Detroit evening times., 1943-01-11

IINtE dance oiCheS'Ia III san i-aNe
City ceased playing and voice
from the broadcaStine room said
"James Miller, a lIfe-termer
who has spent most OF the last
10 years in solitary confinement
I'm the state penitentiary. escaped
yesterday morning after muir
deriug one guard and seriously
wounding another with a knife
which he had fashioned from a
file
Peggy twisted n knob on the
dash and the only sound now was
the rafting of the station wagon
on the wsshboard road She was
getting tired of James Miller.
She wished they had him back
I'm the solitary cell. 50 that she
could listen 10 a radio program in
peace without being reminded OF
his intensely diSagreeable proXim-
ity outside the walls every is
minutes.
The station wagon looked like a
brown bug in the middle of the
sage freckled plain. The road was
as straight as a ruled line and a
rope Of gray dust trailed along
1t TO the receding mountains.
WRECKED CAR REVEALED
The scar which the dump of her
fathers mine made on the flank of
the foothills shrank 10 a speck and
disappeared. The presence of the
wrecked car ahead of her was re-
vealed by the reflection of the
suns feyid rays from strip OF
polished metal.
1t looked like white fire in the
distance but Peggy did not see il
Immediately.
Some of the mail beside her was
being shaken from the seat. She
was keeping one eye on the road
and another on the letters which
she was pushing back into place.
She weighted them down with
a sack of ore samples. II was a
sausage-shaped sack, tagged for
parcel post. II contained powdered
rock from the diamond drill; the
stuff was as heavy as lead.
BY the time Peggy looked ahead
again, the car in the ditch was
growing palmer. Details took form
during the next few minutes: a
large sedan sagging on two dished
wheels; the shatterproof glass of
one window was splder-webbed
with cracks; there was blood on
the back of the drivers seat.
No one was in sight when the
station wagon slowed to n stop.
Peggy flung open the right-hand
door and started sliding toward it..
Then two men appeared from be-
hind the sedan and she stopped
where she was. Her fingers closed
on the sack of powdered rock.
EYES NARROW IN FEAR
During the brief interval before
the affair came TO its climax of
ugly action, she remained in this
position: slip OF a girl bare
haired and freckled, in blue slacks
md a white shirt which was open
at her slim throat; her eyes were
narrow with fear.
Both men were young and tall,
blond haired. The one who came
ahead was walking with the slow
uncertainty of a drunken man.
The blood on his face made it look
like a red mask: his scowl made
the mask ugly. Blood matted his
pale hair.
He was wearing loose fitting
suit of coarse gray stuff with a
stenciled number on the jacket.
The other man was pace behind
he was holding a heavy, long
handled hub wrench over the
prisoners head.
There were flecks OF blood on
his silk polo shirt and dark stain
on the back of his sports coat.
He said:
Hold it, The pair halted.
Peggy was listening TO small
voice. II came from the back of
her brain and it was trying 10 tell
her something but the words were
blurred and. although she tried her
best. she could not understand
them.
The prisoner turned his head
and glanced at Peggy. His eyes
were dull, his Scowl was a distor-
tion. His captor raised the wrench
bit. He said:
"You make a move or say