SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE
i
ory oF
a SlOOOO
lempiation
6 Crittenden Marriott
Illustrations
CHARLES
FREDERIC
MILLER
III; hands of t lit big dock lacing the
hior ol' the hunk marked live minutes
before three; Ford noticed them as
lie hurried in holding the small check
he hoped to persuade the teller to
cash without identification. There
was nothing: wrong with the check,
lint Ford feared that his iion-ncqtiaiutancc at the
hank would prevent his getting the cash. The doors
were about to dose and the lobby was deserted ex
cepting for one customer standing at the loan clerk's
window. Most of the tellers had left their posts or
were engrossed in balancing accounts for the dny.
No one seemed to imtico Ford.
Somewhat apprehensively, he approached the win
dow of the paying teller. As he did so the teller,
in obedience to a call from the hack, dropped a roll
of hills on the counter and hurried from his cage.
Ford went' on to the vacant window and stopped.
Then ho started. The bills that the teller had
dropped lay against the wicket, temptingly within
reach. Ford noted that they were of yellow de
nomination; he read the figures scribbled on the
wrapper $10,000.
For an instant Ford debated with himself. Fur
tively he looked about him. No one was watching.
What streak of madness seized him he did not know.
Hut ho put his finger on the bills, drew them from
heneafh the wicket, slipped them into his pocket,
and walked quietly toward the door.
Ho fore he had taken three steps he realized what
he had done. Hut he did not dare to turn back,
walking on dizzily, blindly. His foot was on the
threshold when an outcry ro.-e behind him, galva
nizing him to sudden life. He did not stop to in
quire ns to the cause; he stopped for nothing. In
panic fear he plunged through the door into the
street and darted awav.
HE was so near the door that under other cir
cumstances he might have gotten away without
having been seen clearly enough to be identified.
Hut fate was against him. Xot five feet from the
door he plunged into n group of men who knew him
well, brushed them aside and left them staring.
Along streets, up byways, across lots he raced,
easily distancing the sporadic pursuit and losing
himself in the convolutions id' the crossways. Then
with an etTort he slowed down, realizing that run
ning was the surest way to invite attention. His
heels, however, kept jerking and his legs twitching;
scarcely could he restrain them from leaping for
ward. lie knew, none better, that the ollicers of the law
would soon be upon his track, and that he must take
instant action if he wished to make his momcntnry
frcedom permanent. Swiftly he considered the poss
ibility ot sm i t ml,-! ing and begging
tor m(i'f, but as siii lie dis
missed it. His ci line had been too
'.iross to permit him lo hope.
Desperately lie looked about him.
The part of town in which he found
himself was strange to him, but he
knew vaguely that the railway yards
must be somewhere dose ahead,
lvailwavs stood for speed, and speed
was what he wanted, lie hurried
cm. skulking through alleys and byways, questing
with eager eyes till he found himself at the edge of
I he yards. Into them he slipped, passing between
endless rows of cars, until he found a train of
empties just pulling out.
As the cars clanked past him, he noticed that the
door of one was ajar, lie leaped for it, caught it,
and clung on at the risk of his life till he could work
the opening wide enough to insinuate bis body.
Then he Hung it shut and dropped exhausted on the
lloor, worn out by the stress of his emotions no less
than by his physical exertion.
FOH a long time he lay in a half stupor, his
thoughts revolving in an endless circle. When
at last full consciousness returned the black fear
came with it. Painfully he dragged himself up and
leaned against the wall of the car. Every nerve in
his body was jangling. He scarcely felt the jolting
of the ear. Hough though it was, it was no rougher
than the internal spasms that racked him. He was
almost alone in the world and had no near kin to
worry oxer him. Hut his vivid imagination pictured
the humming telegraph wires weaving a net about
his path; the police stations bulletining bis descrip
tion; the newspapers far and near heralding bis
crime. He felt himself the center of a blazed circle,
ever-narrowing as the hunters closed inexorably in.
After a time, however,
the darkness began to com
fort him, as it would com
fort any other hunted ani
mal that had fled to its fic
titious protection. Almost
he began to hope; for the
moment ho was still free,
he was bidden, flying from
the scene of bis offense.
Perhaps perhaps he
felt the banknotes in bis
pocket perhaps
With hope came hunger
and thirst. He did not
know how long he had been
in the car, but be guessed
that it had been hours. He
took out his watch and hold
it to his ear, and was siir
prised to find it still run
ning as smoothly and as
steadily as if bis world 1 ad
not crashed about him. A
narrow edge of white light
was leaking through a crack
at I he door. He n ept to
ward it and held his vtatiii
in the beam.
The hands marked eight eight 1 With sudden
I'niy lie hurled the timepiece, from him. Eight!
Why ! It was three o'clock when ho had snatched
the money and he had lived years since then.
"It 's a lie! a lie!" he raged.
Hut he knew it was no lie.
The car began to jolt over a network of frogs.
Ford heard the click of the wheels on the rail joints,
the screech of the rubbing llanges. and realized that
the train was stopping.
AHKFl'LLY he opened the door a fraction of
aq inch and peered out. The moon was high in
tho heavens. Its light showed open fields bisected by a
country road that wound away into the night. Evi
dently the train was waiting at a switch. Ford was
about to bury himself anew in tho obscurity of the
car when ho heard the noise of hooted heels grinding
upon gravel and the shriek of a complaining side
door flung back on its hinges.
Desperately ho peered out and saw three men ex
amining a car up the track from him. As he
watched they moved to another and then to another,
coming nearer and nearer.
"Looking for me !" he gasped. "My God ! They're
looking for me!"
There was no time to lose. Mercifully a cloud
slipped across the moon, and like a ghost Ford
dropped out in tho momentary darkness and slipped
like a wraith into the road. A ditch ran along it
and into this he plunged. Then, bending low, ho ran
until ho could run no longer. The train was far out
of sight when ho stumbled and fell exhausted by the
roadside.
When ho struggled up, (lie moon came out brighter
than ever and by its light he saw that he had fallen
close to a group nf buildings, one of which seemed
rather imposing. Stealthily he began to move away.
Hut at his first stop a sudden clamor broke out
As the dog launched tot fus ihroai he struck straight and hard