Evening star., 1941-08-21
CHAPTER 25.
Wedding Bells.

Before the brakes had beer
jammed on, jeff was out of the
taxi. Clint Bowers was close be-
hind him. The elevator door slid
open as I reached 1t. JEFF held the
key in his hand while we were
taken up. A bell rang on the third
floor.
"Don't STOP" JEFF said. Go on
up"
The boy looked at him and
opened his mouth, But the eleva-
tor went on past the third floor
At the sixth looked with a prayer
for Crowley's bulky figure. The hall
was empty.
My heart dropped with a dull,
sick thump. We went down the
passage and jeff slid the key into
the door and opened it.
Steve Brown was there, standing
m the middle of my living room.
Close to him was Carol. Her arms
were clasped around his neck and
Steve's head was bent over hers
and he was kissing her.
I leaned back against the wall
and snorted. My knees were wob-
bling and I was out of breath so
the snort was feeble one, but they
heard it. Steve raised his head,
startled, and then a sheepish grin
crawled over his face when he
saw u.s.
Carol flushed and made an effort
to pull away but he held her firmly
to him with one arm around her
shoulders. Putting his hand under
her chin he tilted her face up to his.
1.-THE jig is up Carol" He turned
TO- us. Are you following me by
any chance?"
by any chance!" hooted. "We
followed you here hellbent to keep
you from numbering Carroll"
lie stared at US incredulously.
~From numbering Carroll" he re-
peated, pulling her closer to him.
I'm not going to murder Carol.
I'm going to marry her"
"We're-were going to be mar
RED" Carol echoed in a small
voice.
You're going to be married."
Ny echo was even smaller.
Carol Knew.
IT certainly hope so,' jeff said
primly. He Topped into chair and
expelled all the breath he had been
holding for the past 10 minutes in
q gigantic sigh of relief. I still
couldn't manage to get as far as
chair.
Congratulations, I'm glad" Clint
said, his face ightened in a smile.
BE happy, children" jeff said,
sand have children, but please
bring them up to take better care of
their keys"
Steve frowned before his face
broke into an embarrassed grin.
"Oh. Carols key. I thought might
have lost it at Clint's."
"You did. And I found it. And
we've been chasing you with long
rope to put around your neck"
Il just heard about it from Carol.
How Jinx came up with his tale of
q man at the door. She should've
told you it was I. II you'd asked me,
I would have"
You mean Carol knew all the
time?" I managed to gasp.
"Sure she knew She gave me
the key Sunday night. incidentally.
I did just what you figured I had
done, jeff, walked up the stairs, let
myself in and waited by the win
dow. watching for Carol to come.
And when I saw that Haila was
with her, that she hadn't gone to
that party after all, I scrammed.
But you were awful wrong on one
point. I didn't come to kill Carol.
came to praise her and, incidental
ly, whip up some Texas hash"
Texas Hash.
"Texas hash" I repeated, some
what Historically. There was
pause while Jeff and Clint and I all
looked at each other mumbling
"TeXas hash"
Yeah" Steven said, Texas hash.
You eat it. It's delicious. And it's
a nice thing to cook when you're
alone with your girl; you don't
have to watch it."
Look" Jeff said. Lets all sit
down and Steve will start at the
beginning" We sat, Steve on the
studio couch beside Carol. He
reached for her hand and their
eyes met and said things to each
other.
THE beginning" Steve said, "is
that Carol and I fell in love, al
most at once. We want to get mar
ried, and there are well, there
are obstacles. The obstacles are
my family. Not that they'd disap-
prove Of Carol once they met her;
they'd love her, but it's just that
they're so dead set against the
theater. You probably know what
a row they raised when I got my
first job. Well, I'm afraid that's
what it would be all over again
with Carol, and I don't want that.
So we hit upon a plan and 1t was
a pretty damn good one, too. We
were going to keep our engagement
quiet, not let breath of it slip
out until this show was over, and
then I was going to take Carol
home and she was to play dumb
about the theater until they'd sort
of got to know each other. The
gags a million years old, I know,
but it's still good. 1t might have
uorked" :"