The Lookout Man, Page 6

  CHAPTER SIX

  MISS ROSE FORWARD

  Times were none too prosperous with the Martha Washington Beauty Shop,upon the sixth floor of a Broadway building. In the hairdressingparlor half the long rows of chairs reached out empty arms exceptduring the rush hours of afternoon; even then impatient patrons merelysprinkled the room with little oases of activity while the girlsbusied themselves with tidying shelves already immaculate, andprinking before the mirrors whenever they dared. An air of uncertaintypervaded the place, swept in by the rumor that the shop was going tocut down its force of operators. No one knew, of course, the exacttruth of the matter, but that made it all the worse.

  "'For one shall be taken and the other left,'" a blonde girl quotedinto a dismal little group at the window that looked out over thecity. "Has any one heard any more about it?"

  "Rumley has been checking up the appointment lists, all morning," ashort, fat girl with henna-auburn hair piled high on her head reportedcheerfully. "Of course, you could never get a word out of _her_--butI know what she is up to. The girls that have the most steady patronswill stay, of course. I'm certainly glad I kidded that old widow intothinking she's puhfectly stunning with her hair hennaed. She don'ttrust anybody but me to touch it up. And she's good for a scalp andfacial and manicure every week of her life, besides getting her hairdressed every Saturday anyway, and sometimes oftener when she's goingout. And she _always_ has a marcelle after a shampoo. She'd quitcoming if I left--she told me so last week. She thinks I'm _there_ onmassages. And then I've got sevrul others that ask for me regular asthey come in. You know that big, fat--"

  "Miss Rose forward," the foreman's crisp, businesslike voiceinterrupted.

  Miss Rose began nervously pulling her corn-colored hair into thelatest plastered effect on her temples. "This isn't any appointment. Iwonder if somebody asked for me, or if Rumley--"

  "Well, kid her along, whoever she is, and talk a lot about her goodpoints. You never can tell when some old girl is going to pull a lotof patronage your way," the fat girl advised practically. "Tell 'emyour name and suggest that they call for you next time. You've got toget wise to the trick of holding what you get. Beat it, kiddo--beingslow won't help you none with Rumley, and she's got the axe,remember."

  Thus adjured, Miss Rose beat it, arriving rather breathlessly at herchair, which was occupied by a rather sprightly looking woman withpretty hands and a square jaw and hair just beginning to gray over thetemples. She had her hat off and was regarding herself seriously inthe mirror, wondering whether she should touch up the gray, as some ofher intimate friends advised, or let it alone as her brother Fredinsisted.

  Miss Rose was too busy counting customers to notice who was in herchair until she had come close.

  "Why, hello, Kate," she said then. "I was just wondering what hadbecome of you."

  "Oh, I've been so busy, Marion. I just had to _steal_ the time todayto come. You weren't out to my reading last night, and I was afraidyou might not be well. Do you think that I ought to touch up my hair,Marion? Of course, I don't mind it turning, so much--but you knowappearance counts _everything_ with an audience until one begins tospeak. Fred says to leave it alone--"

  "Well, you do it." Miss Rose leaned over the chair with a handful ofhairpins to place in the little box on the dressing shelf, and spokeconfidentially in the ear of her patron. "It's not my business toknock the trade, Kate--but honestly, that sign up there, that says'Hair Dyed at Your Own Risk' ought to say, 'to your own sorrow.' Ifyou start, you've got to keep it up or it looks simply frightful. Andif you keep it up it just ruins your hair. You have such _nice_ hair,Kate!" She picked up a sterilized brush and began stroking Kate's hairsoothingly. It was not such nice hair. It was very ordinary hair of asomewhat nondescript color; but Kate was her dearest friend, andpraise is a part of the profession. "What do you want?--a scalp,shampoo, or just dressed, or a curl, or what?"

  "What," Kate retorted pertly. "Just fuss around while I talk to you,Marion. I--"

  "Rumley won't stand for fussing. I've got to do something she canrecognize across the room. How about a scalp? You can talk while Imassage, and then I'll show you a perfectly stunning way to do yourhair--it's new, and awfully good for your type of face. How do youlike mine today?"

