Picture Play Magazine (Sep 1921 - Feb 1922)

28 The Revelations fectly hilarious over their success in discarding their fame. "A man did ask me, though, if any one had ever told me that I looked like Claudia Dorveen," Claudia laughed, when they were telling Hugh and me about it. '■x\nd when I asked who she was, and he said she was a famous and very wicked woman, I was horribly shocked !" And she went off into gales of laughter. She was still chuckling over that when she came into my room the next morning, while I was dressing Hughic Junior. "Please let me borrow your son, Sally," she begged. "Danny and I are going off in the car, and I adore having the baby, you know. Can't he come ?" "Of course — will you be home for luncheon?' I answered, endeavoring to lasso the squirming Junior with his sailor tie. "Yes, indeed — we're just going down to Stockbridge for some candy," she answered, and went off downstairs with the boy bouncing along beside her. But they weren't back for luncheon. They weren't back for dinner, either, and Hugh, pretending that he only did it because I was worried, and not at all because he was pretty anxious himself, phoned everywhere that they could possibly have gone to see if there'd been an accident. But he couldn't get any trace of them. Nine o'clock came, and ten. Hugh's face got grimmer and grimmer, and I choked down so many sobs that my throat felt swollen. I could just see the roadster q;/erturned in a ditch somewhere, and the mutilated body of my baby boy lying in the mud and brackish ' — ^ater. The telephone bell's jangling summons had never been so welcome to me before as when it brought Hugh and me running in from the terrace where we'd been anxiously watching the drive. Hugh reached it first, but turned and handed the receiver to me — I think he thought I'd go mad if I had to wait an instant for the news. "Hello — hello, Sally?" It was Danny's voice. "Say, will you and Hugh come down here to Grantstown and bail us out? We're in jail!" CHAPTER XL While Hugh ran to the garage and got one of the cars I slipped into my warmest coat and got a sweater for him and one for Junior ; almost before I had mine buttoned up Hugh had driven around to the door, and we were off down the drive — but my thoughts had raced far ahead of even the speeding car. It was a gorgeous night — rather cool, and with a full moon that showed whenever the wind subsided enough to leave it clear of the little clouds that went scudding across it. We seemed to fly before the wind, too — I felt as if we had wings. "I thought I knew Danny Gardner from A to Z," Hugh exclaimed, as we tore along a deserted road, beside one of those long, white fences that mark New England for the motorist. "But what crazy thing he's done now it's beyond me to imagine." "I should have asked him, I suppose, but just as soon as I found out where they were my one thought was to get started," I answered. "If this ever gets out people will say : 'Isn't that exactly like motion-picture people, though?' no matter how it came about." "Yes, I suppose so," agreed Hugh. "Sometimes I think we'd better bring Junior up to be something staid and dependable — a plumber, for choice. Gosh, what a view, Sally — look off across that valley !" "I will when we pass it on the way home," I answered, trying to pin down my flying hair. "I can appreciate it better when I have Son in my arms." of a Star's Wife "All right — but let's remember it; it's just the thing for that stunning long shot I've wanted for the picture." We talked shop all the rest of the way ; not because v/e were so completely absorbed in the subject, but because we both wanted to keep our minds ofif the prosj^ect that confronted us. Having two of your friends in jail isn't exactly comforting. I think every one in the town of Grantstown was grouped around the jail when we arrived; anyway, there was a mob crowding around the narrow, barred windows and trying to peek through. My heart stood still. "Good heavens — ^re they trying te lynch 'em?" gasped Hugh, as he swung the car around into a vacant space at one side of the jail. "Danny must have run over somebody, or something like that." I was frightened at first ; then he laughed and said he'd been joking, as he lifted me over the door — that was the quickest way out — and hustled me along toward th' steps of the ramshackle little building. Somehow we got through the crowd and into the office inside, though the fussy little man who was keeping the crowd back didn't want to let us in. But Hugh convinced him that we'd come on official business, so he opened the doors, and we pushed into a stuffy, glaringly lighted little room. And there sat Claudia, on a tumble-down old couch, with Junior in her lap. I didn't even see Danny at first; all I could see was that son of mine, who was sleeping as peacefully as if he'd been in his crib at home. Claudia thrust him into my arms, and then sank back in a corner of the couch with a sigh that came straight from her heart. "Don't look so frightened, Sally," she begged, "You're whiter than any ghost ! Beware, though — you're associating with an impostor." "Yes'm," Danny chimed in, hunching himself up on a kitchen chair, that stood on my other side. "You're in the company of criminals; will you bail us out first and hear the horrible details later, or leave us here to suffer till court convenes?" "I'll do the bailing out while you tell Sally the facts," offered Hugh, who'd been having a word or two with him while I settled down with my son. And so Danny laimched forth on his tale. "We headed for Stockbridge," he began. "And then I got to trying to pursuade Claudia — well, that is, I " "You needn't look so sheepish about it; you were asking her to marry you, of course; I can see it by the way you're both blushing," I cut in. "Your insight is nothing if not amazing," declared Danny with a grin, dragging his chair over to where he could be beside Claudia. "As it happens, you're right. And somehow, we got off the main road, and took a lane that was awfully pretty, and then switched off on another road, and after a while we got lost. And we couldn't find a telephone, to call you folks, and then we had a blow-out, and had it fixed at a garage, and then discovered that I'd left my money in my other clothes and Claudia hadn't brought a pocketbook. "So we couldn't pay the man who'd sold us the new tire — of course, this would all happen when we hadn't a spare along, and not one of the old ones was worth patching. The financial situation didn't worry me any, though: I remarked with all the nonchalance in the world, 'Sorry I haven't any money, but I'll give you my card, and when I get home I'll mail you a check.' And with that I started to drive ofif " "And the garage man stopped us !" Claudia burst in. "He was horribly ugly, the minute he looked at Danny's card, and he said: 'No, siree, young man, you don't Continued on page 90