“‘The Pink Moon’ at the Lyric, Shakespeare at the Grand, and I’m not sure about the Paxton,” the man at the information bureau told her glibly.
“WE’LL FIND ’EM, MISS,” HE ASSURED HER
A cabman remembered that the Paxton was closed. “But ‘The Pink Moon’ is a great show, ma’am,” he assured Betty. “Drive you there for fifty cents.”
Betty sped back to the information bureau. “Pratt Players?” repeated the man inside. “Pratt Players? Some ten-twenty-thirty outfit, I s’pose, doing a week at some little nickel theatre or music hall. City’s full of them, miss.—Next train to Boston leaves in twenty minutes.—Lunch-room down-stairs, ma’am.—Where in South Dakota did you say you want to go?”
Betty turned away sick at heart. She had a vision of herself being driven aimlessly from one nickel theatre to another, in a vain search for the Pratt Players, while Frisky——If only Miss Dick were here! She might telegraph for her. But first she pocketed pride and discretion and consulted the friendly cabman again. He had never heard of the Pratt Players. “But we’ll find ’em, miss,” he assured her, “if it takes all night. Got a friend in the company, miss?”
Betty turned away with much dignity toward the telegraph office. On the way she tried to think what 19— girls had lived at the Junction. If only she could remember one she knew well enough to take with her on her quixotic search! There was a sudden press of people coming in from a newly arrived train. Betty stood aside forlornly to let them pass, when she felt her hand caught in a strong clasp and looked up to find Jim Watson towering over her.
“By all the luck!” he cried. “You here and alone! Come on to the theatre with me, Betty. Faculty don’t have to be chaperoned, even if accompanied by a dimple, do they? I was hoping to get up to Harding in time to call on you—got to be in Albany to-morrow on business for the firm. I say, Betty, how long is it since I’ve seen you?”
Betty didn’t wait to answer. “Come,” she ordered desperately, “and find a cab and help me hunt for the Pratt Players. I’ll explain after we’re started. I don’t know when I’ve been so glad to see somebody I know, Jim.”
“Look sharp now,” Jim told the cabman. “Extra fare if you hit the right place early in the game, understand.” Owing to which inducement cabby wasted but two guesses and halted with a flourish in front of the dingy theatre occupied by the Pratt Players before the first curtain had risen on the faded splendors of “East Lynne.”