Carbon County news., 1936-06-12
Barry was thinking in monosylla,

l.
bles. -zs,s..l ss.z;.s.. <~ -. l.....
And, in his first letter, he men,
toned your red hair"
Barry grinned. !
HE also mentioned your taking
a hundred dollar bill out Of an en-
velope addressed to Mrs. Ridder."
The grin faded.
"You haven't made a move that
/ haven't known about"
He waited.
"Why didn't you have me ar
restedW
Because ! knew that my son was
in prison, accused Of this murder,
I read about that less than an hour
after I'd satisfied myself that you
weren't my son. Jay Rogers. I'd
had a man following him all about
Florida. The mans report agreed
perfectly with the newspaper &C.
count Of Jay Rogers"
"Still-"
what was to do? Sail? The
doctor said that was out Of the
question. I wired Harwood 'Rog-
ers didn't kill Kelly. Find out who
did, Twenty-four hours later, ]
knew you were on the Globe, and
why, and that you'd succeeded in
interesting Winslow."
He wiped his glasses, and went
on.
'I'd written a cable ordering your
arrest. There didn't seem much
sense in sending it. / was stuck In
Bad Nauheim. My son was locked
up In the Tombs. You seemed bent
on getting him out, It was a chance.
telegraphed Harwood to give you
every possible aid. I told him to
raise your salary, and I signed a
check for my wife to send you. She
didn't know that you weren't her
boy, and she didn't know 1 knew
anything. Nobody did. I kept my
mouth shut, and the wires busy.
"Two weeks ago, / learned that
you'd accomplished nothing and
that the date of the trial was set.
went to my doctor, and he said /
could make the trip. After I'd
booked passage Harwood cabled
about the Morano clew. Then !
told my wife everything, and came
home"
ITO deal with me?''
EYES,"
Apparently that was all. Ridder
had made his statement, coldly,
calmly, as a Judge might have spok-
en- in charging a jury. The charge
over, he waited again-so long that
the pause became unendurable
Barry was standing-like a pris-
Oner in the dock. After a moment,
he said: "What are you going to
do?"
Listen to your explanation"
II haven't any,"
"There's police officer in the
next room."
"Yes," Barry answered. Il felt
sure there would be-"
us there any reason shouldn't
turn you over to him?"
"None that you don't know about" :"
He was as cold and as calm as
Ridder. Two cold, calm men, look
ing at each other. Ridder knew
everything. He knew what Barry
had done for his son, and had "a
police officer in the next ROOM"
Knowing everything, he waited un-
til Barry could be of no further use
and then sent for "the cops" A
hard man and a mean one. That
was that.
"I'm not going to beg off, if that's
what you want" Barry blurted.
"You know what I did"
II want to know why you did it."
81 don't know myself"
"No?"
mo"
II think do know" Ridder said.
His glasses were still in his hand,
and he was scrutinizing Barry
through naked, narrow eyes. Half
a dozen people have been here to
plead for you. One of ems still
here. To listen to them, anybody'd
suppose you broke into my house to
do me a good turn. You didn't ex-
actly do that, did your"
NO." Barry answered. II didn't"
"The obvious thing seems to be
that you broke in to help yourself.
The servants arrived and mistook
you for my son. That enabled you
to stay on. Then my sons wife ap-
peared. You silenced her by un-
dertaking to get the boy oft. That's
your story, isn't it?"
Pretty nearly"
"And then you remained to face
me because you thought you could
bluff your way out. That was the
game, wasn't it? Blackmail?"
Barry was getting angry. 1t was
unbearable; this hard, mean old
man twisting his motives, incapable
Of admitting that a single one of
them might have been honest. Why
should he remain silent? He was
in for it, anyway.
"As, a matter of fact" he found
himself saying, "that isn't my game.
The story you told isn't my story.