Henderson daily dispatch., 1939-03-25
CHAPTER rHIRTY-FOUR

hospital, with his dellrlOuS cry OF
"Murder!" still ringing in her
ears. Iona felt an impulse to run
that almost overcalne her. She felt
as if she could go down the cor
ridor and out into the street and
vanish forever, away from every
thing. Jim, brown-eyed Jim,
with his drawing, "Girl' and his
almost fierce understanding of her
troubles. Jim, in whom she
had felt so secure-to find him
connected with murderi
1.-THE net! He'll go through it, I
tell you! It's murder =" Through
the closed door the heavy voice
sounded again, and putting her
hands to her ears, she lurched down
the hall. Without leaving word
where she was going, she passed on
out into the street.
What to do next was the problem
that confronted her, as she struck
out blindly through the misty
September morning. She looked
about her almost calmly at the
hustle of the kindly little town she
had grown, in so short time, TO
consider as home, and a rebellious
lump rose in her throat. Why did
things have to happen like this, she
asked herself, beating her wings
against her fate like a Gagged bird
beats against its bars. She was
convict's daughter. Wasn't that
oh hoUn fO ha
convict's wife?
"No, oh, no." She cried out
aloud as the thought brought a
picture of Jim flashing before her
ewes. Jim, with his kindness and his
gentleness, shut away from her, be-
hind those grim bars, as daddy had
been. She couldn't allow that to
happen!
Suddenly, as she tramped on,
her shocked mind seemed to clear
itself, and she knew that nothing
really mattered but Jim's safety.
She must protect him, somehow.
That was the big thing. She must
manage to keep people away from
him until he was better-peOple
who might suspect. And as soon as
he was able to travel they must
slip away from Brighton, well as
she loved it. Move on. Two weeks,
the detective had said in the letter
he'd sent to Clark Martin. He would
be back in two weeks! She must
lay her plans carefully.
True to Dinah's predictions, the
Brighton News carried the story
of Jim's accident blazoned across
its headlines that evening.
Opening the hospitals copy with
trembling hands, Iona scanned it
fearfully. Would there be a pic
lture? She had learned so much Of
the ways of newspapers and their
reporters that she was prepared
for anything. 1t would not have
surprised her if the very picture
that had caused them to come to
Brighton were not raked out of the
files and printed again. She dread
ed to look.
Her fears, however, were ground
less. There were no pictures Of her
nor Of Jim, and Mrs. Morriss had
evidently piled her reporter friend
with so many facts that he had
felt no necessity of going into per-
sonalities too deeply.
Bridge Worker Saves Comrade.
Plunges Into Water" the story was
headed. A vivid account of the ac-
cident followed with Jim's heroism
played up in glowing terms. Read
ing it, Iona felt the tension in her
tired mind lessening. Nothing
which might make people wonder
about them was included. Instead
of the tell-tale pictures she had
feared, there was only a snapshot
of the worker Jim had saved. Be-
meath it, and half way down the
page, was another shot of the
spidery, half-completed span of the
new bridge.
Accident Recalls Famous Colo
rado Experiment." the bridge pic
ture was captioned and, under that
lead, the reporter had taken his
one fight into the reminiscence
Iona had. been dreading. It was an
impersonal enough article, but she
caught her breath as her eyes fol-
lowed the black lines that seemed.
all at once, to leap out at her.
"Will safety net for structural
iron workers ever be developed? {?
was the question raised anew by
yesterdays accident on the Brigh-
ton bridge. Various safety devices
have been tried in this most haz-
ardous line Of work without sue
cess. The most famous failure
along this line occurred some five
years ago on the now completed
Wetmore bridge across the Cole