Arkansas State press. [volume] (Little Rock, Ark.) 1941-1959, 1943-09-24
CHAPTER ii

The tires rippled on the pavement
as we dropped down off the hills be-
hind Hollywood and came presently
to Laurel Canyon. Other cars flashed
past. Laughter, song, earnest voices
In Wlsps and snatehes fell upon our
ears and we're swept away, but in
none was there the note OF deadly
earnestness that vbrated in Elsa's
voice.
We had started off from Dwights
amid laughter, Elsa in her working
girl suit, which proved to be one of
Margarets street dresses, She car
ried an overnight bag the lightness
OF which she explained by saying:
Just pajamas, Barry. l have to
have something" We had moved off
down the curving driveway and en-
tered the road which descended Hal-
lywood's backdrop Of hills.
THE great wide world" she an
swered clapping her hands together
before her face, and then. as an
afterthought, looking intenly at her
slender wrists in the moonlight, as il
wondering whether or not they were
capable OF all she expected Of them.
"But more practically - tonight.
say, and tomorrow, and next day."
Dwight lent me fifty dollars"
"And when that's gone? Don't you
think you ought to go down to your
fathers in Mexico?"
Don't be medieval. Barryl III
have a job tomorrow morning be-
fore you've thought Of starting your
days work"
She was very sure, this young
woman with the almost golden hair,
and eyes | believed to De gray, and
which Dwight called blue.
put me down anywhere on Holly
wood Boulevard" said Elsa. We
had emerged from the winding cam
yon road and were speeding into
Hollywood Il start from there"
Its eleven o'clock, | reminded
her.
at doesn't matter Time never
meant anything to me-"
And so dropped her on the boule-
ward She flashed me a smile, pat
ted my cheek with soft, earessing
hand, and skipped out to the SIDE
walk in that working girl suit and
carrying the overnight bag with just
pajamas, because she had to have
something. The crowded sidewalks
swallowed her up. | got into traf-
fic snarl. After a while it was bro
ken up and / moved on.
Near Vine Street the crowd opened
for a brief moment on the sidewalk,
and there went Elsa, the working
girl suit and the overnight bag.
Then crowd, night, and the moving
traffic contrived to shut her wholly
from sight, and drove onward re-
fleeing upon things like bravery and
courage and marveling at what we
call youth Wondering, too. about
Aunt Kitty's overdose Of morphine.
For the district attorney, who was
an old friend of mine, had asked me
if I wanted to try my hand at the
problem,
One usually dashes into a railway
terminal In the taxieab as one
approaches, the demoralizing dis
covery is made that it lacks but
three minutes until the 4:36 is due
to leave, or the train for the White
Mountains, or Seattle, or wherever
it is you are going. BY not waiting
for your change, communicating
red cap and prodding him along. you
gain the gate just in time to be num-
bered among the passengers. 1t is
all right, Of course, if you have the
sporting instinct. Only fixed ideas
occupy the mental processes once
you enter the terminal. You grasp
thoughts like luggage, tickets, gate,
kiss somebody goodbye, and your
legs do the rest.
had just seen my sister and her
two boys off for New York. had
driven them down in my own car,
so there had been four minutes in
stead Of three, and the boys had en-
tered into the spirit Of the thing.
Therefore, we made the gate with a
full minute to spare, which accounts
for the word Anne was able to put
in about Reed Barton.
"Where?" | asked, turning to stare
back through the crowd which had
closed in behind us.
"Over by the information booth
Here, kiss me goodbye, quick!
Don't forget to write The gate
slammed and they all went running
down the platform, boys, Anne, red
caps, boiling and bobbing in a last
melee.
The fact that Reed Barton was
standing still had caught Anne's at.
tentl0n lie would be dong Just
that in the station when others were
rushing about like ants in a disturbed
anthill For time was something
Reed Barton seemed to have in
greater abundance than others had.
There was a nice calculation in his
every act which left about him a
sense Of leisure almost That last
game Of his college career in the
Rose Bowl, when he dropped back
to punt and the bali was snapped
and the line broke and mad oppo.