Leper Seized

A month ago John Early, leper, escaped from the Government lep-rosaria at Carville, La. When he reached his home in the North Carolina mountains, his mother, gay at her son's return, refused to tell Federal officers his whereabouts (TIME, Aug. 22). Matt Early, the leper's brother, found a hiding-place in the hills; there, for over three weeks John Early remained, his hideous, white, terrified face peering through the brambles for men he knew would come. In his hands he held a rifle.

Last week the men came. John Early scrambled down to the bottom of a little ravine, snarling and mumbling as voices and footfalls came closer. Finally, surrounded by defeat, he gave a cry. Cursing and weeping, he threw down his gun. Officers talked in soothing tones, and then, because he refused to walk, dragged John Early to a car in which he must begin the journey back to a hated house, full of despairing creatures, a sad asylum.