Jasper County Democrat, Volume 16, Number 97, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 March 1914 — WITHIN THE LAW [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WITHIN THE LAW

By MARVIN DANA

FROM THE PLAY OF BAYARD VEILLER Copyright, 1313, by the H. K. Fly company. CHAPTER XIX. Anguish and Bliss. G ARSON shouted his confession without a second of reflection. L But the result must have been the same had he taken years of thought. Between him and her as the victim of the law, there could be no hesitation for choice. The prime necessity was to save her, Mary, from the toils of the law that were closing around her. For himself, in the days to come, there would be a ghastly dread, but there would never be regret over the cost of saving her. He had saved her from the waters—he would save her until the end, as far as the power In him might lie. The suddenness of it all held Mary voiceless for long seconds. She was frozen with horror of the event. When, at last, words came, they were a frantic prayer of protest. “No, Joe! No! Don’t talk —don’t talk!” “Joe has talked,” Burke said, significantly. “He did it to protect me,” she stated, earnestly. The inspector disdained such futile argument. As the doorman appeared in answer to the buzzer, he directed that the stenographer be summoned at once. •‘We’ll have the confession in due form,” he remarked, gazing pleasedly on the three before him. “He’s not going to confess,” Mary insisted, with spirit But Burke disregarded her completely, and spoke mechanically to Garson the formal warning required by the law. “You are hereby cautioned that anything you say may be used against you.” Then, as the stenographer entered. he went on with lively interest. “Now, JoeT’ Yet once again, Mary protested, a little wildly. “Don’t speak, Joe! Don't say a word till we can get a lawyer for you!” The man met her pleading eyes steadily, and shook his head in refusal. “It’s no use, my girl,” Burke broke in harshly. “1 told you I’d get you. I'm going to try you and Garson, and the whole gang for murder—yes, every one of you. And you. Gilder,” he continued, lowering on the young man who had defied him so obstinately, “you’ll go to the house of detention as a material witness.” He turned his gaze to Garson again, and spoke authoritatively: “Come on now, Joe!” Garson went a step toward the desk and spoke decisively. “If I come through, you’ll let her go—and him?” he added as an afterthought, with a nod toward Dick GiU der. ,i

“We’ll get the best lawyers in the country.” Mary persisted desperately. “We’ll save you, Joe —we’ll save you!" Garsou regarded the distraught girl with wistful eyes. But there was no trace of yielding in his voice as he replied, though he spoke very sorrowfully. “No, you can’t help me,” he said simply. “My time has come. Mary. And I can save you a lot of trouble.” “He’s right there," Burke ejaculated. “We’ve got him cold. So. what's the use of dragging you two into It?” “Then they go clear?’’ Garson exclaimed, eagerly. “They ain’t even to be called as witnesses?” “You’re on!” Burke agreed. “Then, here goes!” Gnrson cried, and he looked expectantly toward the stenographer. “My name is Joe Garson.” “Alias?” Burke suggested. “Alias nothing!” came the sharp rc tort. “Garsop’s my monaker. 1 shot, English Eddie, because he was a skunk and a stool pigeon, and he got just what was coming to him.” Vituperation beyond the mere words bent in his voice now. “Now, now!” Burke objected, severely. “We can’t take a confession like that.” Garson 1 snook his head—spoke with fiercer hatred. “Because he was a skunk and a stool pigeon,” he repeated. “Have you got it?” And then, as the stenographer nodded assent, he went on, less violently: i “I croaked him just as he was going to call the bulls with a police whistle. I used a gun with smokeless powder. It had a Maxim silencer ou it, so that it didn’t make any noise.” Garson paused, aud the set despair of his features lightened a little. Into his voice came a tone of exultdtion indescribably ghastly. It was born of the eternal egotism of the criminal, fattening vanity in gloating over his ingenuity for evil. He stared at Burke with a quizzical grin crooking his lips. “Say,” fie exclaimed, “I’ll bet It’s the first time a guy was ever croaked with one of them things! Ain’t It?” The inspector nodded affirmation. “Some class to that, eh?” Garson demanded, still with that grewsoipe air of boasting. “I got the gun and the Maxim silencer thing off a fence. in

Boston,” he explained. “Say, that thing cost me S6O, and It's worth every cent of the money. Why, they’ll remember me as the first to spring one of them things, won’t they T’ ‘They sure will, Joe!” the inspector conceded. “Nobody knew I had it,” Garson continued, dropping his braggart manner abruptly. At the words, Mary started, and her lips moved as if she were about to speak. “Nobody knew I had it —nobody in the world,” he declared. “And nobody had anything to do with the killing but me.” “Was there any bad feeling between you ahd Eddie Griggs?” “Never till that very minute. Then I learned the truth about what he'd framed up with you.” The speaker’s voice reverted to its former fierceness in recollection of the treachery of one whom he had trusted. “He was a stool pigeon, and I hated him! That’s all, and it’s enough. And it’s all true, so help me God!” The inspector nodded dismissal to the stenographer, with an air of relief. “That’s all, Williams,” he said heavily. “He'll sign it as soon as you’ve transcribed the notes.”

