The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1926-02-04


lowing visit to the county hospital,
when the front page Of an early after
noon paper caught his eye. There 1t
was in bold headlines:
PELLEN INDICTED FOR MURDER
Eddie the Immune Held for Trial
Without Bail
A definite and undeniable step had
been taken, bringing Pellen nearer to
doom. If Bertram felt it, how much
more would Kitty Hewitt be affected
by it! She had told him that the
bond between Pellen and herself was
not love; at least, not love on her
part, she had said, though 1t was true
Pellen loved her. They had grown up
as girl and boy together, Pellen and
she; when disaster had met her moth
er, Pellen's mother had taken little
Kitty Hewitt into her own home and
brought her up to the best Of her
ability. Eddie Pellen had been like a
brother to her; and when he went
dad" Kitty had refused to forsake
him. He loved her-above everything
else in the world.
Doctor Darand also was in love
with her. OF course this was far
more recent fact and one to which she
paid little or no heed. It was over.
Swallowed today by Pellen's trouble
Pellen who, protecting her, had put
his life to forfeit. Bertram longed to
telephone to her when the news of
the Indictment was being spread
through the streets; but what could
he say? So. having no professional
calls to make this afternoon, he
took recourse to the resort Of an idle
physician, and absorbed himself with
watching others work at clinic.
Later when Bertram stepped from
the hospital doors into the lamp-lit
dusk of the early evening a shock
awaited him. New headlines screamed
from the newspapers. Kitty Hewitt!
they proclaimed. Something had hap
pened during the afternoon while he
had been shut up in the clinic rooms,
something which surpassed the sensa-
ton of the formal Indictment of Pei
len; something involving the girl her
self, who was the actual heart Of the
case Kitty Hewitt arrested That
was it.
But she was not being held without
bond, as was Pellen, who had fired
the shot. The judge, who had ordered
her held, had fixed her bail at ten
thousand dollars. "As no one offered
bond, she was taken to the JAIL" That
was what the paper said.
He drove at once through the dark
streets to the Jail. 1t was not the
hour for visitors, but his situation
and condition were exceptional. and
he was let in. He had to see for
himself that Kitty Hewitt actually
was in Jail; and from the corridor
outside the women's section he caught
glimpse of her About forty women
were grouped about small tables with
in barred and steel-bOund enclosure
known as the women's bull pen"
At the fourth table behind the bars
through which Bertram Darand
stared, patch of lovely color showed.
He caught his breath. 1t was corn
color hair-Kitty Hewitt's hair!
The guard who had piloted Bertram
discovered her at once. There's your
GIRL" he said, jerking his thumb to-
ward her table.
He could see her eyes now; she
gazed at him steadily-until he low
cred his head. 1t seemed to him not
so much her shame as his that she
| sat there.
AS he followed the guard away,
| barely noticing where he was led, he
| found himself again stirred by the
| question which so many others asked
| this morning. but which no one yet
had answered: 'Who was this girl?
| He drove first to the Fraleys'. Ber-
| tram knew that when she was taken
| away by the police the Fraleys had
i forsaken her; but he thought 1t pos
sible that they did not fully under
stand what 1t meant for girl to be
in Jail. So he went to them and told
| them.
They were very sorry; they felt ex-
tremely distressed, indeed, for she
had seemed such lovely girl; but
ten thousand dollars was ten thousand
| dollars, and 1t could not be offered to
] penniless Doctor Darand for the free
dom Of girl whom nobody knew.
! There was a chill finality In their
tone; 1t was no use arguing. Ber-
tram hurried on to the home Of the
friend next upon his list
Half an hour later he was hasten
Ing to the door of the third. By ten
o'clock he had ceased to try to raise
ten thousand dollars in one sum; he
begged for half OF It.; for quarter
of it; then for tenth Of IT only.
At one o'clock in the morning, when
even the mansions of the drive and
Aston street had become dark. Ber-
tram turned YEARLY toward his board
ing-house room with experience and
much bitter learning for his nights
begging. He had learned that the
friends of his father and the sons OF
the friends Of his grandfather had
maintained their fortunes through the
preservation Of marvelously rigid
attitude toward sums such as ten
| fhousand dollars or even five or one,