The Photo-Play Journal (May 1916-Apr 1917)

THE PHOTO-PLAY JOURNAL FOR APRIL, 1917. PAGE U7 Ruth's face. How much does she know ? What does she think of him ? He finally says, "I fear mother's condition will keep me in Pretoria some time. I shall conclude my business here with a wire to the office tonight." Ruth looks her thanks for his sacrifice. Ronald bids them good-bye, and as Mrs. Griggs glances away, he raises Ruth's hand to his lips. Ronald returns to the depot and writes his message to "A. B. Landry, Assistant District Attorney, Metropolis: Regret serious condition of mother requires immediate departure. Suggest you send substitute. Letter follows." Nate enters and says, "Can I send that for you?" Ronald thanks him but folds it up and puts it in his pocket, saying, "I'll send it from the Junction." Ronald likes Nate, but he dares not have the contents of his message known in Kingsboro. Nate busies himself setting the signal and Ronald strolls out on the platform. An arm is thrown around his neck, he is jerked backward and two dark forms land on him. Nate, coming to the door, promptly projects himself into the scrap. The struggle is fierce. Nate succeeds in putting Joe to flight and just in the nick of time helps Ronald floor Barnes. Sliding along a few feet and whirling over onto his hands and knees, Barnes scrambles to his feet and escapes. Ronald and Nate right their disarranged clothing and rub some very sore spots. The train pulls in and Ronald gets aboard reluctantly. He now has two strong reasons for wanting to stay. He would like to follow up this peculiar case now that the plot gives evidence of thickening. He shakes hands warmly with Nate. The train pulls out — having scarcely stopped. Ronald is on the lower step of the car glancing back toward town — somebody behind him gives him a violent shove and he tumbles into the darkness. Barnes had slipped onto the platform of the adjoining car before it reached the station and 'he is waiting for Ronald. His trick is successful. Ronald lies senseless in the ditch. Barnes telephones to Griggs the news of the affair at the depot. "You bungled, as usual," says Griggs, "no good to slug him when he was leaving. Nate Smith's onto you now and will make trouble. You'll have to get out of town till it blows over." Barnes slams up the receiver in fury. He is tired of the continued nagging of his sour employer. He grits his teeth and vows a vengeance that will efface the whole factory trouble and more besides — he's a marked man — he might as well wreak full "retribution" while he's at it. He drinks heavily — makes a night of it. The sun rises on our heroine and finds her with a radiance of youth to match that of the morning, out for early exercise. With utmost impartiality Old Sol also rises on the villain. Barnes sees Ruth coming and dodges behind a fence. As she passes he deals her a blow that crumples her to the ground. He drags her to one side and then goes out and watches down the street. Soon comes Joe, driving the factory auto-truck. A few words of explanation and a "persuasive" gesture on Barnes' part and the two lift the unconscious form into the machine and drive for the country. Their destination is a lonely abandoned farmhouse, where they imprison Ruth. Meanwhile Ronald, after hours in the ditch, regains consciousness, but is in a dazed condition. He can't recall where he is or what he was doing. He wanders down the country road. After leaving Ruth, to be dealt with later when he has more time, Barnes and Joe head for the factory. Barnes sneaks in and gets his revolver. They slink down the road on foot to a point where bushes screen them from the highway. Barnes says, "We'll lay for him here." Joe says, "I'm through, I'm goin' t' beat it." Barnes snarls, "No you don't — you're in it with me, see?" and he points his remark with the revolver. Griggs approaches in his auto. He has to slow down and turn aside for a bad spot in the road as Barnes figured he would. The revolver barks and Griggs topples out as the machine careens into the ditch. They drag the body into the bushes and make a get-away. Meanwhile, Griggs' office clerk has made inquiry for his superior at his home, by phone, and finding that he left some time ago he thinks "the old man's flivver has probably flivved." He decides to investigate, and jumping his bicycle strikes for town. He finds the auto in the ditch and traces the body to the bushes. All too evidently it is murder. Just then he sees Ronald down the road, acting very suspiciously. He looks around, wondering what to do. He sees a farmer boy on horseback driving a cow. A dollar bill is sufficient inducement to send the boy flying as fast as the nag can take him to town for the police. Meanwhile the clerk keeps a wary lookout on Ronald, who sits down by the roadside in a bewildered effort to straighten his clothes and brush the dirt from them. Barnes and Joe hurry toward town. They branch off and hike down the railroad track. They hide by the water-tank, waiting for a train on which they can steal away. Nate Smith sees them from the station, and decides to investigate the miscreants. He goes cautiously down the track, but Barnes sees him coming and, taking him unawares, shoots him down. Nate is badly