Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 27 January 1941 — Page 14

Serial Story— Conscript's Wife

By BETTY WALLACE

SATURDAY: Paul parks on a byroad after Martha tells him of Suzanne’s threat to go to Bill. Paul admits he is in love with Martha, but has kept it secret because he is Bill's friend. He demands that she come back to the offlee, give up this killing work. Martha refuses, asks to go home. Paul slams the ear into gear, darts out on to the highway. A car speeds toward them. There is a crash!

CHAPTER NINETEEN

WHEN MARTHA MARSHALL opened her eyes, at last, she was

lying on someone’s coat in the road.|.

A man was bending over her. A strange man, with frightened eyes, like burned-out holes in his face. “Are you all right now?” he asked huskily. “I'm—fine—" Memory came flooding over her.. People, magically appearing from nowhere, were milling around her, They must have stopped their cars on the highway, she thought vaguely. When the crash came. . . . She became aware, then, that there was a stinging on her cheek. One arm was numb. She lifted her head, and the man bent quickly

and slid his arm under her shoulder. |

Her head was spinning. But she could sit up. She said, “I'm all right. Nothing broken.” The man looked down at her leg. Her stockings were torn, and there was blood. But Martha touched the spot and told him, “A scratch. See?” She .noved her legs, and then she was clinging to him, to stand. The faces of people, the moving lights from electric torches, the beams from parked cars, all made & reeling pinwheel before her eyes. “paul? Is he all right?” _ Wordlessly, the man turned his head. Martha saw then the little . group around something on the ground. Horror welled up inside her. She tried to go toward them. “Don’t,” the man said. “Wait.” But she couldn’t wait. She walked, shakily, scarcely knowing she walked, to where they were bending over Paul. “Is he Seadye she asked fearfully. “Is he dead?” A state trooper straightened. “No, he’s not dead. He's had a nasty knock on the head, though.” A woman told her, gently, “There's an ambulance coming. She tried to lead the girl away. «you can’t do anything. Don’t look.” 3 ” ”

E SHRILL WHINE of a siren an the air. Always, afterwards, the sound of a siren was to bring back to Martha Marshall that hour of horror; the white stretcher onto which they lifted Paul's prostrate body; the grave face of the am‘bulance surgeon; the voices.of men and the sharp commands of the trooper. She was to recall the crumpled ruin of what had been Paul's new car; and the shattered headlights, the bashed-in radiator of that other car.. She was to remember how glass littered the road, and ciunched under her feet; how her cheek stung, and blood came away on the handkerchief someone gave her. i She wanted to ride to the hospital in the ambulance with Paul. They wouldn’t let her. The man who had . first bent over her helped her into a black sedan. “I'l take you. Your bruises and scratches better be looked over, t00.” : But in the hospital, after a scant going over, they paid little attention to her. It was Paul, swiftly taken into the emergency room, over ‘whom they worked. She wanted to get to a phone, oo. She had to call Eugene, she had to tell him what had happened. The man who took her to the hospital was kind. “Suppose we sit here and wait until we find out about him. Then you can/felephone and I'll take you home.” He was a middle-aged person, and his concern for her touched Martha. “Don’t bother about me, please.” “I want to. A man I never saw before went to a lot of trouble for me, in an accident once, and I'm only paying it back.” It was then that she saw the scar which reached from his ear along his throat and down into his collar. She touched * her stinging cheek, and a sickening fear washed over her. “I—I might have been disfigured,” she thought swiftly. “Oh, how lucky I was! How lucky!” But Paul? Had he been lucky? There was a tight band over her chest, constricting her lungs so that she couldn't breathe. Tighter and tighter, as the minutes lagged and still no one came out of the closed door of the emergency room. The man signaled a nurse and spoke to her. She went away, to come back with something in a glass for Martha. “Drink this. It will help you.” ” ” 2 MARTHA PUSHED it away. “I don’t need anything.” Just then, a doctor came out of the emergency room, and she ran toward him. “How is he? What is it? Is—is he going to be all right?” “He's suffering from concussion,” + said the doctor. “Not severe, I think. And ht has a broken collar bone.” He added hastily, “A collar bone which is broken requires merely a strapping. The patient usually walks around in one plece. And the concussion, I feel sure, will pass off by morning.” She wanted to see Paul. “I think not,” said the doctor. “If you don’t want to stay here over night, getting over the shock you've had, you'd better go gome and go straight to bed.” fof, She protested but it was no use. The kindly stranger .drove her home. It was he who explained to Eugene what had happened. Eugene was stunned, almost angry. “For God's sake, Martha, what on earth were you two doing away out there, on that back road?” / The stranger said, “I don’t think she’s quite up to questions.” Martha thanked him for all he . had done, and he patted her shoulder. “Go to bed. There’s nothing. to worry about.” She could hear him, talking ‘to Eugene, “as she ‘undressed slowly. Her arm, she found, was black and blue, and there was a nasty welt on her hip. Her right leg was scratched and bruised under the] fodine they'd painted it with at the

hospital. The mirror gave her back | the image of a pale, big-eyed girl|

with an angry scratch on her cheek and tumbled hair. Wearily, she slipped into bed. Here head was

HOLD EVERYTHING

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But she must have slept. She must have slept as only the exhausted can sleep, for it was long past breakfast time—she could hear Crenie and Sis shouting outside her window—when she woke. Eugene was home. “Had to stay,” he said matter-of-facily. One day more isn’t going to matter.” : “Did you phone the hospital about Paul?” | “Yeah. He's all right.” | 8 8 x | THEN SHE remembersd Helen. “She must be worried about your not coming last night.” “I sent a message by the nurse.” “Don’t tell her abouf; this!” “Think I'm crazy?’ He turned to go. - “Are you hungry? I've got some .coffee.” “Il be out in a minute. I want to see Paul as soon as I can, too.” “Sure. But he’s all right.” And then he said, standing the. e in the doorway, “Bill called up here last night while you were out, Martha.” “He did? From camp?” Regret grawed at her. “If I'd. only known! I'd never have :gone out, srd all this wouldn't have happened. Why in the world didn't he let me know he meant fo phone!” Eugene cleared his taroat. “Matter of fact, he was kinda surprised when I told him Ellictt had driven @ver here. And he said he’d gotten some kind of pass—right after inspection this morning he'd leave

camp. To spend the with you.” “Martha’s eyes flew to Eugene's. “You mean—he's on | his way— now?” : “Yes,” said Eugene. “That's what I mean. Can’t take over a couple of hours from camp cn the train. It’s nearly 12 now.” i “Oh, my face! And—and he'll want to see Paul . . |? Her thoughts raced, Out of the back of her mind, blotting out the joy and anticipation, there came a sudden question, Had $izanne managed to see Bill at camp already? Was that why lie was coming here, so unexpectedly, and sp immediately after Paul's arrival?

(To Be Continued)

week-end

(All events, names and chiracters in this story are fictiticdus.)

PATIENT HANGS SELF IN STATE HOSPITAL

LOGANSPOFET, Ind. Jan. 27 (U. P.).—Michael J. Hoffrnan, 60, Monticello, a patient at the Logansport State Hospital, hanged himself yesterday, authorities saic. . A Monticello electrical contractor, Hoffman was committed to the hospital Jan. 9. Jie was a nephew of A A. North, superintendent of the White County Infirmary atgMonticello. He is survived by his widow, Esther. {

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THE NEXT EPISODE OCCURS ONE MINUTE LATER]

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