o o o
In a clump of willows beside the little stream which
winds through the town of Payson a party of four halted
on the outskirts of the town. There were two men, two
young women and a huge brown bear. The men and
women were, obviously, Gypsies. Their clothing, their
head-dress, their barbaric ornamentation proclaimed the
fact to whoever might pass; but no one passed.
"I think," said Bridge, "that we will just stay where we
are until after dark. We haven't passed or seen a human
being since we left the cabin. No one can know that
we are here and if we stay here until late to-night we
should be able to pass around Payson unseen and reach
the wood to the south of town. If we do meet anyone
to-night we'll stop them and inquire the way to Oakdale
--that'll throw them off the track."
The others acquiesced in his suggestion; but there
were queries about food to be answered. It seemed that
all were hungry and that the bear was ravenous.
"What does he eat?" Bridge asked of Giova.
"Mos' anything," replied the girl. "He like garbage
fine. Often I take him into towns late, ver' late at night
an' he eat swill. I do that to-night. Beppo, he got to be
fed or he eat Giova. I go feed Beppo, you go get food
for us; then we all meet at edge of wood just other side
town near old mill."
During the remainder of the afternoon and well after
dark the party remained hidden in the willows. Then
Giova started out with Beppo in search of garbage cans,
Bridge bent his steps toward a small store upon the
outskirts of town where food could be purchased, The
Oskaloosa Kid having donated a ten dollar bill for the
stocking of the commissariat, and the youth and the
girl made their way around the south end of the town
toward the meeting place beside the old mill.
As Bridge moved through the quiet road at the out-
skirts of the little town he let his mind revert to the
events of the past twenty four hours and as he pon-
dered each happening since he met the youth in the
dark of the storm the preceding night he asked him-
self why he had cast his lot with these strangers. In his
years of vagabondage Bridge had never crossed that in-
visible line which separates honest men from thieves and
murderers and which, once crossed, may never be re-
crossed. Chance and necessity had thrown him often
among such men and women; but never had he been of
them. The police of more than one city knew Bridge--
they knew him, though, as a character and not as a
criminal. A dozen times he had been arraigned upon
suspicion; but as many times had he been released with
a clean bill of morals until of late Bridge had become al-
most immune from arrest. The police who knew him
knew that he was straight and they knew, too, that he
would give no information against another man. For
this they admired him as did the majority of the crim-
inals with whom he had come in contact during his
rovings.
The present crisis, however, appeared most unprom-
ising to Bridge. Grave crimes had been committed in
Oakdale, and here was Bridge conniving in the escape
of at least two people who might readily be under po-
lice suspicion. It was difficult for the man to bring him-
self to believe that either the youth or the girl was in
any way actually responsible for either of the murders;
yet it appeared that the latter had been present when a
murder was committed and now by attempting to elude
the police had become an accessory after the fact, since
she possessed knowledge of the identity of the actual
murderer; while the boy, by his own admission, had
committed a burglary.
Bridge shook his head wearily. Was he not himself
an accessory after the fact in the matter of two crimes
at least? These new friends, it seemed, were about to
topple him into the abyss which he had studiously
avoided for so long a time. But why should he permit
it? What were they to him?
A freight train was puffing into the siding at the Pay-
son station. Bridge could hear the complaining brakes
a mile away. It would be easy to leave the town and his
dangerous companions far behind him; but even as the
thought forced its way into his mind another obtruded
itself to shoulder aside the first. It was recollection of the
boy's words: "Oh, Bridge, I don't want to leave you--
ever."
"I couldn't do it," mused Bridge. "I don't know just
why; but I couldn't. That kid has certainly got me. The
first thing someone knows I'll be starting a foundlings'
home. There is no question but that I am the soft
mark, and I wonder why it is--why a kid I never saw
before last night has a strangle hold on my heart that I
can't shake loose--and don't want to. Now if it was a
girl I could understand it." Bridge stopped suddenly in
the middle of the road. From his attitude he might have
been startled either by a surprising noise or by a surpris-
ing thought. For a minute he stood motionless; then he
shook his head again and proceeded along his way to-
ward the little store; evidently if he had heard anything
he was assured that it constituted no menace.
