hiking, as Russ Dalwood warned us,"
Alice put in. "You know, there are to be several Civil War plays filmed,
and they didn't have automobiles or motor cycles to get about on in
those days. So we'll have to walk. And it will be over rough ground, so
I thought these shoes would be just the thing."

"They will, Alice. I must get a pair myself, I think. But I was just
wondering how you got them so terribly muddy. How did you?"

"Oh, Paul Ardite and I were in that Central Park scene the other day.
You know, 'A Daughter of the Woods,' and some of the scenes were filmed
in the park. It was muddy, and I didn't get a chance to have the brogans
cleaned, for I had to jump from the park into the ballroom scene of 'His
Own Enemy,' and there was no time. We had to retake in that scene
because one of the extras was wearing white canvas shoes instead of
ballroom slippers, and the director didn't notice it until the film was
run out in the projection room.

"So that accounts for the mud on the shoes, Ruth. But I suppose I can
'phone down to the janitor and have him send them out to the Italian at
the corner. He'll take the mud off."

"No, I don't know that you can do that, Alice. We haven't any too much
time. If I had an old newspaper, I could wrap the shoes up in that for
you, and pack them in the bottom of your trunk. Then the mud wouldn't
soil your clothes."

"An old newspaper? Here's a stack of them. Daddy just brought them from
his room. Guess he's going to throw them away."

Alice reached up to a table and lifted the top paper from a pile near
the edge. She opened it with a flirt of her hand and was about to wrap
the muddy shoes in it when some headlines on one page caught her
attention. She leaned eagerly forward to read them, and spent more than
a minute going over the article beneath.

"Well," remarked Ruth finally, with a smile, "if you're going to do
that, Alice, you'll never get packed. What is it that interests you?"

"This, about a missing girl. Why, look here, Ruth, there's a reward of
ten thousand dollars offered for news of her! Why, I don't remember
seeing this before. Look, it's quite startling. A San Francisco
girl--Mildred Passamore--mysteriously disappears while on a train bound
for Seattle--can't find any trace of her--parents distracted--they've
got detectives on the trail--going to flood the country with photographs
of her--all sorts of things feared--but think of it!--ten thousand
dollars reward!"