Part 23 (1/2)

He looked at her, surprised at the gravity in her tone. ”I think he'll try his darnedest, sweetheart. Why?”

”Papa is very unhappy about it. He still has relatives in Germany, you know. And there is that picture that Joe wants him to make.”

”I know about it,” he answered. ”We spoke this morning. He's going to do it.”

They walked a few more steps before she answered. He could see she was thinking. At last she sighed. ”Then he's made up his mind.”

Johnny nodded.

”I'm glad,” she said simply. ”At least he won't be tortured by all these doubts any more.”

”That's right,” Johnny said.

They had walked another few steps before another thought struck her. She stopped and faced him. ”But if there is a war, Johnny, will you have to go?”

He looked at her, startled. He hadn't thought about it. ”I suppose so,” he said as first reaction; then: ”That is, I don't know.” He laughed quickly. ”But there's no use in thinking about it now. When the time comes we'll know soon enough.”

She didn't answer. She took his arm and silently they walked the rest of the way back to the hotel.

4.

Johnny looked up from his desk. ”You sure that Doris said she'd be here before we went to the train?” he asked Jane for the fourth time.

She nodded her head wearily. ”I'm sure,” she replied. She wondered why he was so anxious about it. If the girl didn't come here, she knew what time the train was due in and she could get there herself to meet her mother and father. It wasn't like Johnny to be so nervous.

He busied himself signing a few more memos, then he looked up at her again. ”What's the name of the man that George wants to manage those three theaters uptown?”

”Stanley Farber,” she answered.

He looked down at the letter on his desk again. It was a note thanking him for confirming his appointment to the position. He was surprised by it. He hadn't confirmed that job yet; he generally didn't confirm anyone's appointment to a job until after he had talked with the person involved. And he hadn't even spoken to Farber. He tossed the letter to Jane. ”Check this with George,” he told her, ”and let me know what he says.”

He pulled his watch out of his pocket and looked at it impatiently. It was only two hours before the train pulled in. He wondered what was keeping her.

The door opened before he could put the watch away. It was Doris. She came into the office.

He got up from his seat and walked around the desk to her. ”I was beginning to wonder where you were,” he said, taking her hand.

She smiled at him. ”I missed the fast train down from school and had to take the local,” she explained.

Jane looked over at them in surprise. For a moment she sat very still, a sort of numbness in her. It wasn't that she was in love with Johnny, but that she felt she could be if he wanted her. She had long felt that he was capable of great emotional depths and some day they would rise within him. But nothing he had ever said or done had led her to think that he would turn to her. Now she knew he never would, and with it came an inexplicable feeling of relief.

Doris turned to her and said h.e.l.lo.

Automatically Jane asked how she was.

Doris replied and Johnny led her to a seat.

”Now if you'll be patient and wait just a minute for me to clean a few things up,” he said, smiling down at her, ”we can grab a bite before we meet them.”

”I don't mind waiting,” she answered softly.

Jane looked at Johnny as he went behind his desk and sat down. It was the first time she had ever seen him excited in just that manner. He was like a boy with his first love, she thought, he didn't even know what he felt yet.

She looked at Doris sitting demurely in the chair Johnny had placed for her. She was taking off her hat, and her hair s.h.i.+mmered in the office lights. She looked happy and pleased and her heart was in her eyes as she looked at Johnny. She didn't notice that Jane was watching her.

Impulsively Jane got up and walked over to her. She bent over Doris and took her hand and smiled. Her voice was low, so low that Johnny couldn't hear what she was saying. ”It's like a dream, Doris, isn't it?”

Startled, Doris looked up at her. She saw the warm kindliness in Jane's eyes. She nodded her head without speaking.

Jane took her coat and hung it up on the rack. She smiled again at Doris and went back to her chair and sat down.

The door opened again and Irving Bannon came in. His face was ruddy and excited. ”Something big is coming over the ticker, Johnny. You better take a look at it!”

”What is it?” Johnny asked.

”I don't know,” Irving answered. ”The tape just said: 'Important announcement to follow.' AP says it's a big story, I checked with them before I came in here.”

Johnny got up and walked round his desk to Doris. ”Do you want to look at it?”

”Yes,” she answered.

They followed Irving to the newsreel office. On the way there, Johnny introduced them. The newsreel office was a small room at the end of the hall. Inside it was a desk at which Irving sat when writing up his t.i.tle cards and a work-bench where he edited the reel. In a corner next to the desk was a news ticker-tape machine. Bannon had persuaded Johnny to install it so that if there were any special items of news the reel could give it coverage.

There were a few people gathered around the machine as they walked toward it. They made room for Johnny to walk through when they saw him. Doris stood next to him, Irving and Jane opposite him. The machine had been silent as they came into the room, but now it began to tick.

Johnny picked up the tape and began to read aloud from it.

WAs.h.i.+NGTON, D.C., MARCH 12 (AP).-BY EXECUTIVE ORDER PRESIDENT WILSON TODAY ORDERED THAT MERCHANT VESSELS BE ARMED TO PROTECT THEMSELVES AGAINST THE FURTHER WANTON DEPREDATIONS OF GERMAN SUBMARINES. THIS ORDER WAS ISSUED JUST EIGHT DAYS AFTER CONGRESS HAD FAILED TO Pa.s.s A BILL GIVING MERCHANT s.h.i.+PS THIS PRIVILEGE. THE COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRESIDENT'S ORDER WILL FOLLOW AS SOON AS AVAILABLE.-MORE WILL FOLLOW.

For almost a minute there was a complete silence in the room while the import of the news sank in. Bannon was the first to find his tongue. ”This means war,” he said flatly. ”n.o.body can stop it now. Looks like the President finally made up his mind.”

Johnny looked at him. War. The United States would have to go to war. Suddenly he galvanized into action. He turned to Jane. ”Get Joe Turner on the wire at the studio, quick!”

She ran back to his office.

He turned to Bannon. ”Get a special reel out on this as fast as you can, then get down to Was.h.i.+ngton with a full crew. I want pictures of everything important that might happen and I want you on the train within two hours!”

He turned and went back to his office, Doris following him. He had forgotten about her for a few seconds; now he felt her hand on his arm. He stopped and looked at her.

Her face was pale and her eyes wide in the yellow light of the corridor. Her voice was small and still. ”If war comes, Johnny, what are you going to do?”

He smiled rea.s.suringly at her and avoided the question. ”I don't know, sweetheart,” he said. ”We'll see what happens first.”