Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1930-06-10
Copyright BY Evelyn campbSll.l

law could send an embezzler TO
Sing Sing easy enough; or maybe
to the Island. which was worse.
"Sing Sing" she repeated this
vaguely. IL sounded heathenigh
ana a little silly, but oddly ia
miliar. And what Them
Oh. three or four yearsl OF
what? Prison.
Detective Jimmy drew a long
breath. lie had tried to make her
understand as we'll as he could.
but he had not told her the half.
OF course, II could never happen
TO her. A oma like that would
have dozens Of friends-but i'm
spite OF this assumption he moved
uneasily. He had seen IL happen.
He had seen them. young and pref
~. with the innocence hardly
brushed from their eyes. and no
friends. Nothing 10 be called
friend. There were so many WON
en- They sprang up like daisies
everywhere and if one was trampled
there was always another for its
place. Detective Jimmy was
no poet and he was n little
ashamed OF these fancies that
came now and then and which he
v recounted to anyone.
She startled him by saying. sud-
denly: You don't believe l meant
TO CHEAT people. do you?r and he
fastened TO assure her that he did
not. 1T was because somebody
once-told me a wrong law Of llv-
ing. And | believed IL and here
J ann" she glanced around as IL
her surroundings had just begun 10
matter. A small note Of terror
crppt into her voice. 1T was like
walking the narrowest path he
tween two precipiceS. One sIin
and you're gone. That T. what
happened-I slipped. And now
nothing can ever put me back
again J"
O'Hara looked out OF the cab
window. He knew where tleev
were TO the fraction or an inch.
Two blocks south and three east
and around the corner Sleet had
changed to a steady rain, more
miserable and dangerous than the
first: turning the sidewalks and
street into a sheet OF ice. On n
night Ike this the place would be
full. What would they do with her
"a fine. soft creature whose per-
fume filled the musty cab like a
bunch OF little spring flowers? And
nothing could ever put her back
again. She was right about that.
For there was a lot he hadn't told
her. -. There were the other
women
AS II his thought had called into
action one Of the sordid epochs Of
such a night. at this moment from
the street on the right o a
hubdub Of confusing sounds; the
uproar OF a motor pushed beyond
its will. the scream OF brakes
jammed at n dangerous angle and
two headlights streaming in the
rain.
The two cars vee-ed dangerously
together. A huge black bulk be-
side the smaller taxi elbowed IL
violently and for a second the man
and woman were given a glimpse
Of n OF the etchings OF hell
the inside OF n patrol wagon
damned to its doors with
Where had they been found and
why had God made them? Faces
without age and without soul:
bodies wrapped I'm scrdid inerr.
evil as the flesh ii concealed. DeS.
perate eyes; sodden eyes-eves
that laughed ribaldIy and eyes that
did not care. They huddled IN the
long black box with its iron
screened sides-hung there anyhow
from God knows what beginning.
and Jimmy O'Hara saw. with the
chills down his back and the sweat
under the collar, what II was going
70 mean 10 the woman beside him
when she was locked in " call that
night He had time TO think. "alI