e in
advance. There was a possibility that Geddis might be staying late in
the bank; and if he were not, there was the other possibility that he
might have changed the combination on the vault lock since my arrest.

The more I thought about it, the more fiercely the escape notion
gripped me. Whitredge's talk had made it perfectly plain that the best
I could hope for in a court trial would be a light sentence. As
train-time drew near, the obsession pushed reason and all the scruples
aside. If I could only persuade Jorkins to let me go to the bank on
the drive to the station----

The town clock in the tower of the new city hall was striking eleven
when good old John Runnels and the constable came for me. At the final
moment I was telling myself feverishly that it would be of no use for
me to try to bribe honest Sam Jorkins; that this was the fatal weakness
in my plan of escape. Hence, I could have shouted for joy when Runnels
unlocked the cell door and turned me over, not to Jorkins, but to a
stranger; a hard-faced man roughly dressed, and with the scar of a
knife slash across his right cheek.

"This is Bill Simmons, a deputy from Jefferson, Bertie; come to take
you over to the county ja--to the sheriff's office," said Runnels.
"I've told him he ain't goin' to have no use for them handcuffs he's
brought along."

"That may be," growled the sheriff's messenger. "All the same, I ain't
takin' no chances--not me!" and with that he whipped the manacles from
his pocket. But Runnels intervened quickly.

"Nary!--not here in my shop, you don't, Simmons," he said. "For two
cents I'd go along with Bertie, myself, if only to see to it that he
gets a fair show. You treat him right and white, or I'll fire you out,
warrant or no warrant!"

When we reached the street I said I wanted to go around by way of my
boarding-house for a change of clothing.

"That's all been 'tended to," said the surly deputy, with a jerk of his
thumb toward a suitcase in the seat beside the driver of the hack
carriage. "You get in and keep quiet; that's all you've got to do."

After this he said nothing and made no further move until we were
jouncing along on our way to the railroad station. Then, without
warning, he turned upon me suddenly and tried to snap the hand-cuffs on
my wrists.

It was all I was waiting for; something to pull the trigger. In a
flash the savage, which, in the best of us, lies but skin-deep under
the veneer of habi