ty
remained hidden in the willows. Then Giova started out with Beppo in
search of garbage cans, Bridge bent his steps toward a small store upon
the outskirts of town where food could be purchased, The Oskaloosa Kid
having donated a ten dollar bill for the stocking of the commissariat,
and the youth and the girl made their way around the south end of the
town toward the meeting place beside the old mill.

As Bridge moved through the quiet road at the outskirts of the little
town he let his mind revert to the events of the past twenty four hours
and as he pondered each happening since he met the youth in the dark of
the storm the preceding night he asked himself why he had cast his
lot with these strangers. In his years of vagabondage Bridge had never
crossed that invisible line which separates honest men from thieves and
murderers and which, once crossed, may never be recrossed. Chance and
necessity had thrown him often among such men and women; but never had
he been of them. The police of more than one city knew Bridge--they knew
him, though, as a character and not as a criminal. A dozen times he had
been arraigned upon suspicion; but as many times had he been released
with a clean bill of morals until of late Bridge had become almost
immune from arrest. The police who knew him knew that he was straight
and they knew, too, that he would give no information against another
man. For this they admired him as did the majority of the criminals with
whom he had come in contact during his rovings.

The present crisis, however, appeared most unpromising to Bridge. Grave
crimes had been committed in Oakdale, and here was Bridge conniving
in the escape of at least two people who might readily be under police
suspicion. It was difficult for the man to bring himself to believe that
either the youth or the girl was in any way actually responsible for
either of the murders; yet it appeared that the latter had been present
when a murder was committed and now by attempting to elude the police
had become an accessory after the fact, since she possessed knowledge
of the identity of the actual murderer; while the boy, by his own
admission, had committed a burglary.

Bridge shook his head wearily. Was he not himself an accessory after the
fact in the matter of two crimes at least? These new friends, it seemed,
were about to topple him into the abyss which he had studiously avoided
for so long a time. But why should he permit it? What wer