New Britain herald., 1929-10-05
A Proposal Accepted

Chapter 6 A Proposal Accepted
 Henderson was elated at Bar. i bara's agreement to attend his l house. party and ordered another ! bottle of champagne on the strength of it. In his growing ex- | hilaration he failed to notice th3 mysterious manner in which Bar bara was emptying her champagne glass-without drinking it's con 1 tents.
 Midnight found them still in the smoking room surrounded by hi, larious group of girls and men. Barbara was talking loudly, slur ring one word into another.
 Tired of sitting here. Want to dance. C'mon and dance, Hendy'
 Don't be silly, Barbara, We cant | dance here. There's no music" Want to dance anyhow" sh" retorted. "Be a sport, Hendy, dance with Barbara" But, drunk as he was, Henderson was too typcally British to relish making himself laughing stock in public, However, she appeared ebdurate, and presently with the cry Of, If you won't dance with me, then I'll dance by 1sysclf" she sprang up onto one of the neighbor- ing tables.
 Immediately all eyes were fo- cused upon her and someone shouted, Give us a dance"
 Just for one moment she ap- peared to hesitate. Then. her chin stuck out and her eyes hard with determination, she commenced a furious stage dance. Her 1.-the body moved gracefully. her feet hardly seemed to hit the table and when she paused for breath the whole room broke into spontane- ous applause.
 Ten minutes later Len dickson rushed into the cabin where Ray was sitting on his bunk getting ready for bed
 Say, Ray he shouted excited ly, what do you thing that Ian don girl is doing now? She's up in the smoke room doing q dance on one of the tables. Shes sent down to offer us loo bucks each if we'll go up and give her tune"
 Ray stared at him for a moment internationally then. as he sprang to his feet, his hand shot out and he gaspcd the banjoist's shoulder,
 "What are you saying" he de- mandcd hoarsely. DO you mean to tell me that Barbara-Miss Lan- don is up there dancing before those drunken sots? You must be mad :"
 I'm not. Pick up your sax, boy. The fellow who gave me the dope said for us to hurry"
 But Ray did not need to be told to do that! Already he had pushed Len aside and had bounded out of the cabin.
 In no time he was In the smoke room and, as he cIbowed his way roughly through the crowd that surrounded the table on which Bar bara was standing, there was look in his eyes that spoke mur- der to anyone who dared inter- fere with him.
 Seeing him coming Barbara ex- claimed laughingly. although there was a note of nervous hysteria in her laughter.
 lrD l, the words were scarcely out of her mouth when she felt herself seized off the table and forcibly carried out of the room.
 Henderson, without losing any time, followed them out into the corridor. where momentariy Ray had put Barbara to her feet.
 ''I say, what do you mean" he began, but Ray broke in upon him. his face ugly as he brought his down close to that of the Brit isher.
 Clear out of this unless you want me to take you outside and pitch you overboard!"
 Once again he caught Barbara in his arms and did not drop her again until they were outside her stateroom door.
 Co into your cabin at once" he told her, his face white with fury. and don't leave it again until to- morrow morning."
 She threw Ip her head and said thickly:
 "l shall do as l like. I'm going back into the smoke room."
 Not until you're sober And that won't be for a good many hours to come"
 He opened the door and tried 10 force her through it-then, as she continued to struggle, he picked her up and unceremoniously car ried her inside.
 "Ill see that you stay here if have to stand guard all night out side that door," he told her with a cold, helpless rage