n I'm trying to extract the truth from Whitey," says I, "I want to
be where I can watch his eyes. He's all right in his way, but he's as
shifty as a jumpin' bean. If you want the facts I'd better go myself.
Maybe you'd better come, too, Mr. Robert."

He agrees to that and inside of half an hour we've pushed through a mob
of would-be and has-been chorus females and have squeezed into the
little coop where Whitey presides important behind a big double-breasted
roll-top. And when I explains how Mr. Robert is an old friend of
Penrhyn's, and is actin' for the heart-broken mother and the weepin'
fiancee as well, Whitey shakes his head solemn.

"Sorry, gentlemen," says he, "but we haven't heard a word from him
since he disappeared. Haven't even a clue. It's an absolute mystery. He
seems to have vanished, that's all. And we don't know what to make of
it. Rather embarrassing for us, too. You know we've just started
rehearsals for his new piece, 'Oh, Say, Belinda!' Biggest thing he's
done yet. And Mr. Shuman has spent nearly $10,000 for the setting and
costumes of one number alone. Yet here Deems walks off with the lyrics
for that song--the only copy in existence, mind you--and drops out of
sight. I suppose he wanted to revise the verses. You see the hole it put
us in, though. We're rushing 'Belinda' through for an early production,
and he strays off with the words to what's bound to be the big song hit
of the season. Why, Miss Ladue, who does that solo, is about crazy, and
as for Mr. Shuman----"

"Yes, I understand, Whitey," I breaks in. "That's good press agent
stuff, all right. But Mr. Ellins here ain't so much worried over what's
going to happen to the show as he is over what has happened to Penrhyn
Deems. Now how did he disappear? Who saw him last?"

Whitey shrugs his shoulders. "All a mystery, I tell you," says he. "We
haven't a single clue."

"And you're just sitting back wondering what has become of him," demands
Mr. Robert, "without making an effort to trace him?"

"Well, what can we do?" asks Whitey. "If the fool newspapers would only
wake up to the fact that a prominent personage is missing, and give us
the proper space, that might help. They will in time, of course. Got to
come to it. But you know how it is. Anything from a press bureau they're
apt to sniff over suspicious. As if I'd pull one as raw as this on 'em!
Huh! But I'm working up the interest, and by next Sunday I'll bet
they'll be carrying front page h