Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1936-05-29

t reward against 'em. They shove
me the letter that was found on MI
< Etheridge and wanted to know if
e was your writing"
"Well?" The inquiry came faint
:. ly.
"Oh, I lied about that, too!
said it wasn't"
Miss Woods knees weakened an
t she sat down. Her eyes weakene
! and frightened; they were fxe
hypnotically upon Jacobs. tn
| old men regarded her kindly, the
said: "Now don't you worry
| Nothing's going to happen: Yo'
20 to bed. Jacob won't let no
body hurt you"
On the morning after Jerry
visit, Mary Holmes ran through
stack of newspapers and discover
ed, to her surprise and to her cha
grin, that nowhere was her nam
mentioned. The Etheridge cas-
was featured as prominently as ev'
er, but she had dropped out of it
In n week she had become :
national character, and had beer
fo~.o-+e,. # seemed almost as il
she had been born, had lived feve-
rishly, and had died, all in sever
DAYS. She did not enjoy the SEN
sation; she was offended: The taste
for publicity is likely the taste for
narcotics: it feeds upon itself, and
once formed, it is hard to freak,
For awhile Mary Holmes had
walked in the spotlight; now to be
elbowed aside, to be crowded en-
tirely off the stage, caused her to
boil with rebellion. Her vanity
had been able to ignore their
mockery and to construe what re-
NAMED as applause: it took some e
effort to picture herself as the old
Mary Holmes beneath whose teet
once more were the rapt, upturned
faces of the world, but after a
fashion she had succeeded. 1t was
a sort of game and she had enjoy
ed nlavine it. To be robbed nov
of that enjoyment left a bleak
feeling of emptiness, a teellng
which increased when she dimly
recalled her scene with Jerry on
the previous evening. So he was
going to get married! That would
leave her more alone than ever
She was sorry she had told him the
truth about himself; he was such !,
a sensitive flower! He would
probably stay away altogether, and
his visits had at least broken the
deadly humdrum of this wretcs'ed
existence. Any Interruption any
thing whatever to do or to thing
about, was preferable to monoton>
such as she endured. Sh. realized
this morning hat those visits had
meant more than she had imag;n-
ed. Heigh-ho! About all the ~
element she could look forward
to from now on was being called
as a witness in the Esher'dge case
and getting back into the news
, rer columns ill rhAs manner
H., there was no Certainty that
she would r., called. Her love OF
the dramatic made hss wish that
she had a really sensational story
to ell. 1t would be thrilling to
rale the st:,nd and siv= testimony
! tina, would electrify the court, the
I whole country. There would be
.ome fun in that an:
Her mind envisayed a new
thought and she considered it while
feeding her r3ulrr,. When she
hid finished her work she walked
I'D Re road and spent a long while
studying the scene of the tragedy
and carefully exploring the ground
When she returned there was a deeF
frown of preoccupation upon hel
face. but her eyes were bright and
there was a purposeful set to her
features. 49,,
Later that day she assured her
self that some destiny must nave
SHAPED her thoughts for Mr.. Voge!
the new prosecutor, drove out from
town and interviewed her. With
him he brought Westland's chief
of detectives, Lopez. For a while
Vogel questioned Mrs. Holmes per-
functorily; then his bearing chang
ed: he became alert, attentive.
"Why didn't you make all this
known before?" he inquired.
1.-The police talked with you and
SO did the newspaper men,"
EYES," the woman laughed