Boy's Cinema (1933)

28 The lstler was to the Commissioner who had sent him to the camp, and he was signing it when Johnny called across: "I'll do that one for you if you like, Mr. Whitehouse." Whitehouse smiled to himself, but re- plied : "That's all right—this one will do as it is." He folded, the letter, put it in an envelope and addressed it, and he was sealing the flap when a guard entered and placed on the desk some letters which had just arrived by hand from the county gaol. *' Want me .to open the mail, Mr. Whitehouse?" inquired Johnny, stepping forward and picking up a paper-knife. Thanks, kid." Johnny opened a foolscap envelope and fished out from it a letter and an official-looking document. He put the open letter on the blotting pad in front of .Whitehouse, but he gaped at the en- dorsement on the document. For this is what he read: The People of the State of Michigan versus Frank Ellis. Extradition Proceedings. Requisition upon the Governor. Tne document fluttered from his hand and Whitehouse picked it up and opened it out. "Ixjoks like your brother has been very busy," he remarked. "How much will he have to do?" gasped Johnny. "'Well," said Whitehouse, studying the document, "this being his fourth con- viction makes him ' habitual.' That means life." "Oh, no!" cried Johnny, horrified. "Sorry, kid. That's the law." "Life!" Over and over again the boy repeated the word. "Life!" "It's too bad, Johnny," said Wnite- house sympathetically, "but there's no- thing we can do about it." He refolded the document and put it away with the letter in a drawer of a steel filing-cabinet. Then, having read the rest of the mail and dealt with it, he picked up his hat and patted Johnny on the shoulder. "Have to attend to that requisition to-morrow," he said. "Good-night, kid." He went out, closing the door behind him. and for several minutes Johnny stood clenching and unclenching his hands. Somehow he must save Duke from this worse fate that threatened. With sudden resolution he went over to the filing cabinet, took out the dread- ful document and tried to master its legal phraseology. One thing at least w.i- clear; unless Duke could escape he would be incarcerated for life. He thrust the document into his pocket and 6tared across the room at a padlocked door. Beyond that door, as he knew well, a number of rifles were kept, but only Skinner and Billings possessed keys to the padlock. lie opened the front door and went out into the darkness, presently to return with a crowbar; and with the crowbar he wrenched the padlock from its fa6ten- Thenj diving into the store-room, he snatched a rifle from one of the racks and went out with it. SUiunur was in his own office, prac- tising on his beloved violin, as the boy flitted past the cabin, making for the pen. There was only one guard on duty by the wagjon6 and he was dozing on a box with Ins back to a shed. From a hook in Billings' office Johnny January 21st, 1933. BOY'S CINEMA had taken a bunch of keys, and, reach- ing the door of the end wagon, he fitted one of the keys in the lock. Stealthily he opened the door, and stealthily he mounted the steps. All the men were fast asleep in their bunks, but they were not chained to their bunks. Purvis, the guard on duty, had neglected to shackle them as yet. Johnny, reaching up to Duke's bunk, shook his brother gently by the arm. "Duke, Duke," he whispered, "wake up! Wake up, Duke! Here's a gun! You've got to make a break for it." Duke stirred, yawned, and opened his eyes. " What the " he began loudly; but Johnny, in a panic, clapped a hand over his mouth. The smothered exclamation had, how- ever, wakened several of the convicts. "Come on, snap out of it!" urged Johnny in a low voice. "A hold-over warrant from Michigan just came in! They say you're a fourth offender! It means life!" Maxie, straining his ears in the bunk below, heard every word and blinked at the rifle in the boy's hands. But Duke sat up and said quite loudly: " Take that gun back where you got it. I'll make my own getaway when it's time. I'm not going to have you do an extra five yeais on my account." "What do I care about five years?" said Johnny, putting down the rifle to plead with his brother. " You've got to do life in Michigan." He began to pull his brother's long chain through the ring in the frame- work of the bunk, but Duke stopped him impatiently. " Do as I tell you !" he hissed. " Take that gun back!" But Maxie had grabbed hold of the rifle, and now he 6prang out of his bunk with it and levelled its barrel at Johnny. " Come on!" he cried