Crooks Go Straight

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THE Eastern Limited was driving through the night. To scattered passengers, seated in the lounge of the observation car, the whistle of the locomotive came as a distant blare from far ahead. The train, though long and heavy, was maintaining its fast schedule.

Two men were chatting over newspapers. Strangers who had met aboard the train, they were discussing subjects of common interest. One news story seemed to have impressed them both.

“Well,” one passenger was saying, “I can’t criticize the governor of this state for pardoning those two convicts. He must have studied their cases mighty closely.”

“Both men were lifers,” objected the second passenger. “It seems a bit radical to put them back into circulation. They were chronic offenders—”

“Wait a moment,” put in the first man. He tapped the newspaper. “The facts are right here. These chaps only went up for short terms to begin with. Steve Zurk was in for a bank robbery” — the speaker paused and referred to a column — “and Jack Targon was a swindler.”

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