_ CHAPTER XVIII. AT THE COUNTY JAIL
Neither Judge Henderson nor his ward attended church services this Sunday evening, the former because of a certain physical reaction which disposed him to slumber, the latter because she had other plans of her own. The great white house, with its wide flanking grounds, where Judge Henderson had so long lived in somewhat solitary state, was now lighted up from top to bottom; but presently a light in an upper window vanished.
Anne Oglesby tiptoed down the stair side by side with the housekeeper. She cast a glance of inquiry into the front parlor, where, prone upon a large couch, was Judge Henderson--rendering audible tribute to Morpheus.
"He's violating the town ordinance about the muffler cut-out," said Anne smilingly to the housekeeper. "Oh, don't wake him--I'll be back presently--tell him."
She hurried through the yard and down the street toward the central part of the town. The streets about the square now were well-nigh deserted, since most folk were in the churches. Her own destination was a square or two beyond the courthouse, where stood another brick building of public interest; in short, the county jail.
It was the duty of the sheriff to care for the tenants of his jail, and he made his own home in a part of the brick building which served in that capacity--a small building with iron grates on the lower windows, arranged at about the height of a man's eyes as he would stand within on the cement floor of a cell, so that he might look out just above the greensward, his face visible to any who passed by. Many a boy had thus gazed with horror on the unshaven face of some ruffian who begged him for tobacco, or some tramp who had trifled too long with the patience of the community, usually so generous with its alms. Many a school child could show you the very place where the woman who killed her children was confined before they took her away--could point out the very window where she stood looking and weeping and wringing her hands--"Just like this"--as any child would tell you.
And some day perhaps children would point out this very window where now stood looking out, motionless--"Not saying a word to nobody"--the "man who killed the city marshal." Don Lane was standing at his grated window and looking out when Anne Oglesby crossed the grass plot and came up the brick sidewalk, fenced in by chains supported on little iron posts, which led to the jail's iron-bound door.
His heart gave a great leap. He saw her. She was coming to him--the one faithful, his beloved! Not even Miss Julia--not even his mother--had come, but here was Anne!
But at the next instant he stepped back from the window, hoping that she would not gain admission. Shame, deep and unspeakable, additional shame, twofold shame, compassed him as soon as he reflected. The bitterest of all was the fact that he must yield her up forever. He must tell her why. And now she had come--to see him in a cell! It was here that he must break his heart, and hers.
Sheriff Cowles opened the door when Anne Oglesby rang the bell. He stood for a moment looking out into the twilight.
"Who is it?" he asked. Then he recognized the girl whom he had brought down town from the railway station in his car that morning. Anne Oglesby was not a person easily to be forgotten.
"You know who I am, Mr. Cowles," said she--"I am Miss Oglesby, Judge Henderson's ward. I'm--I am respectable."
"Yes," said Cowles, "I know that, but why are you here?"
"Because I'd not be respectable if I were not here," she said quietly. "You probably know."
"Does the Judge know you have come?"
"No, he wouldn't have let me come if he had known. I want to see him--that young man, you know." Her own color was high by this time.
The sheriff hesitated. "Well," said he, "I don't want to do anything that isn't right, anything that isn't fair. I reckon I know how you feel."
"We're engaged to be married," said Anne Oglesby simply, and looked him directly in the face. "That gives me some rights, doesn't it?"
"In one way, maybe, but no legal rights," replied the sheriff, who was much perplexed, but who could not escape the compelling fact of Anne Oglesby's presence, the compelling charm of Anne Oglesby herself. "He's not really committed as yet, of course, only bound over by the coroner's jury; but the grand jury meets tomorrow, and they'll indict him sure. You know that. I can't take any chances of his getting away. I have to be sure."
"Your wife may come with me," said Anne Oglesby. "It's my right to talk to him a little while, don't you think? I'm not going to try to get him out. He hasn't had anyone to help him--he hasn't had any legal counsel."
"Who'd he send for, anyway?" asked the sheriff. "He's a sort of a waif, isn't he--her boy? I suppose you've heard about him fighting here around town yesterday?"
"I don't know why he fought, but I know that if he did he had cause. I hope he fought well."
"They said it was about his mother," began Sheriff Cowles. "Some word about her was passed----"
"You needn't say any more," said Anne Oglesby.
"He hasn't told me to send for any lawyer for him," said Cowles. "It don't seem like he's thought of it. He's just sort of quiet--mighty still all the time. Ha-hum!--I don't know what to say about your seeing him. Why didn't you ask your uncle, Judge Henderson?"