As he entered the store to make his purchases a fox-
eyed man saw him and stepped quickly behind the
huge stove which had not as yet been taken down for
the summer. Bridge made his purchases, the volume of
which required a large gunny-sack for transportation,
and while he was thus occupied the fox-eyed man clung
to his coign of vantage, himself unnoticed by the pur-
chaser. When Bridge departed the other followed him,
keeping in the shadow of the trees which bordered the
street. Around the edge of town and down a road which
led southward the two went until Bridge passed through
a broken fence and halted beside an abandoned mill.
The watcher saw his quarry set down his burden, seat
himself beside it and proceed to roll a cigaret; then he
faded away in the darkness and Bridge was alone.
Five or ten minutes later two slender figures ap-
peared dimly out of the north. They approached timidly,
stopping often and looking first this way and then that
and always listening. When they arrived opposite the
mill Bridge saw them and gave a low whistle. Immedi-
ately the two passed through the fence and approached
him.
"My!" exclaimed one, "I thought we never would get
here; but we didn't see a soul on the road. Where is
Giova?"
"She hadn't come yet," replied Bridge, "and she may
not. I don't see how a girl can browse around a town
like this with a big bear at night and not be seen, and
if she is seen she'll be followed--it would be too much
of a treat for the rubes ever to be passed up--and if
she's followed she won't come here. At least I hope she
won't."
"What's that?" exclaimed The Oskaloosa Kid. Each
stood in silence, listening.
The girl shuddered. "Even now that I know what it
is it makes me creep," she whispered, as the faint clank-
ing of a distant chain came to their ears.
"We ought to be used to it by this time, Miss Prim,"
said Bridge. "We heard it all last night and a good
part of to-day."
The girl made no comment upon the use of the name
which he had applied to her, and in the darkness he
could not see her features, nor did he see the odd ex-
pression upon the boy's face as he heard the name
addressed to her. Was he thinking of the nocturnal
raid he so recently had made upon the boudoir of Miss
Abigail Prim? Was he pondering the fact that his pock-
ets bulged to the stolen belongings of that young lady?
But whatever was passing in his mind he permitted
none of it to pass his lips.
As the three stood waiting in silence Giova came pres-
ently among them, the beast Beppo lumbering awk-
wardly at her side.
"Did he find anything to eat?" asked the man.
"Oh, yes," exclaimed Giova. "He fill up now. That mak
him better nature. Beppo not so ugly now."
"Well, I'm glad of that," said Bridge. "I haven't been
looking forward much to his company through the
woods to-night--especially while he was hungry!"
Giova laughed a low, musical little laugh. "I don'
think he no hurt you anyway," she said. "Now he know
you my frien'."
"I hope you are quite correct in your surmise," re-
plied Bridge. "But even so I'm not taking any chances."
o o o
Willie Case had been taken to Payson to testify be-
fore the coroner's jury investigating the death of Giova's
father, and with the dollar which The Oskaloosa Kid
had given him in the morning burning in his pocket had
proceeded to indulge in an orgy of dissipation the mo-
ment that he had been freed from the inquest. Ice
cream, red pop, peanuts, candy, and soda water may
have diminished his appetite but not his pride and self-
satisfaction as he sat alone and by night for the first
time in a public eating place. Willie was now a man of
the world, a bon vivant, as he ordered ham and eggs
from the pretty waitress of The Elite Restaurant on
Broadway; but at heart he was not happy for never be-
fore had he realized what a great proportion of his anat-
omy was made up of hands and feet. As he glanced
fearfully at the former, silhouetted against the white of
the table cloth, he flushed scarlet, assured as he was that
the waitress who had just turned away toward the
kitchen with his order was convulsed with laughter
and that every other eye in the establishment was glued
upon him. To assume an air of nonchalance and thereby
impress and disarm his critics Willie reached for a tooth-
pick in the little glass holder near the center of the ta-
ble and upset the sugar bowl. Immediately Willie
snatched back the offending hand and glared ferociously
at the ceiling. He could feel the roots of his hair being
consumed in the heat of his skin. A quick side glance
that required all his will power to consummate showed
him that no one appeared to have noticed his faux pas
and Willie was again slowly returning to normal when
the proprietor of the restaurant came up from behind
and asked him to remove his hat.
