Enid spoke to “Pitty Sing” in her proud, offhand manner, paid a dollar
for one of the midget’s cheap little postcard pictures of herself,
refused to take the change and was turning toward Sally’s platform again
when Winfield Bybee entered the tent with Gus, the barker.
Sally, watching Enid, saw the woman’s involuntary start of recognition
as Bybee crossed her path, saw her hesitate, then turn toward him,
determination stamped on her lovely, sensitive face.
When Bybee had bared his head deferentially and was bending over the
small woman to hear her low spoken words, Sally was seized with fright.
She knew instinctively that Enid Barr’s questions concerned her, but
whether they concerned Sally Ford, runaway from the state orphanage, or
“Princess Lalla,” fake crystal-gazer, she had no way of knowing. All she
knew for certain was that Enid had overheard Betsy’s shriek: “That’s not
Princess Lalla! That’s Sally Ford—play-acting!” And she fled, feeling
Enid’s eyes upon her but not daring to look back.
There was less than half an hour before the next and final show was to
start. She spent the time in the dress tent, wishing with all her heart
that she was through work for the day and that she could go to David.
Poor David! lying wounded in a stuffy, hot berth, tormented with worries
as to the future and possibly with regrets for the past, while Eddie
Cobb strutted on the midway as the hero of the safe robbery.
It would be better for David, infinitely better, if she could screw up
her courage to the point of going back to the orphanage and taking her
punishment. It would be so simple! She had only to seek out Enid Barr
and say to her: “I _am_ Sally Ford! Send for Mrs. Stone.” And perhaps
Enid would intercede for her, for she seemed so very kind.
“Wake up, Sally,” Bess, one of the dancers of the “girlie show,” called
to her, as she came shuffling into the tent on tortured feet. “Gus is
ballyhooing your show.”
Yes, her mind was made up. She would tell Enid Barr, beg her to
intercede with the orphanage for her, and with the police for David. But
there was no Enid Barr among the audience at the last show of the
evening, and even Van Horne was absent. In spite of her good resolutions
Sally felt an immense relief. Reprieve! She certainly could not give
herself up if there was no one to give up to!
“Going to the show train to see David?” Gus whispered, when the last
show was finished and the audience was straggling toward the exits.
“Of course!” Sally cried. “Is he worse? Don’t hide anything from me,
Gus—”
“Worse!” Gus laughed. “Bybee says he’s yelling for food and threatens to
get up and cook it himself if they don’t give him something besides mush
and milk. Come along! I’ll walk you over to the show train. You’re too
pretty to be allowed to go alone. Some village dude would be trying to
kidnap you.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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