Page:Czecho-Slovak Student Life, Volume 18.djvu/84

ing thing and the big man settled himself behind the wheel.

Then, before the chase had at all started, the thing happened. There was the squeak of skidding wheels, then a sickening crash and a sudden silence. The roadster lay over-turned against the bank on the side of the road, its wheels spinning silently, a slight steam rising from the engine, from which the hood had been torn, as the rain pelted on it.

All this the occupants of the big auto noted before their own car had stopped. The next moment the detective was standing over the wreckage and fishing from under it a very sick and sorry-looking Durand.

But Jim was no longer watching him. He had spied on the road another form and for a moment his heart stood still. It was the form of Janey!

So great was Jim’s surprise that for a moment he could only stand and repeat to himself, “Janey! Janey!” Then he realized that there was a cut on her forehead, that her face was pale and that she lay very, very still. In the glare of the head-lamps she looked, indeed, ghastly, and some thing welled up in Jim’s throat, choking him, and his eyes stung and burned.

He rushed to where she lay and picked her up, gathering her to him with a tenderness as great as it was sudden. Unsteadily, dazedly, he carried her to the car and laid her on the seat, mumbling “Janey, Janey”, over and over again.

The detective, who by this time had handcuffed his prisoner, left him standing unsteadily and cursing at the rain, and hurried to Jim’s side. He gave one look at Janey and saw, because she was only another girl to him, that her hurt was slight and that it was more the shock that had caused her to faint. He hurriedly began unbuttoning her coat, assuring Jim the while that it was “nothing”.

But Jim turned so hopeless a gaze on him that the older man understood what Janey meant to him. Also, his heart suddenly went out to the younger man, for he had seen in his gaze that the few past moments had sufficed to kill the boy in him, that even now, whatever was boyish in Jimmy Hanus was dying and that the pain was more than he could bear. Therefore, the big man redoubled his efforts to reassure his companion, but Jim could not believe that Janey was not seriously hurt and blamed himself for it. Which was what was left of the boy in him.

At last, however, the skill of the detective brought results and Janey’s eyes fluttered open. She looked at Jim a moment without recognizing him. Then as recognition and remembrance of what had pased came to her, she clung startedly to his hand and whispered weakly, “Jim Jim— — —”, as if she were still afraid.

Jim, now that he saw his fears had been in vain, experienced a reaction as sudden as the shock had been. But is was not elation that he felt. Rather it was a wave of tenderness which was so great