第66章

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 moment.His wrist was chained to that of the other, and the pull of the deputy's body was irritating.

Byrne stooped and placed the muzzle of the revolver back of the man's ear."Justice!" he muttered, scornfully, and his finger tightened upon the trigger.

Then, conjured from nothing, there rose between himself and the unconscious man beside him the figure of a beautiful girl.Her face was brave and smiling, and in her eyes was trust and pride--whole worlds of them.Trust and pride in Billy Byrne.

Billy closed his eyes tight as though in physical pain.He brushed his hand quickly across his fare.

"Gawd!" he muttered."I can't do it--but I came awful close to it."Dropping the revolver into his side pocket he kneeled beside the deputy sheriff and commenced to go through the man's clothes.After a moment he came upon what he sought--a key ring confining several keys.

Billy found the one he wished and presently he was free.

He still stood looking at the deputy sheriff.

"I ought to croak you," he murmured."I'll never make my get-away if I don't; but SHE won't let me--God bless her."Suddenly a thought came to Billy Byrne.If he could have a start he might escape.It wouldn't hurt the man any to stay here for a few hours, or even for a day.Billy removed the deputy's coat and tore it into strips.With these he bound the man to a tree.Then he fastened a gag in his mouth.

During the operation the deputy regained consciousness.He looked questioningly at Billy.

"I decided not to croak you," explained the young man.

"I'm just a-goin' to leave you here for a while.They'll be lookin' all along the right o' way in a few hours--it won't be long afore they find you.Now so long, and take care of yerself, bo," and Billy Byrne had gone.

A mistake that proved fortunate for Billy Byrne caused the penitentiary authorities to expect him and his guard by a later train, so no suspicion was aroused when they failed to come upon the train they really had started upon.This gave Billy a good two hours' start that he would not otherwise have had--an opportunity of which he made good use.

Wherefore it was that by the time the authorities awoke to the fact that something had happened Billy Byrne was fifty miles west of Joliet, bowling along aboard a fast Santa Fe freight.Shortly after night had fallen the train crossed the Mississippi.Billy Byrne was hungry and thirsty, and as the train slowed down and came to a stop out in the midst of a dark solitude of silent, sweet-smelling country, Billy opened the door of his box car and dropped lightly to the ground.

So far no one had seen Billy since he had passed from the ken of the trussed deputy sheriff, and as Billy had no desire to be seen he slipped over the edge of the embankment into a dry ditch, where he squatted upon his haunches waiting for the train to depart.The stop out there in the dark night was one of those mysterious stops which trains are prone to make, unexplained and doubtless unexplainable by any other than a higher intelligence which directs the movements of men and rolling stock.There was no town, and not even a switch light.

Presently two staccato blasts broke from the engine's whistle, there was a progressive jerking at coupling pins, which started up at the big locomotive and ran rapidly down the length of the train, there was the squeaking of brake shoes against wheels, and the train moved slowly forward again upon its long journey toward the coast, gaining momentum moment by moment until finally the way-car rolled rapidly past the hidden fugitive and the freight rumbled away to be swallowed up in the darkness.

When it had gone Billy rose and climbed back upon the track, along which he plodded in the wake of the departing train.Somewhere a road would presently cut across the track, and along the road there would be farmhouses or a village where food and drink might be found.