"What! Alone?"

"Why not? We can't both go. Oh, I see!" and a light broke over the face of Alice. "You mean you think it's _your_ place to warn him.

Well, maybe it is. I'm sure he would like----"

"Now, Alice, I didn't mean that at all, and you know it. I meant you oughtn't to be going about New York alone, and it's getting late. It will soon be dark."

"Nonsense! It isn't six o'clock yet."

"I know. But I can't allow you. We'll both go."

"But someone ought to be here to tell them as soon as one comes home."

"We can write a note and leave it under the door. Then we can leave a note for daddy. He'll be worried when he comes back and finds us gone. That's the best plan, Alice. Leave a note for Russ, and then you and I will try to find him. They may know at the studio where he has gone. Or he may be there yet."

"All right!" agreed Alice, after a moment's thought.

CHAPTER XXIII

THE MISSING MODEL

Two notes were quickly written. One was left on the table in the girls' apartment, telling their father that they were going out for a little while, to try to locate Russ on a matter of some importance connected with the moving pictures.

"There's no use telling daddy what has happened," said Alice. "He would only worry, and really there's no danger. We are merely going to warn Russ. He'll have to look after the men himself. But daddy would be sure to think we would get into some trouble. So we may as well not bother him."

"All right!" agreed Ruth. She was entering into the spirit of the affair now. Her eyes were shining and her cheeks vied in hue with those of Alice.

The other note, marked "Urgent!" was thrust under the kitchen door of the Dalwood flat.

"They'll be sure to see that," remarked Alice. "And, no matter if only Billy comes home first, he'll know what to do," for the story of the men's talk in the restaurant had been briefly set down on the paper.

Then, but not without many misgivings, the girls set out to try to find Russ.

"We can call up the studio on the telephone," suggested Alice, as she and her sister reached the street. "That will be the quickest way. If Russ isn't there they may be able to tell us where he is, or Mr.

Pertell may know where the model is--I mean the machine shop where the apparatus is being turned out."

"That's so," agreed Ruth. "Why, we could have used one of the telephones in the apartment!"

"No, some of the neighbors would overhear us, and we don't want that."

"Why not?" Ruth wanted to know.

"Because you can't tell but one of those men may be watching this place, and some of the neighbors may be in league with them. Besides, all the telephones here are on party wires, and when you talk over one, some of the other subscribers on the same circuit may listen, for all we can tell. It isn't safe."

"My! You think of everything!" exclaimed Ruth, admiringly. "How do you manage it?"

"Oh, it just seems to come to me," replied Alice, with a laugh. "Come on," she added, after they had walked a little way. "There's a drug store and there's a telephone booth in it. Do you want to talk to Russ, in case he's there?"

"Oh, no, you'd better," responded Ruth, blushing.

"I will not. I'll call up the studio, but if he's there I want you to be the one to tell him. He'll appreciate it."

"All right," agreed Ruth, and the blush grew deeper.

Alice quickly got the number of the moving picture studio. There was a private branch exchange there, and Alice knew the girl operator.

"I want to get Russ Dalwood in a hurry," Alice explained to Miss Miller, who ran the switchboard. "You try the different departments until you find him. I'll be here, holding the wire."

"All right!" returned Miss Miller, in crisp, business-like tones.

Perhaps she suspected that something was wrong.

Then ensued a nervous waiting. Alice opened the door of the booth and told Ruth what she had done.

"I'll let you talk to Russ as soon as he answers," she said.

Ruth nodded understandingly. But it seemed that Russ was not to be so easily found. Through her receiver Alice could hear Miss Miller ringing the telephones in the different departments of the big studio building. One after the other was tried, from the office to the dark developing rooms, and then the printing rooms. Most of the employees had gone for the day, but such as were present evidently made answer that the young moving picture operator was not there.

"I can't locate him," said Miss Miller to Alice, finally. "They say he was here about a half-hour ago, but has gone out."

"Don't they know where he went?" asked Alice. "It's very important that we find him."

"I'll see if anyone knows," came back the answer. Then ensued more waiting, but at the end came a gleam of hope.

"Mr. Blackson, in the camera room, says he heard Russ say he was going to the Odeon Theater," Miss Miller stated. "He is trying to get one of his attachments tried there."

"Where is the Odeon?" asked Alice, nervously drumming with her fingers on the telephone shelf.

"It's on Eightieth Street somewhere. Wait, I'll look up the telephone number for you. They take our service, you know."

In a few seconds Miss Miller had given the desired information, and then Alice said "good-bye" to her, frantically working the receiver hook of her instrument up and down to call the attention of the main central operator.

"And give them a good, long ring!" Alice added, as she gave the number. "It's very important."

"Very well," answered central.

There came more waiting. It was a bad time to get anyone, for it was now shortly after six o'clock, just when most persons were leaving for home or supper.

"Can't you get them?" asked Ruth, as Alice opened the 'phone booth door for a breath of air.

"I'm trying, dear. He'd left the studio, but may be at a moving picture theater. There, they've answered at last!"

Alice pulled the door shut with her disengaged hand, and spoke eagerly into the transmitter.

"Is Mr. Russ Dalwood there? It's very important!"

Ruth saw the look of dismay that came over her sister's face. Then through the double gla.s.s door she heard Alice say: