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 gon