DUSKIN Read Online Free Page A

now here she was with the tables turned, her vacation gone, and in its place Mr. Fawcett’s burden thrust without warning upon her young shoulders. And besides that burden, she carried new knowledge that she had overheard from the two men. Then suddenly she remembered them and looked around for them, but the office boy said they were gone.
    As Carol turned to go back to her inner office, she heard the elevator stop on its way up, but she did not turn back to see who was getting off.
    Later, when she came out with a sheaf of papers for the treasurer, she had a vague impression of two figures, one tall and one short, moving along in the far end of the big room, but when she passed her hand over her eyes wearily and looked again there was no one in the room but the regular men at their desks, hard at work as usual.
    If there were only someone to whom she might turn now for a strong word of guidance and encouragement before she went out alone on this strange, wild errand! Or, perhaps if she knew God, the way her mother did, it might help. She felt strangely alone.

Chapter 2
    S omehow all the things got done, and Carol found herself seated in the sleeper car with a whole three minutes to spare before the train left.
    She was breathless and throbbing with excitement. She felt as if she had been running a race with time and was wound up so tight that it hurt her heart to stop.
    Her mother and her fourteen-year-old sister had come down to see her off, and they lingered, wistful and apprehensive, loath to have her go. There had been so little time to explain to them, and they were still indignant over the idea of her giving up her beautiful vacation for this wild business trip into an unknown West filled with no telling what awful possibilities.
    “Is he paying you extra for this?” asked Betty sternly, fixing her sister with a pair of very young, very modern blue eyes. “Because if he isn’t I shouldn’t go a step, even now!”
    “Betty, you don’t understand,” said Carol. “It wasn’t a time for talking about pay. I tell you Mr. Fawcett was hurt. He was very ill! The doctor felt it might be quite serious. He will pay me of course.”
    “Well, I should
sue
him if he didn’t,” asserted Betty indignantly. “Your lovely vacation!”
    “Oh, I may get a vacation later,” said Carol carelessly. Although the thought of her postponed vacation still hurt terribly.
    “Yes, a vacation after everybody has left and you’re the only pebble on the beach, the last rose of summer! I declare I think it’s the limit!”
    “Don’t make it any harder than it is, Betty dear!” pleaded Carol. “Come, perk up. I may be home before long.”
    “Yes, Betty, don’t waste time blaming Carol,” said the mother. “We must go in a minute, and there are so many things I wanted to say. You will be careful, won’t you? Going off into the wilds—”
    “Oh, Mother! It can’t be very wild where they are putting up an eleven-story building!”
    “Well, I suppose that is so,” said the troubled mother. “But you—a young woman
alone
! And you’re so good looking, Carol. Going among a lot of strange men!”
    “They won’t be any different from the men in our office, Mother. They’re just men, you know. And I’ll wear a veil if you like, or dye my cheeks with iodine, if you say so!” Carol tried to summon a mischievous grin, in spite of the sudden misgivings that had come to her as she entered the sleeper and realized that she was really going.
    “Now, Carol, do be serious!” pleaded her mother. “This is a dreadful world—”
    “Oh, no, Mother! It’s a pretty good world! Wait till I get back and tell you all the wonders of the wild and woolly West beginning with Chicago. Just think of it! I have to meet the Chicago representative and talk turkey to him! I telegraphed him in Mr. Fawcett’s name, ‘Accident prevents my coming. Meet my representative, C. W. Berkley, tomorrow on train No. 10 and give her all details of