Speaker 1: The gallows by I W. D. Peters to morrow morning
Speaker 1: at sunrise. I am to hang for the murder of
Speaker 1: a man at sunrise on the ninth of June, the
Speaker 1: anniversary of my wedding day. I am to be hanged
Speaker 1: by the neck until I am dead. I am glad
Speaker 1: this state has not yet adopted the use of electricity
Speaker 1: in executions. I prefer to spend my last moments out
Speaker 1: in the open under the sky. The building of the
Speaker 1: gallows is finished, the workmen are gone, and it seems
Speaker 1: that the execution at sunrise is certain to take place.
Speaker 1: But every step along the corridor sends my heart into
Speaker 1: my mouth. Gladys is working for a reprieve. I am
Speaker 1: praying she will not succeed. The governor is off fishing
Speaker 1: away from railroad and telegraph. If they do not locate
Speaker 1: him in a few hour hours, I shall be hanged.
Speaker 1: God grant they fail to find him. It is Gladys's
Speaker 1: will against mine. She usually wins, but every passing minute
Speaker 1: lessens her chance to have her way in this. It
Speaker 1: is now ten minutes to midnight. Doctor Brander, the prison chaplain,
Speaker 1: has left me gratified, poor fellow, that he has succeeded
Speaker 1: in reconciling me to my fate. If he had known
Speaker 1: that the tall skeleton of wood outside, with its lank
Speaker 1: line of rope, was in my mind a refuge, he
Speaker 1: would have turned from me in horror. The next five
Speaker 1: hours will be the longest of my life. Every step
Speaker 1: in the corridor strikes fear to my heart. It is
Speaker 1: not because I am guilty of the crime for which
Speaker 1: I was sentenced that I am glad to die. I
Speaker 1: am guilty, but that doesn't mean I deserve to die.
Speaker 1: I am going to hang tomorrow at sunrise because I
Speaker 1: want to be hung. I could have saved myself, but
Speaker 1: refused to do so, solely because life had lost its savor.
Speaker 1: A great wave of disgust with living possessed and still
Speaker 1: possesses me. I am writing these words now that Gladys
Speaker 1: may know the truth. She has tried to see me
Speaker 1: ever since I was brought here, and I have refused
Speaker 1: to be seen. That is one right a condemned man
Speaker 1: has to refuse to see visitors. From the day we
Speaker 1: were married, Gladys demanded to know my every thought, my
Speaker 1: every act, every hour of the day. If ever one
Speaker 1: of them was not connected with her. She criticized, condemned,
Speaker 1: or cried. She resented, in bitterly spoken words and equally
Speaker 1: bitter acts, the small recesses of my soul that I,
Speaker 1: for the sake of my own sine self respect, kept
Speaker 1: to myself. Finally, she determined to show me that there
Speaker 1: were other men who appreciated her if I did not.
Speaker 1: For a while after that, all hours of the day
Speaker 1: and night my home was infested with lounge lizards. I
Speaker 1: endured it without a word, which infuriated her. Lester Kane,
Speaker 1: a young fellow, honest and simple, was her first victim.
Speaker 1: The first time I found him seated beside her on
Speaker 1: the dimly lit porch, I welcomed him warmly. We smoked
Speaker 1: and talked of our days in the army together. I
Speaker 1: felt that Gladys could safely flirt with such as Leicester,
Speaker 1: if that was what she wanted. But Lester called only
Speaker 1: a few times after that. For two months there was
Speaker 1: a succession of young fellows about the place. Our house
Speaker 1: is not far from the west More Country Club, and
Speaker 1: the golf links came almost up to our side yard.
Speaker 1: Our porch was a convenient place to drop in. Suddenly,
Speaker 1: all that sort of thing ceased. Gladys was away a
Speaker 1: great deal, but as her mother lived in a town
Speaker 1: just a few miles away, I thought nothing of it.
