by Roy J. Snell
CHAPTER IX LITTLE SWEDEN
Little Sweden, strange to say, is not in Europe, but on the near-northside in Chicago. It is a place to eat, a unique and interesting place.There buxom maidens in white aprons and quaint starched caps do yourbidding. It is a place of marvelous abundance. You do not order food. Itis there before you on a long table. You pay for a meal, then helpyourself. On the long board tables are great circles of choppedmeat--beef, veal and chicken cooked in the most delicious manner.Salads, also done in circles, and luscious fruits, strange cakes andcurious loaves of brown bread. It is as if all that is best in Swedenhad been carried across the sea and reassembled for you and for yourguests.
Our four friends, Rosemary, Jeanne, Danby and Willie had been whiskedaway from the airport to this remarkable place. A half hour afterFlorence had asked the question, "Where is Little Sweden?" they mighthave been found shut away in a small private dining room of the place,holding a conference over cakes and coffee.
Rosemary was on a forty-eight hour rest period. This is a regular thingfor all stewardesses when they arrive at their home port. During thepast twelve hours Rosemary had seen much of Petite Jeanne, and she hadfound her to be a very charming person. Simple in her tastes, modest,kindly, ever ready to serve others, Jeanne was, she thought, altogetherlovely. During that twelve hours Danby Force had kept the wires hot in avain search for some clue that might lead him to the dark-faced womanwho had so mysteriously vanished.
Willie VanGeldt had been admitted to the conference because, as Rosemaryhad discovered, beneath his apparently happy-go-lucky and altogetherhaphazard nature there was a foundation of pure gold. He liked folks andwas ready to help them, to "go the limit," as he expressed it, if onlythey would tell him what might be done. He had been quite entranced withthe company of the little stewardess and was more than ready to aid herfriends.
"First of all," Rosemary was saying, "I want you all to keep in touchwith me as far as that is possible. I have a radio in my room. You haveradios on your airplanes. We will see that they are in tune. When I amhere I'll be in my room from eight to eleven in the evening. Should youhave anything to report or be in need, call the numbers 48--48, giveyour location if you can, then deliver your message. I'll not be able toreply by radio, but I'll help in any way I can."
"And I'll take you round the world in my plane if need be," said Willie.
To this he received a strange reply from the little stewardess: "You'llnot take me off the ground, no matter what happens."
"Why? Why won't I?" He stared in unbelief.
"I'll answer that later." She cast him a half apologetic look. "Mr.Force has something to show us."
"This," said Danby Force, "is a picture of the lady who threatens toruin our happy community." He held the photograph before them.
"She appears to prefer air travel, and she will travel again," saidRosemary. "We have a hundred and fifty stewardesses in the air. Why nothave a picture made for each of these? If they all keep watch, we mayfind her quickly."
"Grand idea!" Danby exclaimed. "I'll have them made at once."
"I'll be wandering about, as gypsy people have a way of doing," Jeannesaid with a fine smile. "If I catch sight of that dark lady, I'llwhisper 48--48 into my receiver and things will be doing at once."Little did Jeanne dream of the strange circumstances under which thatmystic signal 48--48 would slip from her lips.
"But tell us--" Jeanne leaned forward eagerly. "Tell us of these soterrible spies. Shall they be shot at sunrise?"
"No." Danby Force smiled. "We don't shoot industrial spies. In fact I'mafraid it would be difficult to so much as get them put in prison. Anidea, however valuable, is not easy to get hold of and prove. You maysteal it, yet no one in the world can prove that you have it. Thatsounds rather strange, doesn't it?" He laughed a jolly laugh.
"And by the way!" he exclaimed suddenly. "Just this morning I received amessage that proves we still have spies in our plant. A scrap ofnote-paper with plans drawn on it, picked up off the floor of the mill,proves that. And this," he added rather strangely, "gives me freshhope."
"Hope! Hope! Hope!" the others cried in chorus.
"To be sure," said Danby, "if they are still with us, then they have notyet secured all the secrets needed for their selfish and cowardly plans.You see--"
He broke short off. There came a movement at the draperies of the door.A head was thrust in. A smiling face looked down upon them. A pair oflips said:
"Jeanne, I have found you!"
Ten seconds later Jeanne was in someone's arms. It was her good palFlorence. They were together once more.
"This," said Jeanne, turning a smiling face to her friends at the table,"is Florence Huyler, the best girl friend I have ever known. And," sheadded, eagerly nodding at Danby Force, "she's a fine solver of mysteriesas well."
"Ah!" Danby's eyes gleamed. "Come and join us, Miss Huyler."
"I shall be back very soon." Jeanne popped out of the little dining roomto reappear in an incredibly short time with a heaping plate of food.
"This," she exclaimed, "is Little Sweden, the place where everyone eatsall he can."
"And now," said Danby, nodding to Jeanne, "tell me about your friend.Why do you think she is a solver of mysteries?"
"Because," Jeanne replied, "she has solved many." At once she launchedinto a recital of her friend's many achievements. She spoke of themysterious "Crimson Thread," of the "Thirteenth Ring," of the "Lady Copand the Three Rubies."
"I am delighted," said Danby Force. "But then--" his voice dropped, "nodoubt you are permanently employed and cannot join us in our search forthis dark lady and her companion spies."
"On the contrary," Florence smiled a doubtful smile, "I am very muchunemployed."
"How fortunate!" Danby extended his hand. "And you are a social workerof a sort, a recreation lady. I have been promising myself for a longtime that we should have a social secretary at our plant. I shallappoint you at once and you shall have a double duty--to serve oursimple, kindly people, and to search for a spy. What do you say?"
"What can I say but yes!" The large girl beamed. "What a day!" she wasthinking to herself. "I go blundering into a place looking for a jobthat's several sizes too small for me. And now I fall upon one that isjust exactly my kind."
"Life," she said aloud, "is beautiful."
"Yes," Danby Force agreed, "life is beautiful at times, and shouldalways be so. When we are selfish or unkind we mar the beauty of lifefor someone. When we are suspicious or unjust, when we lay heavy burdenson the weak, we are destroying life's beauty.
"Yes," he repeated slowly, "life must be beautiful."
"Listen!" Rosemary Sample held up a hand. "What was that?"
"A horn," said Jeanne. "There's another and another. This, why this!"She sprang to her feet. "This is the night of Hallowe'en! And this isthe last night of the Great Fair, that most beautiful Century ofProgress. Florence," she cried, "do you not remember the 'Hour ofEnchantment'? We must go there tonight. We truly must!"
"We shall all go," said Danby Force. "It will prove anever-to-be-forgotten night, I feel sure." He spoke the truth, but hedid not even so much as dream the half of it.
