Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-01-23
CHAPTER NNIII
Gods Chance

i cavcrnous. deserted place. Footsteps
when there were footsteps. and voices.
when there were voices. seemed to echo
with strange loneliness through the
great halls, and up and down the wide
staircase. And in the dawn. as the
light came gray. the pieces Of furniture
swathed n their summer coverings Of
sheets. had seemed like weird and ghost
like specters inhabiting the place.
But he dawn had come hours ago
Dave Henderson raised his head from
his cuppcd hands. Was that the nurse
now, or the doctor-that footstep up
above? He listened a moment. and then
his chin dropped back into his hands.
Black hours they had becn--black
hours for lis soul, and hours full of the
torment and agony Of fear for Teresa.
From somewhere. almost coincident
with their arrival at the house. n nurse
had come. From some restaurant. Il
man had brought breakfast for the doc
tor. for the nurse. for Millman-and
for him. lie had eaten something
what he did not know. The doctor
had gone. and come again--thc doctor
was upstairs there now. Perhaps. when
the doctor came down again, the doctor
would allow hin, to see Teresa. Half
an hour ago they had tod him that she
would get we'll.
There was strange chaos in his mind.
That agony Of fear for her. that cold.
ley thing that had held a clutch upon
lis heart. was gone: but in its place
had cone another agOny-an agony Of
yearning-and now he was afraid-for
himself.
Millman had tried TO make linn 60 to
bed and sleep. Sleep. lie could not
have slept. He could not even have
remained still flr five minutes, at
stretch. lie had been half mad with
his anxiety for Teresa. lie had wanted
TO he somewhere where his restless
movements would not reach Teresa in
her room. and yet somewhere where he
could intercept every coming end going
Of the doctor. And so for hours he had
alternately naCCd ~ and down lDis
lower hall here. m thrown htm'ct
upon this great. wide, sheet. covered
djvan where he sat now. And in those
hours his mind. it Feomcd. had rrn
the gsmut Of every emotion human
soul could know. 1t achcd now-physi'
cally. His temples throbbed and hurt.
His nycs straycd around the hall.
and held on Il large sheet ct-drap"d pi"rc
os furniture over beyond tho foot Of the
staircase. They had served other pur-
poses. these coverings. than In max"
spectral illusions in the gray oE dawn
Beneath that sheet lay the parkGCr ri
banknotes. II made good hiding
place. lie had extracted the package
from the valise, Hnd had Scrrctcd it
there during the confusion rs they ha"
entered the house. But 1t seemed to
take form through that sheet now. rs ii
had done 4 score of times since he had
put IL there. and always II seemed -
though 4 crimson stain that was on the
wrapper wonld Snroau and spread unit!
II covered the entire package.
That packagc-and the crimson staIu
II seemed to make OF itself CuriouSlT
appropriate foreground for picture
that sprcad away into vista of limit
less years: An orphan school. with its
cracked walls. and the painted mot toes
whose scrolls saped where the cia"k'
were n swirl If horses reaching madir
down :hn stretch. 4 roar Of hoarSe. de-
lirious shouts. elatrd oaths around the
bookmaker's payinC-stand. linrhCG
faces on the outer fringes OF this ring;
4 thirst iUtoierablc. stark pain. the
brutal jolting OF boycar through tie
nights, hours unOn hours Of a horror
that ended only with tie loss Of cOu-
sciousreSS: walls that reared themselves
50 high that they seemed TO stand scn-
finels against the invasion Of even a
ray Of sunlight. steel bars. and doors.
and bo'1s thar changed. and changed.
until the sound ate like some cancer
op thing into the soul itself; and then
wolves. human wolves, raVcnOvN w0lv,s.
between two packs of them. the police
on the one hand. the underworld on the
ether, that sTarl"d md tore at him.
while lie fought them for hi, lfc.
All that. That was tie prize he had
paid fo~ that package thrrc-tHat, and
that crimson stain.
He swept his hand G"rcyS hiq eyes.
His face grew gpi and his inWS locked