Girl Alone Part 11

Mrs. Bybee was too good a business woman, however, to let jealousy interfere with her judgment where the show was concerned. She had demurred a little, then had abruptly agreed to Bybee's plans for Sally.

Hours of sharp-tongued instruction from Mrs. Bybee had resulted in Sally's being on the platform now, nervously awaiting her turn.

The crowd surged nearer to Sally's platform. The spieler was introducing the giant now, and Jan was rising slowly from his enormous chair, unfolding his incredible length, standing erect at last, so that his head touched and slightly raised the sloping canvas roof of the tent.

She wondered, as she gazed pityingly and a little fearfully at Jan, how it felt to be three feet taller than even the tallest of ordinary men, and as she wondered she gazed upward into Jan's face and caught something of an answer to her question. For Jan's great, hollow eyes, set in a skeleton of a face, were the saddest she had ever seen, but patiently sad, as if the little-boy soul that hid somewhere in that terribly abnormal body of his had resigned itself to eternal sorrow and loneliness.

At the request of the spieler Jan stalked, like a seven-league-boots creature of a fairy tale, up and down the little platform, then, still sad-faced, patient, he folded up his amazing legs and relaxed in his great chair with a sigh. He was silently and indifferently offering postcard pictures of himself for sale when the barker turned toward Sally, cajoling the crowd away from the giant:

"And here, la-dees and gen-tle-men, we have the most beautiful girl that ever escaped from a Turkish harem-the Princess Lalla. Right here, folks!

Here's a real treat for you! They may come bigger but they don't come prettier! I've saved the Princess Lalla for the last because she's the best. I know all you sheiks will agree with me-" Embarra.s.sed snorts of laughter interrupted him. "That's right, boys. And if the Princess Lalla don't show up tonight I'll know that some good-looking Stanton boy has eloped with her.

"Stand up, Princess Lalla, and let these boys see what a Turkish princess looks like! Don't crowd now, boys!"

Sally slipped from her chair and advanced a pace or two toward the edge of the platform, her knees trembling so she could scarcely walk.

It did not seem possible to her that the glamorous, beautiful figure to whom the spieler had made a deep and ironic salaam was Sally Ford. She wondered if all those people staring at her with wide, curious eyes or with envy really believed she was the Princess Lalla, an escaped member of the harem of the Sultan of Turkey. She made herself see herself as they saw her-a slim, rounded, young-girl figure in fantastic purple satin trousers, wrapped close about her legs from knee to ankle with ropes of imitation pearls; a green satin tunic-blouse, sleeveless and embroidered with sequins and edged with gold fringe, half-revealing and half-concealing her delicate young curves; a provocative lace veil dimming and making mysterious the brilliance of her wide, childish eyes.

She wondered if any of the more skeptical would mutter that the golden-olive tint of her face, neck and bare arms had come out of a can of burnt-sienna powder, applied thickly and evenly over a film of cold cream. The mock-jewel-wrapped ropes of her blue-black hair, however, were real, and she felt their beauty as they lay against her slowly rising and falling breast.

To her gravely expressed doubts of the authenticity of her Turkish costume Mrs. Bybee had replied curtly, contemptuously: "My Gawd! Who knows or cares whether Turkish dames dress like this? It's pretty, ain't it? Them women may wear turbans and what-nots for all I know, but that black hair of yours ain't going to be covered up with no towel around your head."

And so, circling her brow and holding the sc.r.a.p of black lace nose veil in place, was a crudely fas.h.i.+oned but gaudily pretty crown studded with imitation rubies and emeralds and diamonds as big as bird's eggs. Her feet felt very tiny and strange in red sandals, whose pointed toes turned sharply upward and ended roguishly in fluffy silk pompoms.

"I declare, you make a lot better Princess Lalla than Minnie Brooks did," Mrs. Bybee had commented after out-fitting Sally. "She took down with appendicitis in Sioux City and we ain't had a crystal gazer since-one of the big hits of the show, too."

But the spieler was going on and on, giving her a fearful and wonderful history, endowing her with weird gifts-"... Yes, sir, folks, the Princess Lalla sees all, knows all-sees all in this magic crystal of hers. She sees past, present and future, and will reveal all to anyone who cares to step up on this platform and be convinced. Just 25 cents, folks, one lonely little quarter, and you'll have past, present and future revealed to you by the Turkish seeress, favorite fortune-teller of the Sultan of Turkey. Who'll be first, boys and girls? Step right up."

As he exhorted and harangued, the spieler, whom Sally had heard called Gus, was busy arranging the little pine table, covered with black velvet embroidered in gold thread with the signs of the Zodiac. On the table stood a crystal ball, mounted on a tarnished gilt pedestal, and covered over with a black square. Gus whisked off the square and revealed the "magic crystal" to the gaping crowd. Then, with another deep salaam, he conducted the "Princess Lalla" to her throne-like chair. She seated herself and cupped her brown-painted hands with their gilded nails over the large gla.s.s bowl.

