SO. That raj an
fortunate. There were SEVERAL per-
sons in my Office at the time. He
resented the statement and we quar-
relied. They heard it and later testi-
fed. He suggested that we go to
dinner together and insisted upon t..
There wa nothing to do but acqui-
esce: especially as / now was trying
to draw from him something of
what a brought him there. We
had wine. Oh" and he swerved sud-
denly toward the roman at the win
dow. Pm not trying to make any
Reuse for myself. We left the cafe,
he fairly intoxicated. myself greatly
so. We, saw the advertisement of a
prize fight and went, getting seats
near the ringside. They weren't
close enough for me. l bribed a fell
low to let me sit at the press stand,
next to the timekeeper, and worried
him until he let me have the mallet
that he was using to strike the gong.
1.-THE fight was exciting-especiai-
ly to me in my condition. i was
standing most of the time, even lean
ing on the ring. Once. while in this
position. one of the men. who was
bleeding, was knocked down. He
struck the mallet. 1t became COW
cred with blood. No one seemed to
notice that, except myself-and
everyone was too excited. A mo-
ment more and the fight was over. |
Then l stuck the mallet in my
pocket, telling everyone who cared
to hear that 1 was carrying away a
souvenir. Langdon and I went out
together.
"We started home--for he had an
nounced that he was going to spent
the night with me. Persons about