Never had Willie Case spent so frightful a half hour
as that within the brilliant interior of The Elite Restau-
rant. Twenty-three minutes of this eternity was con-
sumed in waiting for his order to be served and seven
minutes in disposing of the meal and paying his check.
Willie's method of eating was in itself a sermon on
efficiency--there was no lost motion--no waste of time.
He placed his mouth within two inches of his plate
after cutting his ham and eggs into pieces of a size that
would permit each mouthful to enter without wedging;
then he mixed his mashed potatoes in with the result
and working his knife and fork alternately with bewild-
ering rapidity shot a continuous stream of food into his
gaping maw.
In addition to the meat and potatoes there was one
vegetable in a side-dish and as dessert four prunes. The
meat course gone Willie placed the vegetable dish on
the empty plate, seized a spoon in lieu of knife and
fork and--presto! the side-dish was empty. Whereupon
the prune dish was set in the empty side-dish--four deft
motions and there were no prunes--in the dish. The en-
tire feat had been accomplished in 6:34 1/2, setting a
new world's record for red-headed farmer boys with one
splay foot.
In the remaining twenty five and one half seconds
Willie walked what seemed to him a mile from his seat
to the cashier's desk and at the last instant bumped into
a waitress with a trayful of dishes. Clutched tightly in
Willie's hand was thirty five cents and his check with a
like amount written upon it. Amid the crash of crockery
which followed the collision Willie slammed check and
money upon the cashier's desk and fled. Nor did he
pause until in the reassuring seclusion of a dark side-
street. There Willie sank upon the curb alternately cold
with fear and hot with shame, weak and panting, and
into his heart entered the iron of class hatred, searing
it to the core.
Fortunately for youth it recuperates rapidly from mor-
tal blows, and so it was that another half hour found
Willie wandering up and down Broadway but at the
far end of the street from The Elite Restaurant. A mo-
tion picture theater arrested his attention; and pres-
ently, parting with one of his two remaining dimes, he
entered. The feature of the bill was a detective melo-
drama. Nothing in the world could have better suited
Willie's psychic needs. It recalled his earlier feats of
the day, in which he took pardonable pride, and raised
him once again to a self-confidence he had not felt since
be entered the ever to be hated Elite Restaurant.
The show over Willie set forth afoot for home. A
long walk lay ahead of him. This in itself was bad
enough; but what lay at the end of the long walk was
infinitely worse, as Willie's father had warned him to
return immediately after the inquest, in time for milk-
ing, preferably. Before he had gone two blocks from the
theater Willie had concocted at least three tales to ac-
count for his tardiness, either one of which would have
done credit to the imaginative powers of a Rider Hag-
gard or a Jules Verne; but at the end of the third
block he caught a glimpse of something which drove
all thoughts of home from his mind and came but
barely short of driving his mind out too. He was ap-
proaching the entrance to an alley. Old trees grew in the
parkway at his side. At the street corner a half block
away a high flung arc swung gently from its support-
ing cables, casting a fair light upon the alley's mouth,
and just emerging from behind the nearer fence Willie
Case saw the huge bulk of a bear. Terrified, Willie
jumped behind a tree; and then, fearful lest the animal
might have caught sight or scent of him he poked his
head cautiously around the side of the bole just in
time to see the figure of a girl come out of the alley be-
hind the bear. Willie recognized her at the first glance--
she was the very girl he had seen burying the dead man
in the Squibbs woods. Instantly Willie Case was trans-
formed again into the shrewd and death defying sleuth.
At a safe distance he followed the girl and the bear
through one alley after another until they came out upon
the road which leads south from Payson. He was across
the road when she joined Bridge and his companions.
When they turned toward the old mill he followed them,
listening close to the rotting clapboards for any chance
remark which might indicate their future plans. He
heard them debating the wisdom of remaining where
they were for the night or moving on to another loca-
tion which they had evidently decided upon but no
clew to which they dropped.
