Evening star., 1936-05-19
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= EmSNWp7KATHLEEN NORRIS ~

be back In a few days on another
matter"
1t stabbed her. and her busy hand
You don't think there's any use stay
Ing around here any longer"
well, tomorrow's Sunday. and the |
Governors gone with his family all |
day, and early on Monday he goes
down to San Quentin"
Il see. Billy" Tamara said in q |
stified voice, putting her elbows on
the dressing table and burying her |
face in her hands. isn't power q ter
rible thing? Power! He has it, and |
we can't reach to 1t, and George is
locked in already for the night like
q beast-locked in like madman-"
Tam, If you let 1t get you, you're
the one that'n pay for it," Billy said,
distressed.
Eyes, I know"
II n y
An hour before train time the next
morning Tam telephoned the executive
mansion. Before he left for Woodside,
could Gov. Coates possibly see Mrs.
Davis for five minutes? 1t was very
important.
Gov. Coates and Mrs. Coates had
gone to Woodside last night.
"Oh, thank you" Tam said weakly.
They - they couldn't be reached
there?"
IF you would write q letter, Mrs.
Davis" the secretary said kindly.
Tamara started to say that she had
indeed written letters, but tears
choked her, and she hung up the
telephone with no further words. On
Wednesday Of that week she sent out
from her dressing room at the old
Geary Street Theater in San Fran
cisco for n paper; the Governors par
dons were duly listed there. A Burke,
q Castagni, q Miller-there were nine
in all. No Davis. but indeed she had
inferred that. Georges pardon would
have been In big headlines; he would
have telephoned her. 1t was strange
to think of George telephoning her
again, coming In to take her to din
ner: 1t wasn't possible to believe that
he had ever been free to do that!
She saw him at the prison on Mon
day-Christmas eve-came back alone
across the gray Winter bay with the
familiar ICY agony at her heart. 1t
was hard enough to steel herself to see
him, to arm herself with cheerful
odds and ends of news, to fill her arms
with books and handkerchiefs and
cake and olives. But the coming away
was the msufferable thing; that was
the time when Tam's courage and
nerve were at their lowest ebb.
1t was all 50 bleak. so despairing
and helpless and endless. She saw
George in a chill bare room that was
bisected by long table. along which
ran a glass partition. The prisoners
sat at the inner side: at either end
of the table were guards. There we're
other women who meekly forlornly
accompanied her in the boats and
busses on the long trip to the prison,
and who had, like her, to grasp a few
mumbled words with the men they
loved, under the eyes Of all the rest
who cried on the way over and sobbed
all the way back. Tam was no more
fortunate than they; their dreary
neighborhood was only an accentu-
ating note to the blackness of her
despair. .
She did not cry; it would have been
delicious relief to cry. If she might
have wept away the tight weight on
her heart that was with her day and
night, if she might even have eased 1t
a little with tears. it would not have
been SO hard. But what she felt when
she had seen George In that place OF
horror, had smelled the dreadful
smells and heard the clanking keys
and slamming doors, was too fearful
for tears. The memory of his quiet
courage, his concern for her. his utter
weariness with the empty stupidity
of it all would tear at her heart for
hours afterward like the teeth of ami
mails She would awaken In the night
suffocated at the memory Of his look,
of some patient, tired word, of his
thanks for books and candy, tobacco.
CTo be continued