"Don't call him my uncle," said Anne Oglesby. "He's only my guardian in law. I've just told you he wouldn't let me come. That's why I've got to hurry."
"Well," hesitated the sheriff, "I'll have to warn you not to talk about this case where I can hear it. I'll have to hear all you say."
"Would you like to do that?"
The sheriff flushed. "No," said he, "not special; but you see my own duty is right clear. I can't play any favorites. If you was his lawyer, now, it might be different."
"I am his lawyer, the only one he's got so far as I know."
"Yes, I reckon the judge wouldn't care to take his case." The sheriff wagged his head. "He's no ways rich--not beyond four dollars and seventy-five cents and a pocket knife and some keys on a ring. He's broke, all right."
"He's never been anything else," said Anne Oglesby, hotly. "He's never had a chance. Do you want to keep a man from his chance all his life--do you want to help railroad him to the gallows? That's for the courts, not for you. Do you want to hang a man--are you anxious to begin that?"
Cowles' face grew pale. "God knows I don't! I never done that in my life, and I don't want to have to, neither. Don't talk about that to me, Miss."
"Then don't talk to me any more about those other things. I give you my word I'll not try to get him out, but I want to see him--I must see him--he'll want to see me. Don't you know--we've--we've just begun to be engaged."
"Some things I can't understand no ways," pondered Sheriff Cowles. "He's nobody, so far as I can learn. You're the Judge's ward--why, you're rich, they say."
"I'd give every cent I have to see him walk out right now. I suppose you were young once yourself. Were you ever in love, Mr. Cowles?"
"Yes," said the sheriff, slowly. "I was--I am yet, some. I can remember back. I don't believe I ought to let you in. But I'm afraid I'll have to, because you are young--like we all was once--and because you're in love. Did anyone see you coming over here?"
"I don't know; but all the town knows about him and me. Well, let them."
"You must promise not to help him in any way to get out--not to do anything you hadn't ought to do, nor against the law."
"I give you my promise," said Anne Oglesby.
Without more speech the sheriff turned and led the way down the stone-paved hall to the short cement stairs which made down upon the half-floor below, at the level of the cells. He turned the switch of an electric light, so that they might see the better in the hall.
There was but one tenant, and from beyond his door there came no sound, not even when Cowles unlocked the iron-shod door and stood, his revolver easy at his belt.
As Anne entered she saw Don Lane sitting on the edge of the narrow pallet, looking at the door. He had not risen. He had been sitting with his head in his hands.
He groaned now. "My God!" said he. "Anne! What made you come?"
[Illustration: "Anne! What made you come?"]
The sheriff stepped within the door at the side of Anne Oglesby. "I'd stay about ten minutes or so if I was you," said he, and tried to look unconscious and impersonal.
Don Lane rose now, but stood still apart.
"Why do you say that, Don?" asked Anne, stepping closer to him. "Didn't you know I'd come?"
She reached out her hands to him, and he caught both of them in his.
"I ought to have known you would," said he, "and I know you oughtn't to. It makes it very hard. I said good-by to you--this morning--today."
"Won't you kiss me--again, Don?" asked Anne Oglesby.
He kissed her again, his face white.
"It's hard to know you for so little a while," said he, his young face drawn, his voice trembling--"awfully hard. What time there's left to me--I'll have it all to remember you. But we must never meet after this. It's over."
"Don, if I thought it was all over, do you suppose I'd let you kiss me now?"
"It's like heaven," said he. "It's all I'll have to remember."
"A long time, Don--a very long time!"
"I can't tell. They are not apt to lose much time with my case. The only crime of my life was in ever lifting my eyes to you, Anne. Oh, you know I'd never have done that if I had known--what I found out yesterday. But then I've said good-by to you."
"
I didn't say good-by, Don!"
He half raised a hand, shaking his head sadly. "You must forget me, no matter what happens--no matter whether I am cleared or not. I'll never be the coward to ask you to remember me--that wouldn't be right. I'm beyond all hope, whichever way it goes."
"I've come tonight, Don," said she, quietly, "to see about your lawyer."
He half laughed. "There'll be small need for one, and if there were I've got no funds. It will take a lot of money."
"Well, what of that? I've got a lot of money. My guardian told me so today. I'm worth somewhere between a quarter and a half million dollars anyway--I'm not rich--but that would help us."
He laughed at this harshly. "I didn't know you had any money at all. And you think I'd be coward enough to take your money to get out of here--after what I have learned about myself since yesterday? Do you suppose I'd take my life from you--such a life as it's got to be now?"
"What do you mean, Don?--you won't let me go, will you? You don't mean----" She stepped toward him, in sudden terror of his resolution. "Why,
Don!"