"The objection to remaining here," said Bridge, "is
that we can't make a fire to cook by--it would be too
plainly visible from the road."
"But I can no fin' road by dark," explained Giova. "It
bad road by day, ver' much worse by night. Beppo no
come 'cross swamp by night. No, we got stay here til
morning."
"All right," replied Bridge, "we can eat some of this
canned stuff and have our ham and coffee after we
reach camp tomorrow morning, eh?"
"And now that we've gotten through Payson safely,"
suggested The Oskaloosa Kid, "let's change back into
our own clothes. This disguise makes me feel too con-
spicuous."
Willie Case had heard enough. His quarry would re-
main where it was over night, and a moment later Willie
was racing toward Payson and a telephone as fast as his
legs would carry him.
In an old brick structure a hundred yards below the
mill where the lighting machinery of Payson had been
installed before the days of the great central power-
plant a hundred miles away four men were smoking as
they lay stretched upon the floor.
"I tell you I seen him," asserted one of the party. "I
follered this Bridge guy from town to the mill. He was
got up like a Gyp; but I knew him all right, all right.
This scenery of his made me tink there was something
phoney doin', or I wouldn't have trailed him, an' its a
good ting I done it, fer he hadn't ben there five min-
utes before along comes The Kid an' a skirt and pretty
soon a nudder chicken wid a calf on a string, er mebbie
it was a sheep--it was pretty husky lookin' fer a sheep
though. An' I sticks aroun' a minute until I hears this
here Bridge guy call the first skirt 'Miss Prim.'"
He ceased speaking to note the effect of his words on
his hearers. They were electrical. The Sky Pilot sat up
straight and slapped his thigh. Soup Face opened his
mouth, letting his pipe fall out into his lap, setting fire
to his ragged trousers. Dirty Eddie voiced a characteris-
tic obscenity.
"So you sees," went on Columbus Blackie, "we got a
chanct to get both the dame and The Kid. Two of us
can take her to Oakdale an' claim the reward her old
man's offerin' an' de odder two can frisk de Kid, an'--
an'--."
"An' wot?" queried The Sky Pilot.
"Dere's de swamp handy," suggested Soup Face.
"I was tinkin' of de swamp," said Columbus Blackie.
"Eddie and I will return Miss Prim to her bereaved
parents," interrupted The Sky Pilot. "You, Blackie, and
Soup Face can arrange matters with The Oskaloosa Kid.
I don't care for details. We will all meet in Toledo as
soon as possible and split the swag. We ought to make
a cleaning on this job, boes."
"You split a mout'ful then," said Columbus Blackie.
They fell to discussing way and means.
"We'd better wait until they're asleep," counseled
The Sky Pilot. "Two of us can tackle this Bridge and
hand him the k.o. quick. Eddie and Soup Face had
better attend to that. Blackie can nab The Kid an' I'll
annex Miss Abigail Prim. The lady with the calf we
don't want. We'll tell her we're officers of the law an'
that she'd better duck with her live stock an' keep her
trap shut if she don't want to get mixed up with a mur-
der trial."
o o o
Detective Burton was at the county jail in Oakdale
administering the third degree to Dopey Charlie and
The General when there came a long distance telephone
call for him.
"Hello!" said the voice at the other end of the line;
"I'm Willie Case, an' I've found Miss Abigail Prim."
"Again?" queried Burton.
"Really," asserted Willie. "I know where she's goin' to
be all night. I heard 'em say so. The Oskaloosie Kid's
with her an' annuder guy an' the girl I seen with the
dead man in Squibbs' woods an' they got a BEAR!" It
was almost a shriek. "You'd better come right away
an' bring Mr. Prim. I'll meet you on the ol' Toledo road
right south of Payson, an' say, do I get the whole re-
ward?"
"You'll get whatever's coming to you, son," replied
Burton. "You say there are two men and two women--
are you sure that is all?"
"And the bear," corrected Willie.