  "Why, I like it tremendously!" Kate gave her an appraising glance inthe mirror. "It's something new, isn't it? Use plenty of tonic, won'tyou, Marion? They charge awful prices here--but their tonic has donemy hair so much good! Listen, could you get off early today? I simplymust talk to you. A perfectly tremendous opportunity has literallyfallen our way, and I want you to benefit by it also. A friend ofDouglas'--of Professor Harrison's, I should say--called our attentionto it. This friend wants to go in on it, but he can't leave hisbusiness; so the idea is to have just Fred and the professor--and you,if you'll go--and me to go and attend to the assessments. All theother names will be dummy names--well, silent partners is a betterword--and we can control a tremendously valuable tract that way. Howabout a henna rinse, Marion? Would it be worth while?"

  "Why, a henna rinse would brighten your hair, Kate--and lots of nicewomen have them. But you'll have to have a shampoo, you know. Thehenna rinse is used with a shampoo. I believe I'd have one if I wereyou, Kate. You never could tell it in the world. And it's good for thehair, too. It--"

  "Fred is _so_ disagreeable about such things. But if it couldn't betold--" Kate began to doubt again. "Does it cost extra?"

  "Fifty cents--but it does brighten the hair. It brings out the naturalcolor--there is an auburn tint--"

  "But I really meant to have a manicure today. And we can't talk in themanicure parlor--those tables are crowded together so! I've atremendous lot to tell you, too. Which would you have, Marion?"

  Miss Rose dutifully considered the matter while she continued thescalp massage. Before they had decided definitely upon theextravagance of a henna rinse, which was only a timid sort ofexperiment and at best a mere compromise art and nature, Marion hadapplied the tonic. It seemed a shame to waste that now with a shampoo,and she did not dare to go for another dish of the tonic; so Katesighed and consoled herself with a dollar saved, and went without themanicure also.

  Rather incoherently she returned to her subject, but she did notsucceed in giving Miss Rose anything more than a confused idea of atrip somewhere that would really be an outing, and a tremendousopportunity to make thousands of dollars with very little effort. Thissounded alluring. Marion mentally cancelled a date with a party goingto Venice that evening, and agreed to meet Kate at six o'clock, andhear more about it.

  In the candy shop where they ate, her mind was even more receptive totremendous opportunities for acquiring comparative wealth withpractically no initial expense and no effort whatever. Not beingsubjected to the distraction of a beauty parlor, Kate forgot to useher carefully modulated, elocutionary voice, and buzzed with details.

  "It's away up in the northern part of the State somewhere, in themountains. You know timber land is going to be tremendouslyvaluable--it is now, in fact. And this tract of beautiful big treescan be gotten and flumed--or something--down to a railroad that tapsthe country. It's in Forest Reserve, you see, and can't be bought bythe lumber companies. I had the professor explain it all to me again,after I left the Martha, so I could tell you.

  "A few of us can club together and take mining claims on theland--twenty acres apiece. All we have to do is a hundred dollars'worth of work--just digging holes around on it, or something--everyyear till five hundred dollars' worth is done. Then we can get ourdeed--or whatever it is--and sell the timber."

  "Well, _what_ do you know about _that_!" Marion exclaimedecstatically, leaning forward across the little table with her handsclasped. Nature had given her a much nicer voice than Kate's, and thetrite phrase acquired a pretty distinctiveness just from the way shesaid it. "But--would you have to stay five years, Kate?" she addeddubiously.

  "No, that's the beauty of it, you can do all the five hundred dollars'worth in one year, Marion."

>   "Five hundred dollars' worth of digging holes in the ground!" Mariongasped, giggling a little. "Good night!"

  "Now please wait until you hear the rest of it!" Kate's tone sharpeneda little with impatience. She moved a petulant elbow while a tiredwaitress placed two glasses of water and a tiny plate of white andbrown bread upon the table. The minute the girl's back was turned uponthem she cast a cautious eye around the clattering throng and leanedforward.

  "Four men--men with a little capital--are going into it, and pay Fredand the professor for doing their assessment work. Four five-hundredswill make two thousand dollars that we'll get out of them, just forlooking after their interests. And we'll have our twenty acres apieceof timber--and you've no _idea_ what a tremendous lot of money thatwill bring, considering the investment. Fred's worked so hard latelythat he's all run down and looks miserable. The doctor told him themountains would do him a world of good. And the professor wants to dosomething definite and practical--they are filling up the college withstudent-teachers, willing to teach some certain subject for theinstruction they'll get in some other--and they're talking aboutcutting the professor's salary. He says he will not endure anothercut--he simply cannot, and--"

  "And support an elocutionist?"

