New Britain Herald Newspaper, June 9, 1922, Page 14

e g ———— reless = & of By ARTHUR B. REEVE 1022 (Continued From Our Last Issue) CHAPTER V MUSIC IN THE AIR Garrick and Dick walked slowly down Forty-Ninth street and across Sixth Avenue, laughing at Ruth’s ruse —and a bit sore. “Y suppose you feel put out!* pun- med Garrick Garrick was too puzzled to get it *ghe certainly put us through the Inner Circle with as much neatness and dispatch as a sardine goes from the rivar to the tin in the movies ® ¢ & Only, T wonder why?" Garrick was thinking of the threat message. “‘Could it be that she took that way of keeping us out of dan- ger?” He stopped short and Jooked back A tough stranger was lurking back of them. Garrick moved ahead and stopped again. The stranger stopped and slouched into a garage. walked back quickly and as he passed him looked over and smiled. “I'm on,” he laughed and the man dropped his eye in sheepish sullen- ness. They turned the corner and again into Fortieth street. As théy passed the other door of the garage which rap through the block Garrick hesi- tated as if to walk through it and locate the ghadower. As he did so he saw another man slink into a doorway. “We've discovered one; another has moved up to take his place. An ©ld and very effective device.” He hurled down the street with Dick, plunged into the subway, wait- ed for a train, then walked on out the other exit. No “tail” could hold down Garrick if he suspected he was being shadowed. What did it mean? Still speculat- ing, they went on to Garrick's ecity apartment at Bachelor's Hall and turned in. The next morning damp and depressing. Garrick and Diek had breakfasted yand were dis- cussing the events of the day before., Garrick's mind was most active when his physical being seemed laziest. Stretching out in his chair, raising his arms slowly about his head, he yawned and was about to deliver himself of some sage observa- tion on life in general and the case in particular when the telephone rang. “Hang it, what's this? Answer it, Dick, old man?" Dick's mind and body were both alert He had breakfastéd with a eouple of invisible companions, love and anxiety. “Garrick.” He held his hand now over the transmitter. “My word! It's Mrs. Walden.” “Nita Walden? Here? Tell her theres’ a little reception room down there. We'll be with her right away.” Nita Walden was distractedly wink- ing quick and balling the handker- chief in her hand as she gazed out of the window at the rear in which Me- Kay was biting with bulldog grip at his pipe as if contemplating some- thing distasteful. Garrick closed the door as she rush- ed excitedly to him and seized his hand with fingers that clinched un- consciously. “Guy * * * I am desperate. It's Ruth again—my little girl. You must find her for me. I can't take any- one into my confidence except you— and Diek. I don’t know which way to turn. She didn’t come home last night. I have walked and walked the floor walting for her. I haven't even had a telephone call from her or anyone else ‘What shall I do? She never, never did this before. My Ruthie—my littie girl Oh, Guy, I can’t stand the worry and uncertainty of it. Help me, please.” Garrick took Nita's arms and led her quietly back to a big seat in one end of the room. Gently he ques- tioned her until he had her quieted by concentrating on her answers. There was a knock at the door. Garrick opened it. Tt was McKay. “Please, sir, 1 was just talking to a friend of mine, a chauffeur, who drives for some people out on the south shore, who lived up the street. Miss Ruth's car was wrecked out on tke Island—ran into a fence or some- thing on an approach to one of the E——————— Specialfor Saturday was rainy, Legs of Genuine Spring Lamb ...... Lb. 40c Short Steak Roast—c_); Beef ....... Lh. 40c Premium Fowls. Lb. 45¢ Veal Roast ... Lb. 35¢ Jones Quality — Market — 10 Myrtle St. Free Delivery-Tel 285 PALACE Starting Sunday Vera Gordon in “Your Best Friend” Garrick | NEA Service, Ine. bridges on the Motor Parkway-—over the embankment-—near Smithtown ' ‘Was she hurt? Where {5 she?" Walden's acute ears had caught o one knows, ma'am, There was not a tfrace of anyone around the car-—just the machine, left there.' “'Oh, Guy, this is terrible, terrible, What shall T do? TI'll go wild with |fear if 1 don't hear something soon ' What had happened? Garrick tried to be reassuring, but Nita Walden | would not be reassured “This i8 another mad escapade of Ruth * * * and Vira, I suppose * * * |and who else? What can Ruth be thinking about?" Garrick took down the telephone receiver and called a Bryant num- iber, Dick glanced over quickly. It was a number he had seen in the hallway of the Inner Circle and had made a mental note of. Evidently | Garrick had done the same, “This s Glenn Buckley's brother,” {he prevaricated. "Is he there? Well. do you know where I can call him? You think he's at the Cecil? Thank you.” Garrick turned, without