"All right, keep quiet and wait for me," cautioned
Burton. "You'll know me by the spot light on my car--
I'll have it pointed straight up into the air. When you
see it coming get into the middle of the road and wave
your hands to stop us. Do you understand?"
"Yes," said Willie.
"And don't talk to anyone," Burton again cautioned
him.
A few minutes later Burton left Oakdale with his two
lieutenants and a couple of the local policemen, the car
turning south toward Payson and moving at ever ac-
celerating speed as it left the town streets behind it and
swung smoothly onto the country road.
o o o
It was after midnight when four men cautiously ap-
proached the old mill. There was no light nor any sign of
life within as they crept silently through the doorless
doorway. Columbus Blackie was in the lead. He flashed
a quick light around the interior revealing four forms
stretched upon the floor, deep in slumber. Into the
blacker shadows of the far end of the room the man
failed to shine his light for the first flash had shown
him those whom he sought. Picking out their quarry the
intruders made a sudden rush upon the sleepers.
Bridge awoke to find two men attempting to rain
murderous blows upon his head. Wiry, strong and full
of the vigor of a clean life, he pitted against their
greater numbers and cowardly attack a defense which
was infinitely more strenuous than they had expected.
Columbus Blackie leaped for The Oskaloosa Kid,
while The Sky Pilot seized upon Abigail Prim. No one
paid any attention to Giova, nor, with the noise and con-
fusion, did the intruders note the sudden clanking of a
chain from out the black depths of the room's further
end, or the splintering of a half decayed studding.
Soup Face entangling himself about Bridge's legs suc-
ceeded in throwing the latter to the floor while Dirty
Eddie kicked viciously at the prostrate man's head. The
Sky Pilot seized Abigail Prim about the waist and
dragged her toward the doorway and though the girl
fought valiantly to free herself her lesser muscles were
unable to cope successfully with those of the man. Co-
lumbus Blackie found his hands full with The Oskaloosa
Kid. Again and again the youth struck him in the face;
but the man persisted, beating down the slim hands
and striking viciously at body and head until, at last,
the boy, half stunned though still struggling, was
dragged from the room.
Simultaneously a series of frightful growls reverber-
ated through the deserted mill. A huge body cata-
pulted into the midst of the fighters. Abigail Prim
screamed. "The bear!" she cried. "The bear is loose!"
Dirty Eddie was the first to feel the weight of Beppo's
wrath. His foot drawn back to implant a vicious kick in
Bridge's face he paused at the girl's scream and at the
same moment a huge thing reared up before him. Just
for an instant he sensed the terrifying presence of some
frightful creature, caught the reflected gleam of two
savage eyes and felt the hot breath from distended
jaws upon his cheek, then Beppo swung a single terrific
blow which caught the man upon the side of the head
to spin him across the floor and drop him in a crumpled
heap against the wall, with a fractured skull. Dirty
Eddie was out. Soup Face, giving voice to a scream more
bestial than human, rose to his feet and fled in the oppo-
site direction.
Beppo paused and looked about. He discovered
Bridge lying upon the floor and sniffed at him. The
man lay perfectly quiet. He had heard that often times
a bear will not molest a creature which it thinks dead.
Be that as it may Beppo chanced at that moment to
glance toward the doorway. There, silhouetted against
the lesser darkness without, he saw the figures of Co-
lumbus Blackie and The Oskaloosa Kid and with a
growl he charged them. The two were but a few paces
outside the doorway when the full weight of the great
bear struck Columbus Blackie between the shoulders.
Down went the man and as he fell he released his hold
upon the youth who immediately turned and ran for the
road.
The momentum of the bear carried him past the body
of his intended victim who, frightened but uninjured,
scrambled to his feet and dashed toward the rear of the
mill in the direction of the woods and distant swamp.
Beppo, recovering from his charge, wheeled in time to
catch a glimpse of his quarry after whom he made with
all the awkwardness that was his birthright and with
the speed of a race horse.
Columbus Blackie, casting a terrified glance rear-
ward, saw his Nemesis flashing toward him, and dodged
around a large tree. Again Beppo shot past the man
while the latter, now shrieking for help, raced madly
in a new direction.
