The Daily Alaska empire., 1933-10-09
JIM IN FLIGHT

JIM IN FLIGHT
 TN the end he knew very little I more. The police were said to have a clue. Elmer Van Berg had not recovered consciousness. His condition was extremely grave. There was no trace of the emeralds.
 He sat back in the hard upright chair and stared straight in front of him. What next? He had left Happicot, and no power on earth would take him back there. He would have to make that quite clear.
 He had bought some sheets of paper. pencil. and couple of stamped envelopes as he came along. He wrote a few lines of thanks to Min. A nice little thing-kind, pretty, timid. He hoped for her sake that Nesta wasn't stopping there long. It was quite easy to write to Min. ,
 It wasn't at all easy to write to Nesta.l How did you write to an un- pleasant stranger who happened to be your wife, and make it perfectly clear that you never intended to see her again?
 He couldn't imagine how he had ever come to be mixed up with her Or with this Van Berg affair. Ac cording to all the available evidence, he had shot Elmer Van Berg and taken the Inca's emeralds. Unless or until he got his memory back he could neither rebut nor explain this evidesee. All he could do was to try and es. aTay from it. j
 He ls.isAt remember why he had gone to gee Elmer Van Berg. He had gone to see him, and they lad talked and had drinks. That was funn. thing-there was nothing in tl>a paper about those drinks. But he remembered drinking with Elmer.
 That is to say, he had remembered it. It had come and gone like flash. Elmer standing lL, with his hand on the syphon. If he could remem. Der that. he ought to be able to re- member the whole thing. He might remember it at any time. It was utterly damnable. He'd got to get away out of Ledlington-out of the country if possible.
 It came to him that there had been no mention of those drinks, be- cause they were a police clue. His fnger-marks would be on tht glass that he had used. The incident hadn't been given to the press on purpose.
 He leaned forward with determi- nation and wrote:
 T am going away. When l am in a position to do so, will come to some arrangement with you"
 He signed, J. R., and fastened the envelope and addressed it to Nesta. LIVE pounds is not very large l sum. Carefully husbanded, of course. it will go quite long way. If you tramp the roads. sleep out, and live. .on bread and cheese, your lodging costs you nothing, and your food not very much. On the other hand. toothbrush, cake of soap, and razor are necessaries, and so is change of linen. Money melts as soon as you begin to buy clothes. How jong would his suit last if he slept out in 1t? It was none too grand now.
 He pushed all these things away. He had gotto get out of Ledlington, and he was lucky to have five pounds to take the road with. a
 As he passed a newspaper shop at the corner of the Station Road. headline stared at him from yard away: s
 ARREST NEAR IN VAN BERG
 W CASE
 A mile out of Ledlington he left the high road for a footpath across fields. It took him into lane which climbed to an open heath.
 He sat down to rest on the stump of tree and looked about him. The day was fine, but not clear. The blue of the sky was misted oyer, and the sun came paiely through. There was a purple bloom of heather as far ss the eye could see. He stared across 1t at the veiied horizon. A hill like q cloud stood up against it's