Radio and television mirror (July-Dec 1942)

a horrible terror. Everything was against her. She had no friends. She was a stranger in town. She had no one — nobody to help her. Dick, she thought. Why wasn't he here? Why wasn't he with her? Why hadn't he arranged to get her out? A few minutes later, two men entered her cell and stood over her. One of them spoke in a flat, expressionless voice. "It will go easier for you," he said, "if you tell us the truth." Ruth stood up. She wanted to scream. "I have told you the truth," she said chokingly. "Please, let me talk to Dick." "If you mean Crane," the detective said in the same flat voice, "he's gone. He's in the clear." "But he can explain everything," Ruth cried. "He's gone," the detective said. They hammered at her for over an hour. They talked and questioned and threatened until her head whirled and she felt faint and dizzy. They accused her of working out a plot with Gladys. They said Gladys had confessed. She refused to believe it. Her only chance was Dick. She kept asking them to get him, to bring him to her. "Listen, girlie," one of the men said, "if he was going to help you he'd have gotten you out of here on bail. Now come clean, your boy friend's skipped out, so you might as well open up." . "Skipped!" Ruth said, unbelievingly. "That's right," they said. "Think it over." Then they were gone. For hours, Ruth sat almost perfectly still. She looked straight ahead seeing nothing. Skipped? Run out on her? No. She wouldn't believe that. She couldn't. If he had done that, there wasn't anything to believe in, nothing for which to hope, nothing. She went back over everything he had said. She saw his serious, steady, brown eyes, his quick, easy smile, his eager, sensitive face. Dick run out on her? No. Yet, she thought, how long have I known him? Only a few hours. Be sensible, she thought, you've been fooled. It was too easy, too wonderful. You don't just fall in love like that. It was too much like a book, too pat and perfect. She suddenly felt sick. Suppose Dick had switched the bracelet? He knew all about things like that. Suppose he had it all figured out, played her for the fool and left her to pay this price? She felt weak and completely beaten. She lay down on the narrow, hard bed and looked up at the gray, dull ceiling. How long she lay there, she didn't know. She kept thinking about Dick. For some inexplicable reason, she was no longer worried about herself, about what would happen to her. It was Dick. She knew she would have to make up her mind, one way or the other. . She knew that her only chance was to accuse him of stealing the bracelet. "He didn't steal it," she said, softly. "I know he didn't. 1 know he hasn't run out on me, either." They were all lying. They were trying to trap her. I have faith in him, she thought, I'm glad I have faith in him. IT KEPT getting lighter in her cell. She sat up on the bed. She felt tired, but there was nothing more to worry about. She had made her choice. There was nothing to do now but wait. At last she heard footsteps coming down the hall. The detectives stopped in front of her cell and unlocked it. "Come on," they said. Ruth got down off the bed. "He's come back," Ruth said. "He's come back, hasn't he?" One of the men grinned. "Yeah," he said. "You got spunk, sister." Ruth felt the tears on her cheeks. She could hardly see where they were taking her. Then she saw Dick and he was holding her close. His voice was low and soothing. "It's going to be all right," he said. "Maybe it is," one of the detectives said. "Where's this guy Hitchcock? The fellow that owned the bracelet?" "He'll be here in a minute," Dick said. "Franklin's bringing him." He had hardly finished speaking when Franklin came through the door with a large, fat man. Ruth looked at him. This was Mr. Hitchcock, this was the man who had started everything. Dick walked over to Hitchcock. He held up a bracelet. "Is this yours?" he said. Hitchcock took the bracelet out of Dick's hand, studied it. "That looks like it," he said. "This one's genuine," Dick said, sternly. "We've just checked it." Everyone began to talk at once. "Wait a minute," Dick said. "This is the original bracelet Mr. Hitchcock Edward Arnold gives his role a punch on Three Thirds of the Nation heard Wednesdays at 10:00 P.M., EWT over the Blue Network. Director Sam Pierce gives the cue from the control room. 82 bought. I had a hunch, so I got a friend of mine on the jewel squad to look around. He found it in a pawn shop." "Wait a minute," one of the detectives said. "So somebody pawned the real bracelet. All right — the girl could have done it." He looked at Dick narrowly. "Or maybe you're the one. When you see your girl is going to get the rap for something you did, you go soft, run and find the bracelet and try to clear her." "That's not true," Ruth cried hotly. Dick smiled at her. "How do you know it isn't?" he said. Ruth's eyes met his. "I just know," she said, simply. "You're wonderful," Dick said, huskily. He pulled another bracelet out of his pocket. "Here's the imitation bracelet," he said. "Take a good look at it, detective." He paused while the detective looked the bracelet over. Dick smiled. "You'll notice the imitation has the initials R.M. on it. The genuine bracelet hasn't. That means that the counterfeit bracelet is the one Mr. Hitchcock himself brought into the shop to be initialed!" He turned to Hitchcock. "Now," he said, "it's your turn to talk." Ruth's eyes turned to Hitchcock. Her heart was pounding. The fat man fidgeted. "Is it a crime to pawn one's own property?" he asked. "Is there any law against having a copy made of a bracelet?" The detectives looked at each other. One of them shook his head. "All right," Hitchcock said, sighing. "I'll explain. I needed some money in a hurry. So I got back the bracelet I'd given my fiancee, Ruth Manson, on the pretext that I was going to have her initials engraved on it. I didn't want her to know 1 was short of money. I had an imitation made. Then I pawned the genuine one and brought the imita^on to Rogers and Caswell to be initialed." He wined perspiration .from his brow "That's all," he said. Dick looked at Mr. Franklin. "I suggest you drop your charges against my fiancee," he smiled, "before she sues you for false arrest." It wasn't until they had walked several blocks from the station that Ruth stopped, suddenly realizing that hours ago, she should have been at work in the factory. "Dick," she said, "I've got to get to work!" "After what you've been through?" he said. "Not on your life!" "But," she cried, "I'll be fired." "No, you won't," he smiled. "I called up this morning and told them you were sick." They walked for a while in silence. Ruth finally looked up at him. "Where are we going?" she asked. He stopped. "That depends," he said. He reached in his pocket and held up something which gleamed in the bright, early morning sunlight. It was a silver bracelet! He said, "It's not a very expensive one. There aren't diamonds on it." He kissed her, still holding the bracelet in his hand. "I can't afford diamonds. But," he said, tenderly, "I'm sure it's for the right Ruth Manson. The sort of girl who won't take it unless she plans on marrying the man right away." Ruth took the bracelet. She looked up at him, tears in her eyes. "After we're married," she said, "can I have my initials on it?" RADIO AND TELEVISION MIRROR