  "Now, hush! It isn't--"

  "Do I draw any salary as chaperone, Kate?"

  "Now, if you don't stop, I'll not tell you another thing!" Kate took asip of water to help hide a little confusion, clutching mentally atthe practical details of the scheme. "Where was I?"

  "Cutting Doug's salary. Is it up on a mountain, or up in the State,that you said the place was? I'd like being on a mountain, Ibelieve--did you ever see such hot nights as we're having?"

  "It's up both," Kate stated briefly. "You'd love it, Marion. There's alog house, and right beside it is a trout stream. And it's only sixmiles from the railroad, and _good_ road up past the place. A man whohas been up there told Doug--the professor. Tourists just _flock_ inthere. And right up on top of the mountain, within walking distance ofour claims, is a lake, Marion! And great trout in it, that long!--youcan see them swimming all around in schools, the water is so clear.And there is no inlet or outlet, and no bottom. The water is just asclear and as blue as the sky, the man told the professor. It's soclear that they actually call it Crystal Lake!"

  "Well, _what_ do you know about that!" breathlessly murmured Marion inher crooning voice. "A lake like that on top of a mountain--inweather like this, doesn't it sound like heaven?" She began to pickthe pineapple out of her fruit salad, dabbing each morsel in the tinymound of whipped cream.

  "We'd need some outing clothes, of course. I've been thinking that acouple of plain khaki suits--you know--and these leggings that lacedown the side, would be all we'd really need. I wish you'd go out homewith me instead of going to a show. Fred will be home, and he canexplain the details of this thing better than I can. If it were adifficult stanza of Browning, now--but I haven't much talent forbusiness. And seriously, Marion, you must know all about this beforeyou really say yes or no. And it's time you had some real object inlife--time you settled down to regard your life seriously. I love youjust the way you are, dear, but for your own sake you must learn tothink for yourself and not act so much upon impulse. I couldn't bearto go off without you, and stay a whole year, maybe--but if you shouldgo, not knowing just what it was going to be like, and then bedisappointed--you see, dear, you might come to blaming poor Kate."

  "Why, I wouldn't do anything of the kind! Even if it did turn out tobe something I didn't care for, it would be so much better thanstaying here with you gone, that I don't see how I could mind verymuch. You know, Kate, I'm just crazy about the country. I'd like tosleep right outside! And I think a log cabin is the dearest way tolive--don't you? And we'd hike, wouldn't we?--up to the lake and allaround. I've got enough money to buy a gun, and if there's any huntingaround there, we'll hunt! Kate, down in my heart I'm sick of massagingold ladies' double chins and kidding them into thinking they lookyoung! And anyway," she added straightforwardly, "I don't suppose I'llbe at the Martha much longer. They're going to let a lot of us girlsout, and I'm almost sure to be one of them. There's enough of theolder girls to do all the work there is now, till the tourist seasonbegins again in the fall. I couldn't get in anywhere else, this timeof the year, so I'd just about have to go out to one of the beachesand get a little tent house or something with some of the girls, andfool around until something opened up in the fall. And even if youlive in your bathing suit all day, Kate, you just can't get by withoutspending a little money."

  "Well, of course, you'd stay with me if I were here. I wouldn't hearto anything else. And even--why don't you come on out anyway, till weget ready to start? We could plan so much better. And don't you think,Marion, it would be much better for you if you didn't wait for theMartha to let you go but gave them notice instead?"

  "Quit before I'm invited to leave? I believe I'd better do that, Kate.It won't be half bad to spring it on the girls that I'm going up inthe mountains for the summer. I'll talk about that lake till--say, I'mjust wild to start. How soon do you think it will be? Fred will haveto teach me how to trout-fish--or whatever you call it. Only think ofstepping out of our log cabin and catching trout, just any time youwant to! And, Kate, I really am going to buy a gun. Down on Spring, inthat sporting-goods house--you know, the one on the corner--they havegot the cutest rifles! And by the way, they had some of the bestlooking outing suits in the window the other day. I'm going in therewhen I come down in the morning."

  "Let Fred advise you about the rifle before you buy. Fred'stremendously clever about nature stuff, Marion. He'll know just whatyou want. I think a gun will maybe be necessary. You know there arebear--"

  "Oh, good night!" cried Marion. But in the next breath she added, "Iwonder if there are any nice hunters after the bears!"