A young man vaulted lightly upon the platform, followed by giggles and slangy words of encouragement. Sally's eyes, mercifully s.h.i.+elded by the black lace veil, widened with terror. Her hands trembled so as they hovered over the crystal that she had an almost irresistible impulse to cover her face with them. Then she remembered that the black lace veil and the brown powder did that.

For the first to demand an exhibition of her powers as a seeress was Ross Willis, Pearl Carson's "boy friend," Ross Willis who had not asked her to dance because she was the Carsons' "hired girl" from the orphanage.

While Ross Willis, awkward and embarra.s.sed, shuffled to the canvas chair which Gus, the spieler, whisked forward, Sally reflected that there was no need for her to remember any of the mult.i.tudinous instructions which Mrs. Bybee had primed her for her job of "seeress."

She curved her small, brown painted, gilded-nailed hands over the crystal and bent her veiled face low. In a seductive, sing-song voice she began to chant, bringing some of the words out hesitantly, as if English had been recently learned and came hard to her "Turkish" lips:

"I zee ze beeg fields-wheat fields, corn fields-ees it not zo?" She raised her shaded eyes coyly to the face of the young farmer. The crowd pressed close, breathing hard, the odors of their perspiration coming up on hot waves of summer air to the gayly dressed little figure on the platform. "Yes'm, I mean, sure, Princess," Ross Willis stuttered, and the crowd laughed, pressed closer still. Two or three women waved quarters to attract the attention of Gus, the spieler, who stood behind her, to aid her if necessary.

"You are-what you call it?-a farmer," Sally went on in her seductively deepened voice. Oh, it was fun to "play-act" and to be paid for it! "You va-ry reach young man. Va-ry beeg farm. You have mother, father, li'l seester." Thank heaven, her ears had been keen that night of Pearl's party, even if she had been inarticulate with shyness! "You ar-re in love. I zee a gir-rl, a beeg, pretty gir-rl with red hair an' blue eyes.

Ees it not zo?" Her little low laugh was a gurgle, which started a shout of laughter in the crowd.

"Yeah, I reckon so," Ross Willis admitted, blus.h.i.+ng more violently than ever.

"Oh, you Pearl!" a girl's voice shrilled from the crowd.

"You mar-ry with thees gir-rl, have three va-ry nize childs," Sally went on delightedly. After all, why shouldn't Pearl marry Ross Willis, since she could not have David? "Zo! That ees all I zee," she concluded with sweet gravity. "Zee creestal she go dark now."

Ross Willis thanked "Princess Lalla" awkwardly and dropped from the platform to the gra.s.s-stubbled ground, entirely unaware that the marvelous seeress was little Sally Ford.

Confidence and mirth welled up in Sally. She began to believe in herself as "Princess Lalla," just as she had always more than half-believed that she was the queen or the actress whom she had impersonated in the old days so recently ended forever, when she had "play-acted" for the other orphans.

The next seeker after knowledge of "past, present and future" was not so easy, but not very hard either, for the applicant was a girl, a pretty, very urban-looking girl, who wore a tiny solitaire ring on her engagement finger and who had been clinging to the arm of an obviously adoring young man. For the pretty girl Sally obligingly foretold a happy marriage with a "dark, tall young man, va-ry handsome"; a long journey, and two children. The girl sparkled with pleasure, utterly unconscious of the fact that "Princess Lalla" had told her nothing of the past and very little of the present.

Quarters were thrust upon her thick and fast. Because of the brisk demand for her services, Sally gave only the briefest of "readings," and only a few muttered angrily that it was a swindle. To a middle-aged farmer she gave a b.u.mper wheat crop, a new eight-cylinder car, a prospective son-in-law for the girl whom Sally had unerringly picked out as his unmarried daughter, and the promise of many splendid grandchildren. To a freckled, open-faced, engaging youngster of ten, thrust upon the platform by his adoring mother, she grandly promised nothing less than the presidency of the United States, as well as riches and a beautiful wife.

Some of her prophecies, such as twin babies for the newly married couple, brought shouts of laughter from the crowd, and some of her vague guesses as to the past went very wide of the mark, as the applicants did not hesitate to tell her-the old maid, for instance, who looked so motherly that Sally lavishly endowed her with a husband and three children; but nearly everyone who paid a quarter for what "Princess Lalla" could see in the magic crystal went away wondering and thrilled and satisfied.

During the first lull between performances, Sally slipped out of the "Palace of Wonders" and daringly mingled with the crowds outside. It was all beautiful and wonderful to Sally, who had been to a circus only once in her life and never to a carnival before.