wounded. Meanwhile the farmer boy arrives at the police station and gets the entire town police force on Ronald's trail. They have no trouble in apprehending him — he is too bewildered and weak to know what it's all about. He is taken to jail. Ruth makes frantic efforts to escape from the farmhouse, and after great difficulty she finally succeeds in getting a couple of boards off the window and climbs to freedom. She hurries off toward town — a long and weary walk ahead of her. She is bruised and sore from her encounter. A freight crew finds Nate and tenderly carries him into the caboose and so to town, where they turn him over to a doctor, and Nate is taken home. The doctor shakes his head over Nate's condition — he's far gone. Ruth finally reaches town, being given a lift by a farmer in an auto. He drives her to the police station where she tells her story. The police chief, with due importance, says, "He's a blood-thirsty scoundrel, Miss Cowen — he killed your stepfather too, but we've got him." Miss Cowen is greatly affected, but after all her stepfather is little to her. She wants to see her assailant — the murderer — right away. She is led to the cell, where Ronald is sitting on the cot, still dazed and very weak. He does not recognize her. She is overcome with grief. "I know there is some mistake," she says, "he would not have done this thing." "Ah, but we caught him right near the body, Miss Cowen. He was acting very suspiciously," and the chief is quite well satisfied with himself. Ruth stoops over and picks up a telegram that has fallen from Ronald's coat. It is his wire to the office relinquishing his mission. "See," she exclaims, "he was through and going away— as I told you. He would have no object in committing this murder." Ronald by now is lying on the cot, moaning and all but unconscious. "He is ill, too," pleads Ruth, "please — please have Doctor Ash examine him and take him out of here where he can be given attention." The chief finally agrees to call the doctor, and Ruth waits to see him. While waiting she wets her handkerchief in the waterpitcher and bathes Ronald's temples. Her face was suspiciously close to his when the doctor arrived. Ruth tells him what she knows of Ronald and he gets the chief's permission to remove Ronald to his home. Here, under careful nursing Ronald recovers his wits, recognizes Ruth, and tells her his story. The coroner impanels a jury and proceeds to put Ronald on trial for the murder of Griggs and the shooting of Nate Smith. Ruth insists Ronald was not the one who attacked her, and refuses to prefer charges. The case looks bad for Ronald. Nate is unconscious and dying — there is no proof that Ronald is not guilty. If Nate could be brought to consciousness before he dies he might be able to shed some light on the case. Ruth goes to his home and in her agony of desire and her tender sympathy for Nate lures his almost departed spirit back into his body. He rouses up, sees her, and in the presence of the doctor, nurse and an officer Nate murmurs: "God bless you, Ruth — I, I love you — Barnes shot me!" and he drops back dead. Though grief stricken, Ruth rushes to court with the officer and stops the proceedings, just as the coroner's jury recommends Ronald be held to the grand jury for murder. Her statement of Nate's dying words, corroborated by the officer, frees Ronald, and he takes the girl in his arms. Ruth hides her blushes on his shoulder. What he said to her and what she replied shall remain their secret, but that kiss speaks eloquently of the understanding between man and maid — world-old, but always new. Then it is recalled suddenly by all that Barnes has not been seen since the day of the trouble. The police at once wire his description around the country and Barnes is apprehended, returned and clamped in jail. The last we see of him he is standing behind the bars — locked up with his sins and his conscience, if he has any. "As ye sow, so shall ye reap," comes to mind as we take our last look at the unfortunate offender. What of Joe? He was not caught, and, inasmuch as he was an unwilling partner in Barnes' knavery, we will tell you a secret: See that scene of a western farm with a young man happily engaged in guiding a tractor? Sh — h, don't betray him — it's Joe, a new Joe! Ruth and Ronald tenderly place a wreath on Nate's grave. Inscribed in the flowers are the words, "To a True Friend." Ronald's mother has recovered and she and Ruth's mother decide they will thereafter abide together. We see them on the porch of the pretty little home in Pretoria, while Ruth and Ronald are picking flowers from the beds that border the walk of the cottage. A few days later there is rice on the station platform at Pretoria, and happy faces all around, but none quite so happy as the dear ladies who are waving "Good-bye" — except, of course, the smiling countenances of the two young people whom the train is carrying away on their honeymoon. On a sandy knoll, where the music of the foaming breakers plays a fitting accompaniment to the wondrous song of love that fills their hearts, the two young folks stand hand in hand, looking out to where the undulating line of ocean and sky meet in a rosy glory reflected from the setting sun behind the Jersey hills.