TO THE RESCUE
The Beauty Shop was presently besieged by an excited crowd of girls,
and to give due credit to the purely human element it must be
admitted the girls were delighted to be there--at the forbidden
post.
"Thrilling!" whispered Velma Sigsbee, and she "said it" for all the
others.
The redoubtable Dol Vin (short for Dolorez Vincez) appeared at the
quaint square paned door. She was gowned in a very close fitting and
striking black satin "clinger" gown. Her hair was done in the most
modern of styles, like a window show for her hair dressing parlor,
and her foreign face, with its natural olive tones, was very much
fixed up with many touches of peach and carmine, as well as darker
hints under the eyes; and her lashes--well, perhaps Dolorez had been
crying inky tears; that was the effect one gathered from a glance at
the vampish make-up.
"Is Miss Stearns here?" asked Jane authoritatively. She and Dol had
clashed glances before, and Jane had no idea of condescending to the
apostate of Wellington.
"Miss Stearns here!" repeated the highly colored lips. Then
shoulders shrugged and scorn fairly sizzled through an indescribable
sneer. "I do not check up the patrons. She may be in a chair within.
Will you enter?"
The girls surrounding Jane tittered audibly. Since when had plain
Dol Vin become so foreign?
"En--ter!" drawled Dozia. "Yes, let's," to Jane. This little hiss
was intended as a reactionary simper.
"Miss Stearns would not be here on professional business," retorted
Jane. "And she would never occupy one of your treatment chairs."
Jane hated to dignify anything in the beauty shop with that
description, but acid terms were elusive just then; and besides Jane
was now getting anxious about Judith.
"Oh, indeed!" more shoulder shrugging and a futurist pose of the
black satin "clinger," "What else, then, might the Lady Stearns be
doing at my place?"
"Dol Vincez, you just stop that nonsense," flared Dozia Dalton,
stepping up to the fancy little door defiantly. "We saw Judith
Stearns run in here after Shirley Duncan, and you know very well
that old officer Sandy came in after her. Now where is Judith?"
"Isn't it lovely to have you all here? And begging me for
something?" Hands on hips, then a shift of the right hand to a very
black ball of hair bunched out where the human ear usually reposes.
"I am delighted I am sure with this visitation, and I'd love to ask
you all in only I'm busy. You will have to excuse me," and with a
very Frenchy bow, the Queen of the Beauty Shop got behind the
squared glass door and pushed it shut till the latch clicked.
"Shut the door in our faces," growled Velma, as if everyone had not
seen the insulting act.
Jane stood for a moment, thinking seriously and swiftly. She was not
concerned with the girls about her; neither had she any of their
curiosity about the interior of the shop. She was wondering what it
all meant, and how she could trace Judith. A brilliant thought
captured her. Why not go inside for a shampoo?
She turned to her companions. "I suppose it is perfectly proper
under the circumstances to go inside--somehow. I'll apply for a
shampoo!"
"But the rest of us?" wailed the curious Velma.
"Ask for something else," suggested the resourceful Jane.
"Perhaps she won't answer the ring," parried Janet.
"Then we'll knock," threatened Jane, as she pressed the little
button over the "treatment hours" sign.
They waited. There were Jane, Dozia, Velma, Winifred, Janet and
Inez, six palpitating girls, each taking inventory of her possible
beauty spots that might need touching up. Even Dol Vin would succumb
to such an onslaught of orders, but--
"Suppose she charges us some dreadful price--like five dollars
each?" gasped Velma.
"Can't do it," declared Jane. "We'll go by her price list. But no
one seems to answer."
"Peeking out, I'll bet," whispered Janet. "Ring three times, Jane,
and she'll know we mean business."
Jane followed that advice, but still no answer.
"There's a side door," suggested Dozia, critically inspecting the
long, low old stone building that had been put up originally as a
rendezvous for Wellington faculty who might want to get away from
the buzz of girls and college. It seemed no one had that sort of
disease, however, and the rest cure "went to the wall" for want of
patronage. Just what company was now financing the rather expensive
venture of Dol Vin no one knew, but it must have taken a lot of
money even to buy the window scrim, the porch cretonne and the gold
lettering on window and door glass. These details were visible from
the exterior, and what, oh, what might the interior look like to
correspond?
