www.freeclassicebooks.com

smug jurymen roused within him the lust to kill. Justice! Billy Byrne laughed

aloud.

A bailiff rapped for order. One of the jurymen leaned close to a neighbor and

whispered. "A hardened criminal," he said. "Society will be safer when he is

behind the bars."

The next day they took Billy aboard a train bound for Joliet. He was handcuffed

to a deputy sheriff. Billy was calm outwardly; but inwardly he was a raging

volcano of hate.

In a certain very beautiful home on Riverside Drive, New York City, a young lady,

comfortably backed by downy pillows, sat in her bed and alternated her attention

between coffee and rolls, and a morning paper.

On the inside of the main sheet a heading claimed her languid attention:

CHICAGO MURDERER GIVEN LIFE SENTENCE. Of late Chicago had aroused in

Barbara Harding a greater proportion of interest than ever it had in the past, and

so it was that she now permitted her eyes to wander casually down the printed

column.

Murderer of harmless old saloon keeper is finally brought to justice. The

notorious West Side rowdy, "Billy" Byrne, apprehended after more than a year as

fugitive from justice, is sent to Joliet for life.

Barbara Harding sat stony-eyed and cold for what seemed many minutes. Then

with a stifled sob she turned and buried her face in the pillows.

The train bearing Billy Byrne and the deputy sheriff toward Joliet had covered

perhaps half the distance between Chicago and Billy's permanent destination

when it occurred to the deputy sheriff that he should like to go into the smoker

and enjoy a cigar.

Now, from the moment that he had been sentenced Billy Byrne's mind had been

centered upon one thought--escape. He knew that there probably would be not

the slightest chance for escape; but nevertheless the idea was always uppermost

in his thoughts.

His whole being revolted, not alone against the injustice which had sent him into

life imprisonment, but at the thought of the long years of awful monotony which

lay ahead of him.

He could not endure them. He would not! The deputy sheriff rose, and motioning

his prisoner ahead of him, started for the smoker. It was two cars ahead. The

train was vestibuled. The first platform they crossed was tightly enclosed; but at

155

The Mucker