triumphantly. "Put up your hands! Shove 'em up now! Keep 'em up!" Johnny looked questioningly at his brother in the faint moonlight, but Duke had already raised his hands. "Go ahead, kid," he growled. "He's screwy enough to shoot." "Come on now," insisted Maxie, " open 'em all up! All the chains, I mean. Come on!" "That's the idea, Maxie," approved Hype, pulling his own chain through the ring in his bunk. "Keep it on, boy!" Johnny, because he must, pulled all the chains through the rings one after another; and one after another the con- victs got out of their bunks, and he was compelled to retrieve the bunch of keys from the lock of the door and to remove their spurred leg-irons. Fire ! SKINNER was producing wailing notes from his violin, and the som- nolent guard was still dozing on his box as the convicts stole out from the wagon. Hype, one of the first to descend, made straight for Skinner's cabin with the transformed spoon in his hand. The brutal captain was sitting close to the uncurtained window of his office, and his back was towards it. He swung round in alarm at the sound of breaking glass, but he did not even have time to cry out. The dagger which had been a spoon was driven violently between his ribs into his right lung, and, with a horrible gurgling sound he got to his feet, dropping the violin and the bow, tottered a few feet forward, and crashed down on his back. The sheet music, which had been propped up on the table before him, showered down upon him. The voice of Hype reached him as he lay dying. Every Tuesday "There's that spoon you been looking for!" yelled the convict. After all the others had left the pie- wagon, Duke slid down from his bunk and reached the door. Johnny followed him, but was flung to the floor. "You've only got three months to do," Duke shouted at him. " You stay there I" He slammed the door and locked it, then ran off. One of the convicts had killed the sleeping guard; others were releasing the rest of the chain gang Johnny sprang up on to a bunk to thrust his frightened face between the bars, and saw men running past him. He cried frantically: "Let me out, some of you guys!" But the convicts, intent on vengeance and escape, took no notice of him. The guards, in their bunkhouse, were surrounded and dragged forth into the night, and Whitehouse was captured in the act of undressing and made to join the others. While Maxie threatened with the rifle he had appropriated, the guards were bundled into one of the pie-wagons and the door was locked on them. Pop-Eye, who had been off duty, came running to the pen at the sound of all the commotion, and Whitehouse yelled to him. " Pop-Eve, get us out of here! Here, Pop-Eye I" Pop-Eye rushed forward, but Maxie turned the rifle on him and fired, and the guard collapsed with a bullet in his heart. Pandemonium reigned. The convicts raided the store-rooms and armed them- selves with rifles and six-shooters, and then, to complete the work of destruc- tion, one of them deliberately set fire to a shed in which cans of kerosine were kept. Amid a series of minor explosions the shed blazed, and flaming fragments fell on other sheds and cabins. The camp became a roaring furnace from which dark figures fled. The kitchen burst into flames, and the flames spread, reaching the petrol dump, which exploded. Johnny, beating helplessly at the bars of the wagon in which his brother had locked him, heard the frantic shouting of the imprisoned guards, watched with dis- may the approaching inferno, and saw Maxie looking on the ground for the spectacles he had dropped. "Let me out, Maxie!" he cried desperately. "Oh, let me out!" Maxie found his spectacles and adjusted them carefully on his nose, viewing the conflagration with glee. Johnny called to him again, and this time he heard. He unlocked the door of the wagon, and as Johnny tumbled down the steps rushed off. The fencing of the pen was ablaze; the mules, in their corral, were making frightened noises. Johnny looked to right and left, uncertain which way to go, wondering what had become of the brother he adored. Whitehouse caught sight of him, and shouted: "Hi, Johnny, Johnny! Let us out of here, will you?" Johnny, in the light of the flames, stared dubiously at the imprisoned guards who were calling and waving to him. "You're not going to let us burn in here like rats, are you ?" bellowed Whitehouse. "How am I going to let you out?" Johnny exclaimed. "Get a hold of that gun, Johnny," urged Whitehouse, pointing to the rifle | Pop-Eye had dropped as he fell. "Go ahead—grab it! Blow the lock off t"