Bridge had arisen and come out of the mill. He called
aloud for The Oskaloosa Kid. Giova answered him from
a small tree. "Climb!" she cried. "Climb a tree! Ever'one
climb a small tree. Beppo he go mad. He keel ever'one.
Run! Climb! He keel me. Beppo he got evil-eye."
Along the road from the north came a large touring
car, swinging from side to side in its speed. Its brilliant
headlights illuminated the road far ahead. They picked
out The Sky Pilot and Abigail Prim, they found The
Oskaloosa Kid climbing a barbed wire fence and then
with complaining brakes the car came to a sudden stop.
Six men leaped from the machine and rounded up the
three they had seen. Another came running toward
them. It was Soup Face, so thoroughly terrified that he
would gladly have embraced a policeman in uniform,
could the latter have offered him protection.
A boy accompanied the newcomers. "There he is!" he
screamed, pointing at The Oskaloosa Kid. "There he is!
And you've got Miss Prim, too, and when do I get the
reward?"
"Shut up!" said one of the men.
"Watch this bunch," said Burton to one of his lieuten-
ants, "while we go after the rest of them. There are some
over by the mill. I can hear them."
From the woods came a fearfilled scream mingled
with the savage growls of a beast.
"It's the bear," shrilled Willie Case, and ran toward
the automobile.
Bridge ran forward to meet Burton. "Get that girl and
the kid into your machine and beat it!" he cried. "There's
a bear loose here, a regular devil of a bear. You can't do
a thing unless you have rifles. Have you?"
"Who are you?" asked the detective.
"He's one of the gang," yelled Willie Case from the
fancied security of the tonneau. "Seize him!" He wanted
to add: "My men"; but somehow his nerve failed him at
the last moment; however he had the satisfaction of
thinking it.
Bridge was placed in the car with Abigail Prim, The
Oskaloosa Kid, Soup Face and The Sky Pilot. Burton
sent the driver back to assist in guarding them; then he
with the remaining three, two of whom were armed
with rifles, advanced toward the mill. Beyond it they
heard the growling of the bear at a little distance in the
wood; but the man no longer made any outcry. From
a tree Giova warned them back.
"Come down!" commanded Burton, and sent her
back to the car.
The driver turned his spot light upon the wood be-
yond the mill and presently there came slowly forward
into its rays the lumbering bulk of a large bear. The
light bewildered him and he paused, growling. His left
shoulder was partially exposed.
"Aim for his chest, on the left side," whispered Bur-
ton. The two men raised their rifles. There were two re-
ports in close succession. Beppo fell forward without a
sound and then rolled over on his side. Giova covered
her face with her hands and sobbed.
"He ver' bad, ugly bear," she said brokenly; "but he
all I have to love."
Bridge extended a hand and patted her bowed head.
In the eyes of The Oskaloosa Kid there glistened some-
thing perilously similar to tears.
In the woods back of the mill Burton and his men
found the mangled remains of Columbus Blackie, and
when they searched the interior of the structure they
brought forth the unconscious Dirty Eddie. As the car
already was taxed to the limit of its carrying capacity
Burton left two of his men to march The Kid and Bridge
to the Payson jail, taking the others with him to Oak-
dale. He was also partially influenced in this decision by
the fear that mob violence would be done the principals
by Oakdale's outraged citizens. At Payson he stopped
long enough at the town jail to arrange for the reception
of the two prisoners, to notify the coroner of the death
of Columbus Blackie and the whereabouts of his body
and to place Dirty Eddie in the hospital. He then tele-
phoned Jonas Prim that his daughter was safe and would
be returned to him in less than an hour.
By the time Bridge and The Oskaloosa Kid reached
Payson the town was in an uproar. A threatening crowd
met them a block from the jail; but Burton's men were
armed with rifles which they succeeded in convincing
the mob they would use if their prisoners were molested.
The telephone, however, had carried the word to Oak-
dale; so that before Burton arrived there a dozen auto-
mobile loads of indignant citizens were racing south to-
ward Payson.
