The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1929-05-10


hold. and disappeared into the crowd.
It all happened as the officer had
expected, and he went about his duty;
but the episode made an enormous
difference in Adolf Smucker. He was
now hunted man. The police want
ed him. He was escaping from the
tyranny of capital. His home would
already be marked. He was an out
cast.
He dived into the subway station
at City hall. An hour later he was
sitting on bench near Grants tomb.
A woman with baby carriage moved
hurriedly away when ne suddenly
burst into merriment. Smucker had
forgotten all about his fathers lit
tie hoard of savings-thirty dollars
which he had taken as the old man
lay asleep after his nights work at
the docks.
A train noisily pulling along on the
river bank gave him new idea. He
would find Handy, and would punish
him as the author of all his misfor-
ably waiting for him at the ferries,
but they would not be watching the
railroad stations yet. He remem-
bered that Pine Plains was the sta
ton. and that IT was served by the
Newburgh. Duchess and Columbia
railroad.
1t was dark when Smucker skuked
along the road from Pine Plains to
the Gray house. 1t was long, weary
walk, and Smucker usually tired cas-
lily. but tonight he walked on air. He
talked aloud. He denounced his enc
mics and eXulted in their doom.
Reason and madness we're fighting
for the possession of his mind. Per.
haps Smucker had never been whGl.
ly sane. 1t needed some such pre-
ciptating cause as this to give the
battle to the darker forces. When
big motor cars passed him. he spat
at them.
1t was almost ten when he reached
Hanby's estate. Shetering behind a
great elm. he saw two people canter.
ing toward him. The bright moon.
light revealed Hilton Handy and his
wife. Mrs. Handy wore a light linen
habit.
The menace of gallopersl One OF
Smokers orator friends had de.
scribed how he had heen ridden down
BY the cars Cossacks. Handy and
his wife had nearly ridden smucaS =
down. - s ~ =
Then the intruder Upon the
swimming pool by the use. He rec:
ognized the Handy children and Pei.
ham. The big noisy man was Brophy.
the banker. There were half dozen
others. laughing. diving. Other civil
iZations had wantoned thus on the
eve of disaster, Smoker gloated.
The sound of music led him nearer
the brightly lighted mansion. He
peered through a rear window. and
saw that here even the servants rev.
ielcd. He scowled as he recognized
the impudent girl who had let him
into the duplex apartment. She was
dancing with manservant. So the
Hanbys had Gunkies to wait on them
now!
Smucker had not determined on his
manner of revenge. He realized that
he must employ cunning, not force
He was lone man among many. He
cursed himself for not buying a re.
volver. He had not even a knife
He withdrew from the house, and
sank into the shadows He would
lie down somewhere and plan what
to do.
A sound as OF the clicking of a
rifle trigger made him tnrn his
frightened head. He realized in that
moment that he had forgotten the
possibility of police pursuit. Now he
was conscious of its imminence.
On little mound fifty feet dis
tant. his body silhouetted against the
bright moonlight, stood man. with
rifle resting in the crook of his left
elbow. So on a, hundred rolls of film
had Smucker seen warders and jail.
ers stand, waiting to kill escaping
| prisoners. AS he looked. the un.
known raised his rifle. 1t seemed to
the terrified man that it was pointed
directly at him.
With screech hardly human.
Smoker dived into the nearest shad.
Ows and began a race for life. lie
needed not where he went, so long as
he could seek darkness and escape
from the white and hooking moon.
inh rhaf ool,;
house he did not notice until the
lighted windows brought him to
stop.
ITO BE CONTINUEDl