Speaker 1: She became very quiet, was thoughtful, absent, minded, flushed easily,
Speaker 1: seemed not herself. At first I was a good deal puzzled.
Speaker 1: Then suddenly an explanation for the change in her dawned
Speaker 1: on me. Joy filled my soul. I was inordinately gentle
Speaker 1: with her, bought her a small automobile for her birthday,
Speaker 1: did everything I could think of for her comfort and pleasure.
Speaker 1: After all, I told myself the emotional phase she had
Speaker 1: passed through was natural. Marriage is a more difficult readjustment
Speaker 1: with some than others. It had evidently been so with Gladys.
Speaker 1: If a child came to us, it would make everything right.
Speaker 1: A child, our child, it was wonderful to think of.
Speaker 1: She had always refused to consider the subject, saying that
Speaker 1: she wished to enjoy life while she was young. But
Speaker 1: she knew I wanted a son to bear my name,
Speaker 1: a daughter to inherit her beauty, and she had accepted
Speaker 1: the inevitable. A wave of excitation made me feel as
Speaker 1: if I were treading on cloud I longed to mention
Speaker 1: the subject to her, but I felt that the first
Speaker 1: word about it should come from her. I spent hours
Speaker 1: thinking of tender, loving things to do for her. She
Speaker 1: accepted everything quietly, sometimes with averted face and flushed cheeks.
Speaker 1: I would draw her inert figure into my arms and
Speaker 1: hold her close, but she made no response to my
Speaker 1: demonstrative affection. At this stage, the affairs of my firm
Speaker 1: sent me on a ten day trip to close a
Speaker 1: western deal. It was hard to leave Gladys, but now
Speaker 1: more than ever, I felt that we would need money,
Speaker 1: and lots of it. We arranged for Gladys to go
Speaker 1: to her mother's and I was to join her there
Speaker 1: on my return. It is the same old story. I
Speaker 1: came home before I was expected, and went straight to
Speaker 1: our cottage with the intention of having Gladys's room redecorated
Speaker 1: before bringing her home. At the gate stood Gladys's car.
Speaker 1: I rushed into the house, but there was no one
Speaker 1: on the lower floor, nor in Gladys's room, nor mine.
Speaker 1: I was about to descend the stairs when I heard
Speaker 1: a low laugh from the third floor. I dashed up
Speaker 1: there and stood gazing at the closed door of the
Speaker 1: spare room what's the idea of running away from me,
Speaker 1: asked the man. You can't blow hot and cold with me.
Speaker 1: I told you not to come here again. It's not safe.
Speaker 1: I'm not afraid of that husband of yours. You are mine,
Speaker 1: and you're going to stay mine. I had listened intently
Speaker 1: but could not recognize the man's voice. Go now, pleaded Gladys,
Speaker 1: and I'll come to your rooms this evening. Not on
Speaker 1: your life. I'm here now and I'm going to stay.
Speaker 1: Let go of me. You're hurting my shoulder. There was
Speaker 1: a sound of a scuffle. I tried the door. It
Speaker 1: was locked. I put my shoulder to it. The lock snapped.
Speaker 1: Gladys gave a cry leapt away from the man, A
Speaker 1: man whom I had never seen before, the lipped, black
Speaker 1: browed type, big soft As I took in the scene,
Speaker 1: the tousled woman, the flush faced man, a great wave
Speaker 1: of disgust almost overwhelmed me, well, said the man, sneeringly.
Speaker 1: What are you going to do about it? If you
Speaker 1: take her away now and treat her right, nothing, And
Speaker 1: if I don't take her away, I'll meet that situation
Speaker 1: when it comes. It has come, he said, with a laugh,
Speaker 1: and walked out. I am tall, slender, delicate looking, but
Speaker 1: I knew I was a match for that overfed brute.
Speaker 1: I listened to the clatter of his feet on the stairs.