Before the tent which housed the big gla.s.s tank into which "bathing beauties" dived and in which they ate bananas and drank soda-pop under water, she encountered Winfield Bybee, enormous, majestic, benign, for it was a good crowd and a fine day, and money was pouring into his pockets.

"Well, well," he grinned down at her, "I hear from Gus that you're knocking 'em cold. Better run along in now, and you might see how many of the rubes you can make follow you into the Palace of Wonders. We don't want to give 'em too much of a free show. And remember, girlie, for every quarter Princess Lalla earns as a fortune-teller, little Sally Ford gets a nickel for herself. Don't take many nickels to make a dollar."

"Oh, Mr. Bybee, I'm so happy I'm about to burst," Sally confided to him in a rush of grat.i.tude. "But-do you think it's very wrong of me to pretend to be a crystal gazer when really I can't see a thing in it to save my life?"

Bybee bellowed with laughter, so that the crowd veered suddenly toward them. He stooped to whisper closer to her little brown-stained ear: "Don't you worry, sister. As old P. T. Barnum used to say, 'There's a sucker born every minute,' and old Winfield Bybee knows that they like to be fooled. You just kid 'em along and send 'em away happy and I reckon the good Lord ain't going to waste any black ink on your record tonight. It's worth a quarter to be told a lot of nice things about yourself, ain't it?"

As she tripped swiftly across the dusty lot toward the Palace of Wonders, the crowd following her grew larger and larger. Becoming bolder because she felt that she was really "Princess Lalla" and not timid little Sally Ford, she deliberately flirted with the men who pressed close upon her, even waved a little brown hand invitingly toward the big tent.

When she reached the tent door, the barker leaned down from his booth, behind which was set a small platform, and beckoned her to mount the narrow steps. Smilingly she did so, and the barker introduced her:

"Here she is, boys-the Princess Lalla of Con-stan-ti-no-ple, the prettiest girl that ever escaped from the Sultan's harem! Princess Lalla, favorite crystal-gazer to the Sultan of Turkey before she escaped from his harem, will tell your fortunes, la-dees and gen-tle-men!

Princess Lalla sees all, knows all! Just one of the scores of attractions in the Palace of Wonders! Admission 25 cents, one quarter of a dollar, two bits!"

Sally bowed, her little brown hands spreading in an enchanting gesture; then she skipped down the steps, the great ropes of black hair, wound with strands of imitation pearls, flapping against the vivid green satin tunic.

She was very tired when the supper hour came, but the thought that she would soon see David again lent wings to her sandaled feet. She was about to hurry out of the Palace of Wonders, released at last by the apparently indefatigable spieler, Gus, when a tiny, treble voice called to her:

"Princess Lalla! Princess Lalla! Would you mind carrying me to the cars?"

Sally, startled, looked everywhere about the tent that was almost emptied of spectators before it dawned on her that the tiny voice had come from "Pitty Sing," "the smallest woman in the world," sitting in a child's little red rocking chair on the platform.

All of Sally's pa.s.sionate love for little things-especially small children-surged up in her heart. She skipped down the steps of her own particular little platform and ran, with outstretched hands, to the midget. "Pitty Sing" was indeed a pretty thing, a very doll of a woman, the flaxen hair on her small head marcelled meticulously, her little plump cheeks and pouting, babyish lips tinted with rouge. In her miniature hands she was holding a newspaper, which was so big in comparison with her midget size that it served as a complete screen.

"Of course I'll carry you. I'm so glad you'll let me," Sally glowed and dimpled. "You little darling, you!"

"Please don't baby me!" Pitty Sing admonished her in a severe little voice. "I'm old enough to be your mother, even if I'm not big enough."

And the tiny, plump hands began to fold the newspapers with great definiteness.

Sally's eyes, abashed, fluttered from the disapproving little face to the paper. Odd that so tiny a thing could read-but of course she was grown up, even if she was only 29 inches tall-

"Oh, please!" Sally gasped, going very pale under the brown powder. "May I see your paper for just a minute?"

For her eyes had caught sight of a name which had been burned into her memory, forever indelible-the name of Carson.

When Sally had carefully deposited the dignified little midget, "Pitty Sing," in the infant-sided high-chair drawn up to a corner table in the dining car, she hurried to the box of a kitchen which took up the other end of the car, the newspaper trembling in her hand. She found David alone in the kitchen, slicing onions into a great pan of frying Swiss steak. Onion-induced tears streamed down his cheeks, but at the sound of Sally's urgent voice, he turned.

"Oh, David, he wasn't killed!" she cried, taking care to keep her voice low. "It's in the paper-look! But he says the most terrible things about us, and the police are looking for us-"