Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-06
RHODA
A Red-Headed Girl
Copyright 1872 North Alliance ana
Metropolitan Newspaper Service.
By Henry Kitchell Webster

take. The project that was on the rails
Of his mind was the one he'd come up
in the elevator with, namely to get out
the window at the end of the corridor
on to the fire escape, and he had fol-
lowed the charwoman to the outer door
which she had just closed. and had
his hand on the knob when the thought
of something else halted him. The
helpful bell boy who had remembered
Rhoda had spoken OF a stairway lead
mig from the ofI1ces up into Forster's
apartment. He turned back at once
and started through the suite Of Offices
looking for It,
He had pictured, naturally enough,
a more or less secret stair that would
be pretty hard to find in the only
slightly modified dark, behind a door in
the paneling-that sort Of thing. So
when he saw it going boldly up from
the second room he entered-evidently
the stenographers' ROOM since there
were four typewriter desks in it, his
first thought was that this was too
easy to be true. 1t wasn't as easy as it
looked, however, for he found at the
head Of 1t q solid mahogany door,
locked. The knob when he tested it
cautiously, didn't give at all. It would
take a competent burglar with q full
set OF tools to get in through that door,
he thought despairingly.
He gained one advantage, though,
from its solidity. There would be no
harm in making a light and having a
look at 1t. He got out his cigarette
lighter and struck q light. There were
two small pieces Of electrical apparatus
| screwed to the wall above the door
One Of them he recognized as an cleo
trio buzzer, and this, as he thought
about it, seemed rather queer. Why
wasn't it the other way round - the
push button on this side and the buzzer
in Forster's apartment? Why should
any one already in the apartment have
to ring door-bell to get into this pub
lie ONCE? The door was locked against
the ONCE and into the apartment. Well,
then, 1t wasn't a door-bell.
OF course, it wasn't. It was q signal,
and since 1t sounded in the Stenogra-
piers room. it seemed q reasonable in
ference that it was ForeSter'S way of
summoning a stenographer. But what
good was it to buzz for her If she
couldn't get through the door2 Was the
door left unlocked during ONCE hours
want to feel better guarded against in
trusion than that.
Martin held up the lighter again In
an attempt to identify the other thing
He had a bunch that it would be worth
looking into. He wasn't much of an
| electrician, but he ought to be equal
to this.
He'd have to have something to stand
on, though. The ledge Of the door was
two feet above his head. The top step
wasn't wide enough to balance q chair
on, but one Of those big steel waste
| paper baskets down in the stenogra-
piers room probably would hold him
up and would just about give him the
added height he needed. He brought
one Of them up. 1t was going to be q
pretty precariouS perch and the easy
possibility of his falling the whole length
Of the flight with the basket on top of
him wasn't pleasant one. Well, there
was no use thinking about things like
| that. He'd got to have a look at the
little sheet-iron box that was screwed
to the wall beside the buzzer.
He got out his penknife and dropped
1t, open, into the side pocket of his
coat. 1t and the cigarette lighter were
all he had by way of tools. Then, put
ting one foot on the rim Of the basket,
he made a sort of spring and clutched
the top Of the door frame. There he
was, and there the basket was. BY un-
expected good luck he'd avoided kicking
it out from under him. He found he
he got out his cigarette lighter, lighted
1t and stood it on the ledge made by
the door frame.
He recognized the little sheet-iron box
now. 1t was transformer, such as he
had when he was a small boy, to run
his electric train with. The 1lO-volt
house current came into one side of it
from a steel cable. A pair Of low volt
age wires went out the other side, con-
Meeting with the buzzer, but also going
down through hole In the door frame
Well, he understood 1t now. The door
was held by an electric catch such
as they use for inner vestibule doors
Of apartment houses. A button, prob
ably on ForesterS desk, sounded the
buzzer and at the same time released
the catch. It meant that the stenoE-
rapher had to get to the door before
Forster took his finger on the button.
But what afforded Martin q broader
grin than this was the thought of
ForSter'S precious security being thus
betrayed by the electrician, who had put
the transformer outside the locked door
instead OF in. All Martin had to do