THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 1946
T U R N IN G P O IN T
R y Mary Imlay Taylor
W .N .U . W t lfA S I
The old man emerged from his could just see the fastenings, old
quarters with a long face. "You and covered with dust, half papered
mustn’t get wet, Jane, better run over. It resisted and he drew his
table fork—they had not allowed
back,” he warned.
But she caught at his sleeve with him a knife—along the crevices.
shutter,
shaking hands. "Mac, I've got to At last he relent e 1
turned it softly and looked out. He
see h im !”
MacDowell hesitated. "H e’s got faced an open slope and the light
guards alongside of him, Jane; it from another window streamed
across it. Sherwin drew back with
ain’t no place for you—”
She lifted her blue eyes steadily a grim smile.
"They've beaten us. Jane!”
to his. "Mac, I must see him—
A man was sitting there, with his
it ’s—” she choked—" i t ’s the last
rifle across his knees. The sheriff,
tim e !"
The old man looked away, swal having caught a ja il breaker, was
lowing hard. He had known Jane taking no chances.
Jane was crying bitterly now, but
when she was five years old; he
Sherwin tried to comfort her.
hated to see her face now.
CHAPTER X I
"A t best. I ’d hnv< ■ • n only a
“ Quick, Mac, I've only got a little hunted fugitive, dear girl; we must
Shocked and dismayed, Jim hus while—they may call me back—they
part—” He could not go on. Her
tled his sister into the old hall. Un- ■ think Stenhart's very bad!”
sobs shook him with in even deep
consciously he dropped into the
Her hands, on his arm, shook, and
chair at his desk. “ I wish to heaven he felt them. Reluctantly, he led er etnotion.
There came a soft knock at the
the doctor would get here!" he ex the way into the long low building;
door and old Mac's voice, a bit
claimed roughly.
Jane caught a glimpse of the vac-
"He started at once—as soon as queros at supper and, with them, husky. "Tim e's up. Jane, an’ the
I ’phoned." Jane replied absently, some men who belonged to Cutler’s doc’s here; he says Stenhart's dyin’
touching the old desk affectionately; posse. But Mac got her past them —they want you!”
"God keep you!" Sherwin said
she remembered Sherwin there.
to a door in the end of the room.
Jim, huddled in the chair, rum i There was a moment of delay and hoarsely; all other words failed.
The girl, blind with tears, stum
nated. “ Jordan must have got us then it was opened. Mac had spoken
bled
out, old Mac holding her up.
confused in the storm—he was a to Cutler and the guard came out
"They’re callin’ for you, Jane,” the
crack shot. Poor Max—it was for and sat down outside the door as
old man explained. " I had to come
me and he got i t ! ”
Jane went in alone. The little room, all fired quick. Jim's got th' sheriff
Jane said nothing; her hands with its one tiny window-slit, too
were clasped on the desk. The wind smail for a man’s body to pass an’ two others, two that come with
swept the door open and drove the through, was dim with the coming th’ posse. Teresa’s sayin’ prayers
rain across the hall. Her brother of dusk, but she saw the tall man with two candles in th' kitchen an’
rose and forced it shut, bolting it. ; who sat at the little table, a tray of Ah Ling’s outside, chatterin’ some
Then he turned on her, at the untasted food before him, his head thing awful in Chinee."
As he spoke ne guided the falter-
lim it of his patience,
upon his hands. Expecting no one
“ Good lo rd , Jane, haven’t you a whom he cared to see, he did not : ing g irl on to the veranda and opened
heart? Max is dying—he loves you! even look up and the despair in his the door. A flood of light streamed
out. Jim was sitting supinely at
You’re — you’re a perfect stick, j attitude went to her heart.
She
standing there and staring in front thought of him, as she had seen his desk, sagged in his chair. Be
side him towered the big sheriff, and
of you!”
him, brave and free, going down on
She looked up and her white face that thin rope over the abyss to save a deputy was writing something on
twitched with pain. “ I ’m sorry for his enemy! A proud light shone sud a paper at the table. Jane, coming
Max, but I ’m thinking of the man he denly in her blue eyes, and she came in, half dazzled and blind with weep
ing, felt Fanny’s arms go around
sent to—a living death!”
close to him.
her.
