The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1931-02-20

him and paused for survey Of the
premises from the outside. 1t was a
remodeled dwelling with converted
basement which was now an antique
shop, and first floor, guessing from
the sign painted on the glass, that
housed a dressmaking establishment.
1t served some commercial purpose
during the day, anyhow, but 1t was
now dark. 1t must be rather lonely
place at night, he thought.
Something had happened in the stu
dio; at least something had happened to
one Of it's tenants since he'd seen them
that morning. He sensed 1t the mo-
ment they let him in, and he grew
surer he was right as time went on.
There was no lack Of cordially about
their welcome. They were trying hard,
he saw, to keep up the festive spirit
of a party. They'd got up really
good supper-creamed sweetbreads
with fried bacon was the foundation
Of It.. The studio was an attractive
place to live in, once you'd got inside
the door, and it was plain the girls
were proud Of it. But tonight some
thing had gone wrong. 1t might, Of
course, be nothing more Ian some
small domestic quarrel that had flared
up between them, but 1t didn't seem
like that.
All that Rhoda betrayed was lack
of the buoyancy he'd felt in her last
night and again during their brief en-.
counter this morning. He noted that
when he and Babe were keeping things
up between them and she went, so to
speak, off duty, 'she seemed to be
listless and depressed AS for Babe,
she seemed to be bursting with some
thing. She was excited and she was
trying to be mysterious.
Martin found himself getting rather
imaginative One minor episode while
they were at supper made him wonder
whether he was imagining the whole
thing:
The bell rang from downstairs and
the rather nondescript visitor whom
Babe admitted announced himself as
name-taker for the new city directory.
He wanted to get the names and occu-
pations of everybody who lived in the
apartment. Babe recited them while
he wrote them down in little leather
bound notebook. He had to have
Rhoda's name spelled for him.
There was no real reason for doubt
ing that he was what he pretended
to be, yet Martin did doubt the man
almost to the point of asking him to
show his credentials Also he thought
the man turned a rather penetrating
look on him. But he didn't want to do
something officiOus every time he was
with Rhoda, nor to do anything to-
night that would add to her disquiet.
1t was probably nothing but imagi-
nation.
It wasn't, though, imagination that
something had happened to upset the
girls. Babe eventually gave that
away completely. 1t TRANSFERRED that
she had fairly heavy date at nine
o'clock and she seemed worried over
the idea of leaving Rhoda in order to
keep it. She even offered, in what she
meant for a confidential aside, to
break this date so that Rhoda, if Mar
tin went home early, should not be
alone In the studio.
Rhoda vetoed the proposal with a
vigorous shake of her red head and
the cloud over Martins spirits lifted
as he realized that she meant to let
him stay on and havea visit alone with
her after Babe had gone.
The last thing Babe did before, in
full panoply, she left the studio was
to go to Rhoda and hug her. Don't
you worry any more about 1t, pre-
cious," she said. Something nice is
going to happen soon thatll make you
forget all about 1t. I've got a bunch
about that that's strong enough to bet
money on"
Martin bit down the question he
wanted to ask the moment Babe had
really gone and said something nice
about her instead: what a good loyal
sort she was.
ooh, she isw Rhoda assented with
shaky laugh. "But she's about as easy
to see into as goldfish bowl. She
promised she wouldn't let you suspect
that anything had happened here, and
she's gone off now without the faintest
idea that she's given anything away"
Before Martin could think of anything
appropriate to say to that, she went
on, "I'll tell you what it was: there
was a burglar here this afternoon"
"Did he get away with anything
important?"
His choice Of that word seemed to
strike her but she didn't comment
upon It then. 'He got three hundred
dollars of mine," she said. She went
on in response to Martins start of as
constituent, "Pm ashamed to admit I
was SO silly as to keep lot of money
like that in cash in my room. I'd had
1t a long time and thought it was
safely hidden"
Martin asked If they had any idea
when 1t had happened or how the man
had got in.
at would be an awfully easy place
to get into any time during the day."