Page:Angna Enters - Among the Daughters.djvu/51

 at her sister Mabel, with all her religiousness she hated everyone and was so grudging.

"Well, dear, it's nice of them to put a Bible in the room, people might like to read it sometimes."

"They would?"

"Of course. I went to church when I lived in Congress. I always meant to take you to Sunday school when you were little. Get undressed, so we can go to sleep."

Lucy peeked into the keyhole of a door in the center of the room. "This door's locked, I can't see what's in there."

"It's a door into the next room. Hurry up, dearest."

"I'm going to try that bathtub first."

At last they drew the shades and lay magically secure on the hard clean bed.

Just after four that afternoon they awoke and smiled at each other. Lucy rubbed the palm of her hand on her stomach.

"I'm hungry. I wish I had some of those good sandwiches from last night. Let's go and see if any are left."

The old janitor rolled happily out of the men's room where he had been draining the last bootleg dregs.

"I came to see whether I left a comb," lied Mae.

Nice l'il woman, nice l'il girl. "How about a l'il drink?"

"My goodness," said Mae, "let's have a little air in here first."

He obeyed with alacrity, delighted at having company. A drowned bottle of pop was rescued from a tub of melted ice for Lucy, and Mae had warm near beer.

"These are the best sandwiches I ever ate, they're not even very stale." Lucy closed her eyes to concentrate delight.

Mae nodded, hungrily eating one of the sandwiches she had been offered the night before.

"Do they have a lot of parties here?" she asked the janitor.

"Not from now on," said the little grizzled man happily. "There won't be nothing doing for coupla weeks."

Lucy yawned. "I'm tired all over again. I could sleep and sleep. Let's go back to the hotel."

In the hard light of the hotel room Lucy looked pale. Blue shadows circled her eyes. I'll have to get busy about a job, anything, first thing tomorrow, Mae worried.

Deep soothing slumber.

A key rattle in a lock and sound of a door opening.

Mae jumped in fright and, relieved, saw light line the bottom Rh