Speaker 1: Then I followed him. The man was hastening toward a
Speaker 1: street car. I cranked Gladys's car and followed. It was
Speaker 1: easy to keep the street car in sight and to
Speaker 1: keep eye on his sleek black head. He left the
Speaker 1: car at Hanson Street. I, without a glance toward him,
Speaker 1: kept on a head. I turned at the corner in
Speaker 1: time to see him enter an office building. I was
Speaker 1: not far behind him when he took the elevator. The
Speaker 1: man in the elevator gave me the number of his office.
Speaker 1: He was telling a joke to his typist as I entered,
Speaker 1: but his laughter died when he saw me, You dirty thief.
Speaker 1: You'll never cheat another man out of money. His look
Speaker 1: of astonishment as I shouted these words was amusing. He
Speaker 1: tried to give blow for blow, but I meant what
Speaker 1: I said when I shouted at him, I've come here
Speaker 1: to kill you. To choke the life out of an
Speaker 1: over fed beast is not so hard to an infuriated man.
Speaker 1: In less than a quarter of an hour he was dead.
Speaker 1: The police, for whom the Typist had called, filled the
Speaker 1: room even before I had straightened out my disheveled clothing.
Speaker 1: I practically tried my own case, and I was skillful
Speaker 1: enough to make every word apparently uttered in my own defense,
Speaker 1: sound black against me. Gladys tried to save me by
Speaker 1: telling the true story of the affair, but I made
Speaker 1: a picture of her as a devoted, self sacrificing wife,
Speaker 1: willing to ruin even her spotless name to save her husband.
Speaker 1: I enjoyed seeing her cringe as I did this. So
Speaker 1: skillfully had she and the big brute managed that there
Speaker 1: was not a bit of evidence to substantiate her story.
Speaker 1: On the other hand, there was a typist story to
Speaker 1: help me, and too, it was known that I had
Speaker 1: speculated in the past, and that I had lost some money.
Speaker 1: I made the most of every everything against me, and
Speaker 1: it was enough, And it was enough. I was sentenced
Speaker 1: to hang on the ninth day of June at sunrise.
Speaker 1: Gladys came to the jail to see me while the
Speaker 1: trial was going on. But I managed to act just
Speaker 1: as if my story were the true one and hers not.
Speaker 1: And though she pleaded with me to let the truth
Speaker 1: come out. I would not admit that the truth had
Speaker 1: not come out. The sentence was a terrible shock to her.
Speaker 1: Her mother carried her from the courtroom in a faint
Speaker 1: before she recovered I was in prison. I shall welcome
Speaker 1: the hour of sunrise, as I have never welcomed any
Speaker 1: moment in my life. Not until then will the fear
Speaker 1: of a reprieve leave me. Gladys is moving heaven and
Speaker 1: earth to locate the governor. God grant that she does
Speaker 1: not succeed. It is four forty five. I have spent
Speaker 1: much of the night of the window gazing out into
Speaker 1: the darkness. What comes after death? That is the question
Speaker 1: I suppose all men ask at the end of life.
Speaker 1: I have never done so. It is a feudal question,
Speaker 1: one which none of us can answer. But I believe
Speaker 1: there will be a circes from the nausea that comes
Speaker 1: to those who have known disillusion and disappointment. Ten minutes
Speaker 1: to five, Now, surely I am safe from the chance
Speaker 1: of a reprieve. Footsteps in the corridor. Is it my
Speaker 1: escort to the gallows? Or what I fear most on earth?
Speaker 1: A statement from the warden of Larson penitentiary. If Taylor
Speaker 1: had spent the brief period always allotted to a criminal
Speaker 1: for a few last words, his reprieve would have reached
Speaker 1: us in time to stay the execution. But he walked calmly,
Speaker 1: unfalteringly up to the gallows and helped us, with steady
Speaker 1: hands adjust the cap and ropes, and he was dead
Speaker 1: two minutes before the governor's message reached us. The end
Speaker 1: of the gallows