h with the ground.

Bridge motioned Billy to climb through the window while he shot the bolt
upon the inside of the door leading back into the restaurant. A moment
later he followed the fugitive, and then took the lead.

Down narrow, dirty alleys, and through litter-piled back yards he made
his way, while Billy followed at his heels. Dusk was gathering, and
before they had gone far darkness came.

They neither paused nor spoke until they had left the business portion
of the city behind and were well out of the zone of bright lights.
Bridge was the first to break the silence.

"I suppose you wonder how I knew," he said.

"No," replied Billy. "I seen that clipping you got in your pocket--it
fell out on the floor when you took your coat off in the room this
afternoon to go and wash."

"Oh," said Bridge, "I see. Well, as far as I'm concerned that's the end
of it--we won't mention it again, old man. I don't need to tell you that
I'm for you."

"No, not after tonight," Billy assured him.

They went on again for some little time without speaking, then Billy
said:

"I got two things to tell you. The first is that after I seen that
newspaper article in your clothes I thought you was figurin' on
double-crossin' me an' claimin' the five hun. I ought to of known
better. The other is that I didn't kill Schneider. I wasn't near his
place that night--an' that's straight."

"I'm glad you told me both," said Bridge. "I think we'll understand each
other better after this--we're each runnin' away from something. We'll
run together, eh?" and he extended his hand. "In flannel shirt from
earth's clean dirt, here, pal, is my calloused hand!" he quoted,
laughing.

Billy took the other's hand. He noticed that Bridge hadn't said what HE
was running away from. Billy wondered; but asked no questions.

South they went after they had left the city behind, out into the sweet
and silent darkness of the country. During the night they crossed the
line into Kansas, and morning found them in a beautiful, hilly country
to which all thoughts of cities, crime, and police seemed so utterly
foreign that Billy could scarce believe that only a few hours before a
Chicago detective had been less than a hundred feet from him.

The new sun burst upon them as they topped a grassy hill. The
dew-bespangled blades scintillated beneath the gorgeous rays which would
presently sweep them away again into the nothingness from which they had
sprung.

Bridge