Once outside the yard she started to run. They would let her telephone

from the drug-store, even without money. She had no money. But the

drug-store was closed and dark, and the threat of Rudolph's return

terrified her. She must get off the hill, somehow.

There were still paths down the steep hill-side, dangerous things that

hugged the edge of small, rocky precipices, or sloped steeply to sudden

turns. But she had played over the hill all her young life. She plunged

down, slipping and falling a dozen times, and muttering, some times an

oath, some times a prayer, "Oh, God, let me be in time. Oh, God, hold him up a while until I--"

then a slip. "If I fall now--"

Only when she was down in the mill district did she try to make any

plan. It was almost eleven then, and her ears were tense with listening

for the sound she dreaded. She faced her situation, then. She could not

telephone from a private house, either to the mill or to the Spencer

house, what she feared, and the pay-booths of the telephone company

demanded cash in advance. She was incapable of clear thought, or she

would have found some way out, undoubtedly. What she did, in the end,

was to board an up-town car and throw herself on the mercy of the

conductor.

"I've got to get up-town," she panted. "I'll not go in. See? I'll stand

here and you take me as far as you can. Look at me! I don't look as

though I'm just bumming a ride, do I?"

The conductor hesitated. He had very little faith in human nature, but

Anna's eyes were both truthful and desperate. He gave the signal to go

on.

"What's up?" he said. "Police after you?"

"Yes," Anna replied briefly.

There is, in certain ranks, a tacit conspiracy against the police. The

conductor hated them. They rode free on his car, and sometimes kept an

eye on him in the rush hours. They had a way, too, of letting him settle

his own disputes with inebriated gentlemen who refused to pay their

fares.

"Looks as though they'd come pretty close to grabbing you," he opened,

by way of conversation. "But ten of 'em aren't a match for one smart

girl. They can't run. All got flat feet."

Anna nodded. She was faint and dizzy, and the car seemed to creep along.

It was twenty minutes after eleven when she got out. The conductor

leaned down after her, hanging to the handrail.




readonlinefreebook.com Copyright 2016 - 2024