White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1930-12-12
CHAPTER xII-Continued
wNU Service
Copyright by Evelyn campbell.)

cheat people, do you?" and he fastened
to assure her that he did not. "It
was because ebody-once-tol me
a wrong law of living. And ! be
lieved it and here-I ami" She
glanced around as If her surroundings
had just begun to matter. A small note
of terror crept into her voice. at WAS
like walking the narrowest path be-
tween two precipices. One slip and
slipped. And now nothing can ever
put me back again !"
O'Hara looked out of the cab win
dow. He knew where they were to
the fraction of an inch. Two blocks
south and three east and around the
corner Sleet had changed to
steady rain, more miserable and dan
gerous than the first; turning the side
walks and street into sheet of ice.
On night like this the place would
be full. What would they do with her
"a fine, soft creature whose perfume
filed the musty cab like bunch of
little spring flowers? And nothing
could ever put her back again. She
was right about that. For there was
lot he hadn't told her. -. There
were the other women
AS If his thought had called into
action one of the sordid epochs of such
night, at this moment from the
street on the right arose hubub of
confusing sounds; the uproar of mo-
tor pushed beyond its will, the scream
of brakes jammed at dangerous an
gle and two headlights streaming In
the rain.
The two cars veered dangerously
together. A huge black bulk beside
the smaller taxi elbowed it violently
and for second the man and woman
were given glimpse of one Of the
etchings of hell. the inside of
patrol wagon damned to Its doors
with women.
Where had they been found and why
had God made them? Faces without
age and without soul; bodies wrapped
in sordid finery. evil as the flesh 1t
concealed. Desperate eyes; sodden
eyes-eyes that laughed ribaidly and
eyes that did not care. They huddled
in the long black box with its iron
screened sides-fung there anyhow.
from God knows what beginning, and
Jimmy O'Hara saw. with the chills
down his back and the sweat under
his collar, what it was going to mean
to the woman beside him when she
was locked in cell that night. He
had time to think, call of them in
there together" and to get vision of
slim white hands trying to hold the
filth away
The two cars careened together, al
most touching-the taxi driver swear
ing loud and plaintively; Impossible
to put on the brakes with the street
skating rink. The clank Of slipping
chains. the ceaseless vibration of his
wheel confused him and the ugly Black
Maria chung there like a beetle! No
night for racing. The taxi driver
glanced almost pleadingly at the rush
er trying to crowd him into the curb
and then he tried to run for 1t. Two
CHASTITY cargoes bound for the same.
port; never to reach there.
Sirens No time to turn. Nowhere
to go. Hurting through emptiness
the long red shining truck dotted with
clinging figures of men was upon
them. One moment the terrible truck
wheels were against the opposite curb
and then the front ones plowed their
way through a splinter of wood and
glass and bodies that tumbled like rag
dolls here and there upon the bitter.
pavement.
Two wrecked cars and a hook and
ladder equipment slowly righting itself
under the impatient guidance of men
anxious to be on their way to the
work of saving few floors and walls
from threatened blaze.
policeman taking charge nodded
the permission to 20 on. Nohody's
fault, Of course. HystericaI women
were crying; some of them cursing bit
terly between their sobs. curious
crowd, retrieved fron pool halls ana
thirtl-class restaurants. pressed eager.
ly forward The accident was ba,i
enough TO draw them from their warm
shelters
The patrol wagon rested grotesquei,
on two wheels and a bent axle. but tn,
taxi was complete disaster. Som.
body was wiping blood from the
drivers head and declaring over and
over again that he wasn't dead as II
he was the only one that mattered.
What's this" The policeman bent
down to look at two figures that lay
side by side. The mans coat. fallen
open. displayed badge shining on
his breast. The discoverer was i'm
PEELED to a more vital interest "a
man from Central ofiice!" he cried
agha.
Detective Jimmy OHara opened his
eyes, Slowly. His mind was perfectly
cie.r, because his head had not been
injured at ALL The rest of him was
dead. quite dead. and he had seer