beétraying where it was he had called. “They're some friends of his. I thought per- haps Glenn might give us some in- formation. Suppose, Nita, you have McKay drive us over to the Cecil. It's on Park Avenue, They were rounding the Grand Cen- tral and caught in traffic when Gar- rick suddénly beckoned over a news- boy and bought a couple of evening papers. “Another robbery on Long Island,” he commented, as he glanced down M THEY SELECTED A TABLE IN AN ANGULAR CORNER. from the big headline. “The Parr estate in Smithtown.” “The Parrs? commented Mrs. Walden. “Why, they're friends of mine. They have a beautiful place, very wealthy people. “Strange circumstances,” went on reading Garrick. “A girl and two men.” Then he checked himself. “Why that's like the affair over at Gerard’'s the other night,” supplied Mrs. Walden. It was easy to see what was run- ning through her mind, the simi- larity of the affairs, the coincidence of Ruth's car on the Park near Smithtown, and her intimacy with the family. She did not say anything but ran through the short news story feverishly without finding anything further to feed her fears. But it was evident that she suspected the worst. Had Ruth been mixed up in it? They found Glenn at the Cecil looking a bit fagged. “Ruth, why, she's all right, Mrs. Walden,” he hastened. “Yes, I heard something about an accident. Just the steering gear went wrong. But she was quick enough to get from un- der and the car took the fence in- stead of up the bridge and off—at least that's what I heard.” They harried young Buckley with questions, bznt he was guarded. He protested that he know nothing more, winding up again with the assurance, “She's all right, though.” “But how do you know she's all right?" insisted Garrick. “Be cause I was talking to Vira over the wire when I made the ap- pointment to meet her at the tea rooms of the Champs Elysees at three and she said she was. eiat‘s all T know." It seemed as thongh having de- Hvered his assurance that Ruth was safe, Glenn was doing some rapid thinking on his own account. How had they located him here at the Cecil? It was true that his family lived here in the winter, but the more he revolved it in his mind, the more suspicious of Garrick he be- came and he began to shut up for fear of dropping another inadvertent remark like that about the Champs Elysees “Now, Nita," insisted Garrick as ~oStart the Day ngh T with Putnam Coffee —sqres o= the day <o they returned to her car, ‘don't let go yourself, Just trust me. I believe that boy, even if he was tight- mouthed. I can handle this thing. Don't worry. Just keep busy. See, the sun is out, now. Give her a sur- prise. Take McKay; go out there; get her car towed somewhere before she does. I'll get her, safe.” Nita Walden was nearly hysterical, but the pressure of Garrick's hand and his almost hypnotic eyes won her, Glenn had not been such a bad guesser, It was nearly three when Garrick and Dick sauntered into the lobby of the Champs Elysees, looked about cautiously, and procéeded to get under cover. Before the tea room on the mez- zanine floor hung a sign: ‘“Radio Concerts Daily.” They nosed in, saw that the coast was clear, and ‘selected a table in an angular corner, with a mirror so placed that it was a verita- ble periscope. An orchestra in Newark was broadcasting some selection as they sat down at the table and ordered tea and crumpets. It was not more than sixty sec- onds after three that they saw (ilenn come in, looking pale and tired, se- lect a table at the other end of the room and drop into a chair facing the entrance. Ten minutes later Vira bustled in, exicted and angry about something —and worried Glenn rose and greet- ed her, all animation, now that a girl was in question. Few things are more fascinating than listening to a radio phone con- cert. Someone turns the tuning handle of the receiving set. Short and long buzzes following each other in a lazy sort of way indicate some ama- teur telegrapher at work. The tuning handle is turned a little more and a peculiar moaning sound is heard. Turned still more the sound becomes a weak voice or music. A }final turning qf the handle brings in the radiophone loud and clear. The tuning is exceedingly sharp. It is fascinating ordinarily, but thers were four people at opposite ends of the room for whom this con- cert had no interest. Garrick and Dick, watching and wondering what to do, had fallen into a discussion of Ruth and Vira and Garrick was taking a cruel delight in sounding Dick To his serious mind, Dick con- fessed, it was just this vivacious type of Ruth that had for him the greatest attraction. As he put it, an intellectual girl would have been merely intensifying his own nature, Garrick was urging him on and de- livering a little scientific homily on wise old nature that brought to- gether the dissimilar and averaged them. There was no approval of the but- terfly and the candle in Dick, how- ever, and