Jim bit his lip. “ Look here, Jane,
“ John!” she said softly.
"H e ’s dead, Jane; it’s over—Jim,
he’s a brave man, I acknowledge
He raised his head and their eyes tell h e r!"
it, but he's been convicted of a cruel I met.
For an instant he seemed
Jim , speechless, made a sign to
crime; you’ve got to let him drop!” dazed, then he rose to his feet.
Cutler. "You do it ! "
"H e’s not guilty,” she said firm ly ;
“ Yoy’ve come to me—a prison
But the big sheriff had lost his
“ I ’ll never belie-’e him guilty. No er?”
nerve; he only made motions with
guilty man would have done that
" I saw you,” she g&id; “ I ’m so his lips like chewing. It was Fanny
splendid thing—he saved his ac proud of you!”
who drew Jane down beside her on
cuser!”
He drew a long breath. “ Jane,
“ Fine, I grant it. Nevertheless, you did it! I ’d vowed to k ill him— a bench by the door.
“ He told us before he died, Jane.”
he goes back to ja il for life—you I ’d tracked him like a murderer—I
understand that, Jane? For life !” ■ had nothing in my heart but hate. she said, “ and the deposition was
“ Not if there's any way on earth ; I was wafting to kill him when you taken—he confessed to the murder
that I can save h im !” she cried came up there, but when I found of his uncle. It was done in the gar
den; the man who swore that Max
passionately.
you cared, your touch drove out the was with him at the time was a
“ You!” Jim spoke with brotherly | poison—I couldn’t do it ! ”
perjurer, paid by Max. His uncle
scorn.
She looked up proudly.
“ You
“ You can help, too, Jim ,” she , didn't know yourself, John, even I quarreled with him and told him
went on, not heeding his derision. ' didn’t know you, for when I saw you that he was going to change his
“ Delay them, keep him here—and there, waiting for him, I thought w ill and leave every cent he had to
Sherwin. Max broke out, they quar
give him a chance to escape!”
you’d kill him. But it was never reled violently, and the old man
“ To what purpose?” Jim asked really in your heart. John Sherwin,
her dryly. “ To be a fugitive always, for you’re a brave man—no brave struck him with his cane, as he
to hide away somewhere, in South j man is a murderer! You've—made would a little boy. Infuriated, Max
snatched the pruning - knife and
America, perhaps, under a false good.”
struck back without thinking. He
name, hunted, advertised for, never
He smiled bitterly. "You forget killed him! He ran out and hid, saw
to know a moment’s peace—a con what—I am !”
Sherwin come, and the scheme to
demned murderer! Bah, I ’d rath
"No, I remember! Some day it
er go to ja il! There’s no capital pun w ill come right; the truth can’t be save himself and get the money
leaped into his crazed brain. He
ishment in his state.”
always hidden. I ’ll believe in you swore to a lie to save himself; he
“ You’ve never been in ja il! ” Jane always!”
framed it all up—Sherwin was utter-
retorted. "And you—you 'phoned
Emotion choked him, then, in a ly innocent!”
for Cutler, you know you d id !”
For a moment Jane neither
“ Stenhart—” Jim began, and broken voice: " I t means only mis
ery for you to care; I ’m as good as moved nor spoke. She hid her face
stopped.
"Oh, I know!” Jane’s gesture was a dead man. Forget me, Jane, be in her hands.
“ Oh, Fanny, think of all those
happy!”
eloquent.
"Never,” she answered softly. years!” she gasped at last.