"Yes, yes. I spent all the afternoon here alone trying to think. Well, I won't compromise. I never meant to pull you into this--I'll not let you be dragged into it by your own great-heartedness. But, Anne, Anne, dearest, dearest, surely you know that when I spoke to you yesterday I didn't know what I know today! I thought I had a father. You
know I'd not deceive you--you
do know that?"
There was a shuffle on the stone floor of the cell. Sheriff Cowles, coughing loudly, was turning away from them. A moment later the door closed behind him. "Ha-hum!" said he to himself outside the door. "Oh, hell! I wish't I wasn't sher'ff."
They were alone. With the door closed the cell was dark, save for the twilight filtering through the barred windows high up along the wall.
Anne came closer to him and put her hands upon his shoulders. "Oh, Don," said she, "it's hard, awfully hard, isn't it, to start with such a handicap? But when did all the men in the world start even? And is it always the one who starts first that finishes best? Don, you played the game in college--so did I--we've both got to play the game now! We'll have to take our handicap. But you mustn't talk about sending me away. I can't stand everything. Oh, don't! I can't stand that!" Her voice was choking now. She was sobbing, striving not to do so.
He caught her wrists in his hands, as her hands still lay upon his shoulders; but he did not draw her to him.
"Anne," said he, "the time comes in every man's life for him to die. I heard once about a man who could not swim and who saw his wife drown in the stream by him, almost at his side. He ran along and shouted, and said he could not swim. Well, he lived. The woman died. Suppose that had been our case. If we both went down together, it wouldn't be so bad, perhaps. But I'll not have my life as that sort of a gift."
"You won't let me help you, Don?"
"No! I won't let you have anything to do with me! I'll never allow your name to come on my lips, and you must never think of mentioning mine! Only--Anne, Anne--surely you don't think I had any idea before yesterday--about my father? I wouldn't buy my own happiness at that price. I'm no one's son. I'm dead, and doubly dead. But I never knew."
"No," said she, "I know you did not--I know you would not."
They both were so young, as they talked on now, wisely, soberly.
"So you are free," he said, casting away her hands from him, and standing back. "You never were anything but free."
"I'll never be free again, Don," said she, shaking her head. "You kissed me! I'm not a girl any more--I'm a woman now. I can't go back. And now you tell me to go away! Don't you love me, Don? Why, I love you--so much!"
"My God, don't!" he groaned. "Don't! I can't stand everything. But I can't take anything but the best and truest sort of love."
"Isn't mine?"
"No. It's pity, maybe--I can't tell. This is no place for us to talk of that now. You must go away. I hope you will forget you ever saw me. I don't even know my father's name--I don't know whether he is living--I don't know anything! I have been walled in all my life--I'm walled in now. I never ought to have touched even the hem of your garment, for I wasn't fit. But I couldn't help it."
"That's the trouble," said Anne. "I can't help it, either."
"Ah!" he half groaned, "you ought to be kept from yourself."
"Kept from myself, Don? If that were true of all the women in the world, how much world would there be left? That's why I'm here--why, Don, I had to come!"
"Anne! It can't be. It's only cruel for you to tear me up by coming here--by staying here--by standing here. I love you! Anne! Anne! I don't see how it could be hard as this for any man to part from any woman." He was trembling through all his strong frame now.
"But we promised!"
"The law says that a promise is such only when two minds meet. Our minds never met--I didn't know the facts--you didn't know about me--we have just found out about it now."
"Our minds didn't meet?" said Anne Oglesby. "Our
minds? Did not our
hearts meet--don't they meet now--and isn't
that what it all means between a man and a woman?"
He stood, trembling, apart from her in the twilight.
"Don't!" he whispered. "I love you! I will love you all my life! You must go away. Oh, go now, go quickly!"
A merciful footfall sounded on the stone floor of the outer hall. The door opened, letting in a shaft of light with it. Cowles stood hesitating, looking at the two young people, still separated, standing wretchedly.
"I hate to say anything," said the sheriff, "but I reckon----"
"She must go," said Don Lane. "Take her away. Good-by--Anne! Anne! Oh, good-by!"
"Won't you kiss me, Don?" said Anne Oglesby--"when I love you so much?"
There were four tears, two great, sudden drops from each eye, that sprang now on Dan Cowles' wrinkled, sunburned cheeks.
But Don Lane had cast himself down once more on the pallet and was trying with all his power to be silent until after she had gone.
"In some ways," said Dan Cowles to his wife later that night, "he's got me guessing, that young fellow. He don't act like no murderer to me. But since she left, and since all this here happened, he's wild--Lord! he's wild!" _