The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-04-15

SHe ndu nOIIllHS u uO WlIh iiio oCotH' There was long pause during which the two men looked at one another.
 "You think that I had just cause for shooting him?" said Marsland.
 q think you had no right to take upon yourself the responsibility of saying The law will fail to punish these men and there fore I will punish them without invoking the aid of the law!'
 q do not regret what have done. AS said before, if had to go through it again I would not hesitate to shoot him. Perhaps it is because I have lived so much with death while I was at the front that human life does not seem to me sacred thing. These two men deserved death if ever men did,"
 "You believe that no jury will convict you?" said Crewe.
 q do not see how jury of patriotic Eng lishmen could do so. But l do not care about that I have finished with my life; I do not care what becomes of me. When I recall what I have been through over there in France, when I think of the thou sands of brave men who have died agonized deaths, when I see again the shattered, mutilated bodies of my men in the she'll hole with mel want to forget that ever lived. All that remained to be done is that you should hand me over to the police"
 s"That is responsibility which I should like to be spared" said Crewe gravely. "I think we may leave it to Brett''
 "To Brettw exclaimed Marsland, spring ing to his feet again in renewed excite ment Do you think he has escaped death; do you think he has got away?"
 ''These two miserable, loathsome crea- lures, Brett and Lumsden, to save their own lives, had beckoned my company into the trap. They had been captured by the Ger mans, and no doubt were tortured in order to make them do what they did. But as British soldiers they should have died under torture rather than be guilty of treachery. The memory of how my poor men had died without having chance to defend them selves haunts me day and night. hear their voices-their curses as they realized that they were the victims of horrible act of treachery, and their cries and means in the agony of death."
 He sat down on the upturned clock case and buried his face in his hands,
 CHAPTER 26
 sAm I the first man to whom you have told this story?" asked Crewe, in a gentle voice.
 "Yes," said Marsland. 'It is not story that would care to tell to many. It is not a story that reflects any credit on me my company wiped out through treachery on the part of two of my men,"
 "But when you came back to England, wouldn't it have been better to have re- ported the matter to the military authorities and have had Brett and Lumden tried by court-martial?"
 "I did not know they were in England until I came down here; I though that if they were not dead they were prisoners in Germany. have no witnesses for court martial, and after being off my head in the hospital for couple of months I doubt if a court-martial would believe my story. Counsel for the defense would say I was suffering from delusions. And it would have driven me mad if such scoundrel as Brett had been acquitted by court martial for want of evidence. Besides, the satisfaction of having him shot was not to be compared with the satisfaction of shoot ing him down myself just as if he were a dog"
 "But it is a terribly grave thing to take human life-to send man to his death without trial.'
 Il have seen so many men die, Crewe, that death seems to me but little thing. If man deserves death, if he knows him. self that he deserves if a hundrodfoId ,.hv waste time in proving it to others?: If had