“I’m going out with Benny Ranley, the chauffeur for the people next door. They’ve gone visiting. I’m to meet Benny downtown, and go for a ride.”
“He’s a likable lad,” Peter Podd admitted. “If I was young and strong like Benny Ranley—”
“Don’t worry so much. Wait until she gets over her spell of temper and then go see her. Tell her just how it is. You’ve got to keep your job, of course. Me — I’m going to leave her flat as soon as I can get another place.”
Marie Dolge stepped through the door and hurried along the alley toward the nearest street. Peter Podd looked after her. A fine girl, she was, but peculiar and mysterious at times! Foreign blood in her, Peter Podd had decided long before. A girl who could take her own part with anybody! Not a spineless old creature without any aggression, like Podd!.
Marie Dolge was looking particularly well in a new white dress and a white hat. She reached the street and hurried down it toward a car line. She boarded a trolley car and rode some distance, down into the heart of the city. When she left the car, she saw that it was twenty-five minutes after three.
Hurrying into a corner drug store, Marie Dolge went into a telephone booth. Emerging some minutes later, she went to the soda fountain, ordered and engaged the soda dispenser in conversation. He was a young man who had noticed Miss Dolge several times before and wished that he might become better acquainted with her.
As she finished her drink, Benny Ranley came into the store from the street. A tall, broad-shouldered young fellow was Benny Ranley, not particularly good-looking, but with something attractive about him; He had a winning smile.
“The only girl I ever knew who could be on time!” he said laughing.
“And you are five minutes late,” she accused. “It is thirty-five minutes after three. You said three-thirty. You have kept me waiting.”
“Blame the traffic cop who held me up at a corner,” Benny Ranley said, laughing again. “Let me pay for that soda now, and then we’ll hop into the car and drive out into the country, where there aren’t any traffic cops.”
The young soda dispenser sighed as he watched them go out to the street. He decided to quit his present job and become a chauffeur. Now and then a chauffeur, it appeared, had a chance to take a girl riding and go out into the country where there were no traffic cops.
CHAPTER II
PECULIAR MESSAGES
Benny Ranley was busy for some time guiding the big car through the heavy traffic. He did not have many opportunities to look at the young woman beside him, and conversation was carried on in monosyllables. But finally he turned into a speedway, and after a time reached a country road, and left the city behind. And then he slackened speed and gave some attention to the girl at his side.
“I’m sure glad you finally made a date with me,” said Benny Ranley. “I’ve been trying to get a date with you for more than three months. I’d just about decided that there wasn’t any sense trying, and all at once you get kind and promise to meet me and take a ride. Got your heart melted at last, have I?”
Marie Dolge turned toward him and smiled.
“Don’t get mad if I say that you’re looking tired,” Benny went on. “You sure are, girl. Been working too hard, or is it just the weather?”
“A little of both, I think. Do I look so bad?”
“Your face looks rather pale. I hate to see a pretty girl like you feeling bad. It’s not natural.”
“I don’t work at the pleasantest place in town,” said Marie. “I’m going to leave Mrs. Lennek as soon as I can get another good place. She’s not human at times.”
“Cranky?”
“Yes. And she’s unfair, too. She tried to get me to give up this afternoon off, and there wasn’t a bit of sense in it. I told her that I had an engagement, and I just dressed and came away.”
“And I’m sure glad that you did.” said Benny Ranley. “Now it is up to you, girl, what we do with the afternoon. I don’t have to be back until ten o’clock, to go to the depot.”
“I must be back by seven,” Marie said.
“All right. Where shall we go and what shall we do? I’ll leave it to you.”
“It — it won’t be much fun for you, Benny, but I’d rather just go to some nice, shady place and rest. That’s the way I feel,” the girl said.
“Suits me,” Ranley said. “I may mention that I have a lunch in the back of this boat. And I know a dandy shady place a few miles from here, right beside a creek.”
“Take me there,” she said. “And don’t be mad if I don’t talk much. I’m not feeling any too well. I like to rest when I get a chance.”
“You’re my style, girl. Most girls would want to go to some amusement park and dance their heads off. Of course, I stand ready to take you some place like that, if you want to change your mind.”
“You drive to that shady place,” she said. “I want to rest and forget Mrs. Lennek.”
“Terror, is she? She doesn’t look it.”
“Huh! You never can tell by a woman’s looks how she treats her servants,” Marie declared. “You know old Peter Podd?”
“Sure!”
“She complained about him — and for nothing at all, I’m sure. And Peter Podd is going to lose his job. She’s not human sometimes, I tell you. I— I hate her!”
“Poor old Podd!” Ranley exclaimed.
“I met him in the hall as I came away. He was thinking of asking her to tell the superintendent to let him stay. But I told him she was having a fit of temper and to stay away from her until she cooled off. I hope he did!”
Benny Ranley drove on along the tree-bordered country road, intent upon reaching his destination, and Marie Dolge leaned back against the cushions and thought of Peter Podd.
Podd had been undergoing a mental struggle. After Marie Dolge had gone down the alley, Podd had watched the rear stairs, and half a dozen times he had been on the verge of going up to the Lennek apartment and presenting his case.
But he remembered what Marie Dolge had said. Still, he did not want to wait too long. Mrs. Lennek might have visitors — Podd might not get a chance to speak to her at all that day. He watched the clock on the wall, waited until half past three, and then approached the stairs again, gulped, and started up them.
When he came to the top and started along the hall, he began to feel fear again. He hated to face Mrs. Lennek and make a request of her. Peter Podd was afraid that he would be repulsed with hard words, and he did not feel that he could endure hard words just at the moment. Podd had endured about all that he could.
But he went on slowly along the hall toward the door of the Lennek apartment. He had to make the attempt, he told himself. Perhaps, through some good chance, he would catch Mrs. Lennek in an amiable mood.
It was about this time that Madison Purden came strolling down the avenue and turned in at the apartment house. He did not use the elevator, but walked up the wide marble stairs in front, after nodding toward the clerk in the lobby.
Purden reached the head of the stairs and started along the, hall. He came to the turning and saw Peter Podd. Podd was just outside the door of the Lennek suite.
Purden hurried on toward the door, and Peter Podd passed him with a nod of his head and went to the front of the hall, where he fussed around with some potted plants, opened a window, and in other ways made himself useful. He glanced back along the hall and saw that Madison Purden had disappeared.
A tenant came from a suite and held Peter Podd in conversation wishing to know how certain furniture could be moved. Peter Podd talked to the tenant for about ten minutes. Then he went back along the hall.
He passed the door of the Lennek suite and continued toward the rear of the building. A short distance past the door, he happened to turn around. He saw Madison Purden come from the Lennek suite and hurry toward the front. Purden’s face, Podd saw, was white, and the man was evidently nervous. He carried his hat in his hand, and he did not put it on until he reached the top of the stairs. Peter Podd looked after him and curled his lips in a sneer, then went on down the back stairs. Mr. Purden, he observed, had called at three-thirty precisely, and had remained less than fifteen minutes.