Dorothy Dale to the Rescue by Margaret Penrose

Dorothy braced up mentally and prepared for the encounter.

Stanley Blake was coming toward them down the aisle with Gibbons following close at his heels like a squat little tug in the wake of a graceful steamboat.

Tavia's eyes danced as she watched them. She was evidently prepared to enjoy herself thoroughly. To see her outspoken Dorothy Dale play a part was a novelty and a most amusing one.

"Like going to a play, only lots better," was her unspoken thought. "For this, Tavia Travers, is real drama. True to life, if not truer."

But Dorothy was in quite a different mood. It was hard for her to act a part and she hated it. If she were forced to do such a thing for any one but Garry --

She closed here eyes for a moment and thought hard of Garry. When she opened them she looked straight into the handsome eyes of "Cal," _alias_ Stanley Blake, and smiled sweetly.

The latter was armed with two huge candy boxes and Dorothy accepted one of these while she longed to throw it to the floor. She decided hastily that she would get rid of it as soon as the men had returned to their own car.

It was easy to see that Tavia had no such scruples. She had already untied the violet ribbon that surrounded a box of an equally violet-Tavia afterwards pronounced it "violent"-hue, and, with smiling hospitality, was passing it around.

They talked for a while about impersonal things until Dorothy managed deftly and with apparent inadvertence to insert the information that she and her chum were bound for Desert City.

Stanley Blake immediately showed great pleasure, imparting the information that, by a strange coincidence, his destination also was Desert City.

It was the unpleasant-faced Gibbons that inquired with apparent guilelessness whether they had friends at Desert City, and it was here also that Dorothy displayed tact and discretion.

She responded with the truth about her pursuit of Joe and went into details with such candor-as, indeed, why should she not, seeing that she was telling the truth, even if it was not all the truth? -that even the inclined-to-be-skeptical Gibbons seemed impressed.

It ended in their assuring her of their personal aid in the search for her lost brother. Dorothy thanked them and in a few minutes they took their leave, Blake being fairly dragged along by the insistent Gibbons.

Tavia guessed that the mind of the last-named gentleman was concentrated upon the dining car from which could momentarily be expected the first call to dinner, and in this guess she came very near the truth.

"Well done, Doro! " Tavia exclaimed as her chum leaned back wearily in a corner of her seat. "You pulled the wool over their eyes with rare skill. The next thing you know our handsome Cal will be baring his secret thoughts to you."

"Not while that other fellow, Gibbons, is around," said Dorothy ruefully. "He hasn't much brains, but he has more than Stanley Blake, or whatever his real name is. Didn't you notice once or twice how Gibbons caught Blake up when he was about to divulge some secret?"

"Did I notice? " repeated Tavia reproachfully. "My dear, do you think I was born yesterday? And now," she added gleefully, "you have given me an inkling why I was thrust into this cruel world, Doro Dale. I believe I was born for this moment!"

"Don't be ridiculous!"

"Impossible to avoid it, my dear," retorted Tavia. "Now listen while I unfold to you my part in this drama."

And so it came to pass that an ugly-faced individual named Gibbons came to the conclusion that he was irresistible to the fair sex, or at least to one representative member of it named Tavia Travers.