Then as the stenographer left the room Burke turned his gaze on the woman, who stood there in a posture of complete dejection, her white, anguished face downcast. There was triumph in the inspector's voice as he addressed her. for his professional pride was full fed by this victory over his foes. “Young woman,” Burke said briskly, “it’s just like I told you. You can’t beat the law. Garson thought he could—and now”— He broke off, with a wave of his hand toward the man who had just sentenced himself to death in the electric chair. “That’s right.” Garson agreed, with somber intensity. His eyes were grown clouded again now, and his voice drag ged leaden. "That's right. Mary.” he repeated dully, after a little pause. “You can't beat the law!” He hes itated a little, then went on, with a certain curious embarrassment “And this same old law says a woman must stick to her man." The girl’s eyes met his with passionate sorrow in their misty deeps. Garson gave a significant glance toward Dick Gilder, then his gaze returned to her. There was a smoldering despair in that look. There were, as well, an entreaty and a command. “So,” he went on, “you must go along with him, Mary. Won’t yon? It’s the best thing to do.” The girl could not answer. There was a clutch on her throat just then, which would not relax at the call of het will. Of a sudden, an inspiration came to him, a means to snap the tension, to create a diversion wholly efficacious. He would turn to his boasting again, would call upon his vanity, which he knew well as his chief foible, and make it serve as the foil against his love. “You want to cut out worrying about me.” he counseled, bravely. “Why, I ain't worrying any. myself—not a little bit! You see, it's something new I’ve pulled off. Nobody ever put over anything like it before.” He faced Burke with a grin of gloating again. “I’ll bet there’ll be a lot of stuff in the newspapers about this, and my l picture, too, in most of ’em! What?” The man’s manner imposed on Burke, though Mary felt the torment that his vainglorying was meant to mask. “Say,” Garson continued to the inspector. “if the reporters want any pictures of me could I have some new ones taken? The one you’ve got of me in the gallery is over ten years old. I’ve taken off my beard since then. Can I have a new one?" “Sure you can, Joe. I’ll send you up to the gallery right now.” “Immense!” Garfcon cried boisterously. He moved toward Dick Gilder, walking with a faint suggestion of swagger to cover the nervous tremor that had seized him. “So long, young fellow,” he exclaimed and held out his hand. “You've been on the square, and I guess you always will be.” Dick had no scruple in clasping that extended hand very warmly in his own. “We’ll ,do what we can for you." he said simply. “That’s all right.'' Garson replied, with such carelessness of manner as he could contrive. Then at last lie turned to Mary. This parting must be bitter, and he braced himself with all the vigors of his will to combat the weakness that leaped from his soul. As he came near the girl could hold herself in leash no longer. She threw herself on his breast. Her arms wreathed about his neck. Great sobs racked her.

“Oh, Joe. Joe!" The gasping cry was of utter despair. c Garson’s trembling hand patted the girl’s shoulder very softly, a caress of infinite tenderness. ' “That’s all right,” he murmured huskily. “That’s all right, Mary.” There was a short silence, and then he went on more firmly. “You know, he’ll look after you.” He looked up over the girl’s shoulder andj beckoned with his head to Dick, who came forward. “Tike good care of her, won’t you?” He disengaged himself gently from the girl’s embrace and set her within the arms of her husband, where shs rested qrtetly, as if unable to fight longer against fate's decree. “Well, so long! ” Hi dared not; utter another word, but turned blindly, and went stumbling a little, toward the doorman.

who had appeared in answer to the Inspector’s call. “To the gallery,” Burke ordered curtly. , Garson went on without ever a glance back.

There was a long silence in the room after Garson’s passing. It was broken at last by the inspector, who got up. from his chair and advanced toward the husband and wife. In his hand he carried a sheet of paper, roughly scrawled. As he before the two and cleared his throat, Mary withdrew herself from Dick’s arms and regarded the official with brooding eyes from, Q£t her white face. Burke extended the sheet of paper to the husband. “There’s a document” he said gruff-

ly. “It's a letter from one Helen Morris, in which she sets forth the interesting fact that she pulled off a theft In the Emporium, for which your Mrs. Gilder here did time. You know, your father got your Mrs. Gilder sent up for three years for that same Job which she didn’t do. That’s why she had such a grudge against your father and against the law too!" Burke chuckled, as the young man took the paper, wonfleringly. “I don't know that I blame her much for that grudge, when all’s said and done. You give that document to your father. It sets her right. He’s a just man according to his lights, your father. He'll do all he can to make things right for her. now he knows. Now. you two listen. I’ve got to go out n minute. When I get back, I don't want to find anybody here—not anybody! Do you get me?” • ••*••• Wjien the official was gone, the two stood staring mutely each at the other through long seconds. What she read in the man’s eyes set the woman's heart to beating with a new delight. Wbat he read in her eyes set the husband’s pulses to bounding. He opened his arms in an appeal that was a command. Mary went forward slowly, without hesitation, in a bliss that forgot every sorrow for that blessed moment. and cast herself on his breast. THE END.

“That’s all right. That’s all right, Mary."