"The side door," agreed Jane, "for all but one or two. Then perhaps
we'll get an answer here."
The ruse worked beautifully, for hardly had the tread of feet--eight
of them, four pairs--passed down the steps than in answer to a very
lady-like ring of Jane's a colored maid drew open the door.
"May I get a shampoo?" asked Jane sweetly, stepping inside as she
spoke and covertly motioning Dozia to follow.
"This way, please," said the white-capped and white-frocked, black-
faced maid. And behold! Jane and Dozia were within the mysterious
parlor!
Neither spoke. Both were listening. Someone was sobbing in the next
room and Dol Vin's voice was remonstrating.
As if suddenly realizing the situation the colored maid hurried out.
The sobbing ceased instantly and so did the talking. A step through
the hall indicated the coming of Dolorez.
"What does this mean?" she demanded angrily, stepping up to Jane
with blazing eyes. "How dare you force your way in here?"
"Is not this a public shop?" fired back Jane, equally angry. "Have
you not openly solicited Wellington patronage?"
"As if you came for that! If you do not leave at once I shall phone
the police!"
"Do," dared Jane. "And I shall demand that they search the place.
Someone is hidden here."
A laugh, empty of mirth but bursting with scorn, followed Jane's
accusation. It ran down a falsetto scale like pebbles off a tin
roof. Then Dolorez turned to summon her maid.
"Yolande!" she called. "Show these persons out."
The perplexed darky muttered, "Yes'm," and proceeded to obey, but
Jane and Dozia never moved. They were listening now to noise of
another sort. The girls on the side porch seemed to be having a good
time of it.
"Come," demanded the inexorable Dolorez. "My time is precious and I
must have this room. If you do not both leave I'll phone the
college."
"How perfectly absurd you are, Dolorez," said Jane, more alarmed now
that no hint of Judith's whereabouts had leaked out. "You know
perfectly well we can explain all this, and you also know we are
here to find Judith Stearns and we will not leave until you have
told us where she is or where she went? May I use your telephone?"
"Judith Stearns is not here," snapped the South American. "And
what's more I don't know nor care where she is. I can't spend my
time with wild college girls who try to run down poor messenger
boys."
"Very well," said Jane, deciding no more time could be wasted in
argument. "But I warn you if our friend has been placed in any
compromising position, or has been misrepresented to that hateful
officer, we shall hold you responsible, for our girls saw her come
here."
Jane and Dozia turned to the door. The maid was evidently well
pleased with the move, for she showed glittering teeth in an
inopportune smile. Dolorez had gained a very high natural color that
cut in streaks through her make-up. She was breathing hard, and
Dozia, usually fearless, thought it best not to anger her further.
She followed Jane without even throwing out a look of defiance or
challenge, and when the door closed on their heels both Jane and
Dozia felt and really looked pale.
The situation was growing more complicated every moment, and now the
girls from the side porch pounced upon the others with frivolous
inquiries about that beauty shop.
"Hush," ordered Jane. "Do you realize Judith may have been taken to
that horrible old station house? You three go back to college and
make sure she has not returned. We, Dozia, Janet and I, will go into
the town hall. You can phone us there in twenty minutes. Now hurry
and be prudent. Don't spread any sensational stories."
Jane acted like a senior now, but the emergency was sufficiently
exacting to demand such forceful means.
Where was Judith Stearns and what was the meaning of Dolorez Vincez'
sinister statement, about running down poor messenger boys? Also who
could have been sobbing in the room back of the parlors?
"Look!" exclaimed Jane as they left the tanbark walk. "Who is that
running from the back driveway?"
"Little Sarah Howland," replied Dozia in amazement. "Whatever can
that innocent little thing be doing around here?"
"I--wonder," sighed Jane as they hurried off to the old town hall.
"Jane," murmured Dozia, halting her companion for a moment as a
sudden calling was heard through the fields, "do you think that baby
can be implicated with those unscrupulous shop keepers?"
"She was in there, and we saw her run," replied Jane. "I would like
to doubt my own eyes--"
Dozia grasped her arm and again they hurried on.
"Find Judith!" That was their slogan.