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CHAPTER II. THE ESCAPE

BYRNE had no time to pick any particular spot to jump for. When he did jump he

might have been directly over a picket fence, or a bottomless pit--he did not

know. Nor did he care.

As it happened he was over neither. The platform chanced to be passing across a

culvert at the instant. Beneath the culvert was a slimy pool. Into this the two men

plunged, alighting unharmed.

Byrne was the first to regain his feet. He dragged the deputy sheriff to his knees,

and before that frightened and astonished officer of the law could gather his wits

together he had been relieved of his revolver and found himself looking into its

cold and business-like muzzle.

Then Billy Byrne waded ashore, prodding the deputy sheriff in the ribs with cold

steel, and warning him to silence. Above the pool stood a little wood, thick with

tangled wildwood. Into this Byrne forced his prisoner.

When they had come deep enough into the concealment of the foliage to make

discovery from the outside improbable Byrne halted.

Now say yer prayers," he commanded. "I'm a-going to croak yeh."

The deputy sheriff looked up at him in wild-eyed terror.

My God!" he cried. "I ain't done nothin' to you, Byrne. Haven't I always been your

friend? What've I ever done to you? For God's sake Byrne you ain't goin' to

murder me, are you? They'll get you, sure."

Billy Byrne let a rather unpleasant smile curl his lips.

"No," he said, "youse ain't done nothin' to me; but you stand for the law, damn it,

and I'm going to croak everything I meet that stands for the law. They wanted to

send me up for life--me, an innocent man. Your kind done it--the cops. You ain't

no cop; but you're just as rotten. Now say yer prayers."

He leveled the revolver at his victim's head. The deputy sheriff slumped to his

knees and tried to embrace Billy Byrne's legs as he pleaded for his life.

Cut it out, you poor boob," admonished Billy. "You've gotta die and if you was

half a man you'd wanna die like one."

The deputy sheriff slipped to the ground. His terror had overcome him, leaving

him in happy unconsciousness. Byrne stood looking down upon the man for a

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The Mucker