Jim, remembering the man sus
Fanny nodded. " I know! Max
pended between the ledge and eter "Always I 'll remember—until we
used
to tell us in his delirium ;
meet
again!”
nity, to save his enemy, began to
He held her hands in a grip that Teresa heard it, too. I thought it
walk up and down the hall. Jane
dropped into his vacant chair and j almost hurt them, looking down into was the worry of the tria l—delirium,
fever dreams—but old Teresa al
laid her head on the desk. She i her brave eyes.
“ You gave up your chance for ways believed it ! ”
could hear the fury of the wind out
Jim , who had not spoken at all,
side. It grew dusky, too, in the old him—and he’s dying, John. Jordan's rose
suddenly and went out. With
shot
w
ill
k
ill
him.”
hall, for the day was passing swift
him
went
the sheriff and his depu
Sherwin was dumb, his head
ly; tomorrow—
ties.
The two girls were alone.
“ I ’m sorry, but I can’t do a bowed in utter despair.
“ Oh, if I could only get you out!” Fanny, trying to still Jane’s broken
thing!” said Jim hoarsely.
put her arms about her again.
She made no reply. A shiver ran she murmured brokenly, then with sobs,
“ He’s suffered so much!” Jane
through her; tomorrow he would be sudden hope. “ I ’ve thought of a way
“ and he gave up his chance
on his way east! There is so little —there used to be a shuttered win said,
to
escape
today to save Max! Think
in a day—and so much. Then, sud dow back here—” she ran to the
denly, she heard Fanny’s voice call wall, feeling it—“ it ’s here—you’re of it, to save the man who had
ruined h im !”
ing to Jim. Her brother answered strong—come!” she whispered.
Fanny touched her softly on the
hurriedly, went into the sickroom - His heart leaped. Liberty!
It shoulder. “ Look up, Jane!”
and the door closed behind him.
would not give her to him, but free,
The g irl lifted her head. The door
For the first time Jane was alone. he might carve out a destiny, re stood open and on the threshold,
She straightened herself in the old trieve something yet. His hands ac erect and radiant, stood Sherwin.
worn chair and looked about her. tually shook as he followed her guid
In the daygloom of the old hall ance. In the darkening room he
(THE END)
she saw only shadows here and
there. A clock ticked loudly over
the desk, and it seemed to remind
her of the brevity of the span of
life. The rain no longer beat with
such fury on the window-panes, but
the wind shrieked and howled in
the distant canyons. Sherwin was
in the other building still. The men
were there; she could see Jose and
Pete Rooney rubbing down their
horses in the open door of the sta
bles. She rose cautiously and fled
softly down the hall, past Stenhart’s
closed door; it seemed to her that
she heard voices but she did not
stop to listen. She opened a little
sidedoor that led past the kitchen
and ran into the rain. It was falling
lightly now; the gray clouds had
broken on the distant ranges and the
SELECT FICTION BY GIFTED AUTSÎCÎÏS
high peaks shone in clear weather.
I t seemed almost like a promise,
this lifting of the clouds, and she
called Mac softly.
T H E STORY T H IS FAM: Sherwin
reached the anroasclous Strnhsrt. and
painfully regained the ledge. He looked
down to tee the tree which had held hi»
eou»ln fall Into the stream below. The
»b en * waited for the two men. then put
the handcuff» on Sherwln. Stenhart re
gained consciousness, and supported by
Jim began the descent. " I can’t under
stand It," Stenhart said; "he was going
to kill m e." Jim reminded him that Sher-
win had saved his life. A sharp report
came from the thicket and Stenhart
crumpled. He had been shot. The posse
fired Into the bushes and killed the man
who Ared. It was Jordan! Stenhart was
taken to the ranch honse and a doctor
summoned. The nurse said he was dying.
ROMANCE
FICTION
MYSTERY
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Use a stiff hand brush for re
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When you go swimming and
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there’s no dressing-room available
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—
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Heat or water rings on a table- a paste of kitchen cleaning pow-
top sometimes are only in the sur del and water und dress ip the
face wax and may be removed cur. A damp cloth and box of
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c a r r y y o u r " E v e r e a d y ’*
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I
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2
*
Know in advance where
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