The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1931-05-22

cally dangerOuS-lf he couldn't even
walk without the aid of two canes.
And If he was the man who had
brought her and Babe downtown this
morning, as she didn't doubt he was,
he now knew where she worked If not
where she lived; and this meant she
couldn't avoid him unless she moved
out of the studio and got new job
If she was going to see him, what bet
ter strategic opportunity could she
have for the visit than while Claire
was there quarreling with him?
She started across the lobby toward
the desk to ask if Mr.. G. ]. Forster
lived there. She needn't actually go
up to Mr.. Forster's apartment unless
she wanted to. An inquiry at the desk
wouldn't commit her to anything.
But, in the strangest way, 1t did.
The clerk didn't directly answer her
question, whether Mr.. G. J. Forster
lived there or not. He asked for her
name instead. But the moment she
gave it (as Rhoda White) his manner
became alert and deferential.
"Oh, yes, Miss White" he said, and
nodded to bell-boy.
His manner so strangely suggested
that he knew all about her and had
been eagerly awaiting her arrival, both
manifest impossibilities, that she
felt like backing away and saying it
was all a mistake. She was family
amused and family frightened, but
more than either she was curious to
follow the adventure through and see
what happened. The clerk had prob
ably mixed her up with some one else
Anyhow, Mr.. Forster must be pretty
important person in this hotel to evoke
zeal like that, even though it was
mistaken.
The bell-boy, on getting instructions,
conducted her over to the elevators.
fright up" he said to the elevator
boy, call the way" The bell-boy fol-
lowed her in and the car ran all the
way to the twenty-fourth floor, re
CARELESS of signals.
In the mixture of Rhoda's emotions
the element of fear gained little at
the expense Of amusement She be-
gan to feel that she'd started some
thing she might not be able to stop.
The twenty-fourth floor appeared to
be the topmost. There were red
Down" lights only over all the eleva-
tor doors. 1t didn't appear to be a
regular hotel floor either, at least not
the whole of it, for the broad corri-
dor was cut off by transverse par
tition of oak and ground glass, as in
an office building. The bell-boy went
over and pressed the bell button beside
solid door which had no legend nor
numerals whatever upon it's panel.
There was no immediate response.
"Where are you taking me?" Rhoda
asked, trying to hide her nervousness,
He seemed surprised at the ques-
ton. "Mr. Forster doesn't come down
to his office much,' he said. He's got
regular house up on the roof of the
hotel. This little private elevator
takes you up to it. It'll be down in a
minute"
Heavens !" Rhoda exclaimed. Does
he own the hOtel?"
"And how" said the boy.
The door opened upon a small pri-
vate elevator with big man in it. He
was dressed not in the hotel livery but
in a blue serge suit with a double
breasted coat. Rhoda stared. Where
had she seen him before?
Miss White,'' the bell-boy said.
tits all right" miss, the man said,
for she'd involuntarily backed away at
the sight of him. "Mr. Forster's ex-
pecting you.'
Reluctantly, beginning now to
tremble little, she stepped into the
elevator, denouncing to herself as rhe
did so the impulse to eXclaim that it
was all mistake, and to run. There
wasn't anywhere to run to, for one
thing. But she might have tried it
anyhow if she'd remembered two sec
onds sooner who the man in blue serge
was. He was the man who'd come to
their studio last night pretending to
be name-taker for the new city di-
rectory.
His manner remained perfectly civil
ushered her across a broad hall into
a room, where he asked her if she
would mind waiting a few minutes.
Mr.. Forster, she said, would see her
directly. If the jaws of some tran
were closing upon her she wasn't
meant to be aware of them yet.
He closed after him as he went out
the door they had come in by and she
noted in her first panicky glance about
the room that its other doors were
closed also. There was complete
silence.
She checked her impulse to flight
with the reflection that it wouldn't do
any good. If they wanted her they
had her. How had it happened? How
could they have known she'd come
here when she had only turned into
the hotel on the spur of the moment,
in pursuit of Claire. She'd never even
heard of c. ]. Forster until Martin
had told her about him last night. Her
notion that the hotel clerk and all the
! rest of them had mistaken her for
some one else would no longer serve
as an explanation. The man in the
blue serge suit must have recognized
her, though his stiff face had not be-
trayed the fact. 1t had been as Mr..
Forsters agent that he had come to
the studio last night to see whether
she lived there. 1t had been on the
strength of his report that Mr.. Forster
himself in his limousine had followed