they were soon into a dis- cussion of Rae and the evident dissipation she showed. “One does not readily think of girls sowing wild oats,” remarked Garrick. “Yet they often do. This is one of the strange anomalies of the new freedom of women.' Dick frowned as he thought of the Miamor of the life they had seen at the Inner Circle. What the end of at all might be, he evidently pre- ferred not to guess. At least he did not pursue the subject. “Do you know, I've been worry- ing a good deal about the handwrit- ing on that autographed film, Gar- Universal MOUNTABLE VENTILATOR Will keep your feet cool while driving your car these hot days. .Invented and made in New Britain. It will put the breeze where you need it in your car. Price $3.00. You can install it yourself. The Higbee-Orne Co. Professional Building. _ AR How much do you pay for your lunch? Reckoned in terms of clogged brain and mind dulled by wrong food No,”we don’t mean the actual amount of the _- It may seem at first like Spartan fare, but after a few trials the delicious completeness of its bill, but the price you pay in slowed-up effort and mental ineffectiveness for full two hours " after eating. If the sum could be reckoned for any big busi- ness at the end of a year it would make a deadly total. Try this health-and-beauty rule instead. Pass up the rich meats, sauces and sweets on your luncheon bill-of-fare, making your meal on_a simple bowl of Bread-and-Milk. bread -and -milk rick changed the subject’ as he brought out duplicate prints he had made. “Whose .is it? Do you hap- pen to have any note or letter fro Ruth?” Dick could not blank inquiry. He pulled a little note from his pocket. Inside the envelope was a dainty handkerchief. Garrick loaked up with a question- ing smile. Dick flushed. “A note from Ruth several weeks ago * * *" Then he stopped. He did not need to explain the dainty little bit of lace. Garrick took the note and laid it down on the table beside the print. Then with a pencil he began not- ing in formation of letters, the capi- tals, a score of little characteristics. “The writing is Ruth's, all right,” he remarked, passing both over to Dick and at arm's length in silence pointing from one to the other with avoid the pei at every meal the pencil. £ “I think I'm getting a Iline on Ruth,” he said in a tone to reassure Dick. “She's a game bird—but she flies funny.” There was a pause. The concert number was now a solo, ‘Love's. Old Sweet. Song.” - Neither said a word. Dick was mechaniecally folding up the letter, re- storing the handkerchief in the enve- lope, and handing back the print to Guy. They sat for a moment as .the words, -clear, tender, distinct, trans- ferred Hertzian waves into waves of emotion: £ Suddenly ah-h-h Blzz-22-22-72 Buzz-22-22-22. A shade of annoyance passed over Dick’s face as if a thread of feeling had been broken. Bzzzz2222— * dot-dash-dot-dot-dash. _goodness will dawn upon you, and you will ‘find . real delight 1 in ) the wholesome, honest favor of this food that can do so much for you. One meal a day of Bread-and-Milk will make you well and keep you well. Bread-and-Milk together'fo;m the perfect, bal- anced food, containing every element needed by the body for growth, fuel and protection from disease. s Dick scowled. Garrick tapped the table absent-mindedly with his fin- ger. Then suddenly each looked up and caught the eyes of the other. “Paging Miss Ruth Walden from the Sea Vamp. Meet me in the Pink Room tonight, Jack.” 3 The dots and dashes ceased. Bzzzzz Buzz-zz-zz. Then the solo started again. Garrick looked into the mirror which gave him a reflection of Glenn and Vira. They had got it, too. The dots and dashes had meant only in- terruption to most in two people they were a message. To two others they were a mystery. A few moments later, Glenn paid the check and the two rose to go. Garrick hasitly did the same. “They will tell Ruth,” he nodded to Dick as they went out. “She'll be the room. To| there.” In the press in the lobby they man- aged to get just back of the now earnesly conversing couple. - “Well, if Jack's here *'* * then Rae is, too.” Glenn looked more troubled. Garrick drew Dick over toward the news stand just in time to pre- vent their being seen following. “Bo Jack Curtis has come in again,” ground out Dick. “We've just simply got to hear what is said in that Pink Room to- night,” considered Garrick, with a glance at Dick as much as to ask, "‘Are you game?" Dick's face lighted up as if a sun ray arc had been switched on. “My wireless dictagraph!” he ex. claimed. (Continued in Our Next Issue) P GRADUATION WRAPS AND CAPES FOR THE GIRL STUDEN'S LONG AND SHORT PANTS SUITS FOR THE SCHOOL BOY AND GRADUATE ASH IF YOU HAVE IT REDIT IF YOU WANT IT. OF LADIES' COATS SUITS IN ALL SIZES AND WRAPS PAY WEEKL AND MATERIALS BOSTON CLOTHING STORE 63 CHURCH STREET (Next To Herald Office) SPECIAL ASSORTMENT MEN’S AND YOUNG MEN’S - BY CLIFF STERRETT \