Chapter Seventeen

HELLO, NEW YORK

They were so busy until after dinner that night that Janet had no time to scan the evening paper. When she picked up the _Times_ it was with pleasant surprise for in the middle of the front page was a story by Pete Benda, reviewing "Water Hole" and describing the roles Janet and Helen played.

"Miss Hardy gave a most pleasing portrayal in the role of the heroine," Pete had written, "and a good many local people will enjoy this picture to the utmost. It is far above the average western."

Near the end was a line. "Cora Dean and Margie Blake, local girls who were also in the picture, may be seen in a crowd scene at the village." Janet smiled as she thought of the humiliation that Cora would feel. Well, it had been a mean trick of Cora's to write Pete Benda that she and Margie had leading roles.

Helen's father made complete plans for their trip to New York for the Ace company was paying all expenses as well as salaries to Janet and Helen while they were in the east.

Both Janet and Helen packed the new dresses Roddy had sent them in the large bags which they were taking with them. There might be little actual opportunity to wear them, but they wanted to be prepared.

Their train for Chicago left at ten o'clock and they arrived at the station in ample time, Janet's father conveying them there. He had reserved a drawing room for them and they felt elated over that.

The _Chicago Limited_ was on time to the minute, the puffing locomotive drawing its long string of Pullmans to an easy stop. The girls had drawing room A in car fifty-seven. The porter took their bags as they turned to say good-bye to their parents.

"Got plenty of money?" Janet's father asked in a whisper.

"Plenty, Dad. And I'll get paid while I'm in New York."

But he slipped her a small, black book that resembled a check book.

"Put this in your purse. It will come in handy if you have an emergency," he said.

Calls of "Bo-o-oard," rang along the train. Final good-byes were said and the girls stepped into the vestibule of their car. The train started easily and they waved to their parents. Then they were out of the train shed, picking up speed rapidly for the remainder of the night run to Chicago.

They retired to their drawing-room, finished in restful tones of rose and gray, and slipped into pajamas. Both being tired, they went to bed at once, Janet in the upper berth and Helen in the lower.

The car was air conditioned and they slept restfully, neither one of them awakening until they were in the outskirts of Chicago.

"What are you going to wear today?" asked Helen, stretching luxuriously between the crisp, cool sheets.

"My corduroy dress," said Janet. "It's excellent for travel; comfortable and it won't muss easily."

"That appeals to me," replied Helen, slipping out of bed and starting to dress while Janet lowered herself out of the upper.

The train was past Englewood by the time they were dressed and their porter came in to take their bags.

"Going to wear a hat?" asked Janet.

"Not with this dress; I haven't anything that goes well with it."

Janet tipped the porter and a red cap, waiting on the platform, took their bags. Their New York train was only four tracks away and would depart within an hour so their bags were taken directly to the Pullman, where another drawing room had been reserved for the Chicago-New York trip.

After making sure that their bags were in the drawing room, Janet and Helen went into the great, high ceilinged dining room in the station. They enjoyed a hearty breakfast of delicious country ham and eggs with crisp toast and a cool glass of milk.

Janet bought several morning papers and they returned to the train shed. Trains which had been rushing across the plains all night in their dash for Chicago were still arriving, while on other tracks long strings of coaches, ready to start carrying passengers away from the city, were being backed down the tracks.

Re-entering their New York train, they found seats in the luxurious limousine-lounge car at the rear of the train where the observation platform was enclosed in glass. A radio was tuned softly and all of the latest magazines were available.

Travel was light that day and at the start of the trip they were the only ones in the lounge car as the train rolled smoothly out of the station.

There was a brief pause at Englewood, then they were off again, picking up speed as the train skirted the southern edge of Lake Michigan where great industrial plants were perched along the shore and lake freighters seemed to spring out of the prairie as the rails crossed canals.

At lunch time they were well into Indiana. Only a few more passengers had boarded the train and they had the dining car practically to themselves.

As the afternoon advanced they dipped into Ohio and stops were more frequent. By late afternoon the train was well filled and space in the lounge car was almost at a premium.

Janet and Helen went to bed early that night for the coming day promised to be an unusually busy and exciting one for them--they would have their first glimpse of New York, visit Radio City, and receive their assignments for the radio play they were to be in.

"What are you going to wear tomorrow?" asked Helen as she snuggled down between the crisp sheets.

"I don't know, perhaps the corduroy dress I had on today," replied Janet. "It's so comfortable and I think it's becoming."

"I guess I'll vote that way, too," said Helen, and a minute later both girls were asleep.

They were up early the next morning, breakfasting as the train sped out of the Jersey hills and straightened out for its dash across the tidewater flats to Jersey City. They shot past commuter trains at almost regular intervals for their limited had the right of way.

As they neared the terminal, the porter took their bags and Helen handed him a tip. Her father had deliberately routed them over a line which ended in Jersey City so that they might have their first real glimpse of the towering New York skyline from a ferryboat.

The passengers poured off the train and onto the nearby ferry. Bells clanged, smoke rolled from the twin stacks, and the bulky boat nosed out into the river.

Helen crowded close to Janet as the full majesty of the skyline was unfolded. To their right was the lower city with its cluster of skyscrapers while to their left was mid-town with the Empire State towering almost into the clouds. A little beyond that the sharp spire of the Chrysler building rose skyward.

On the New York side of the Hudson liners were sandwiched into the docks and Janet grabbed Helen's arm and pointed to one. It was the _Europa_, famed speed liner. A little further along was the _Rex_, pride of the Italian merchant marine.

Then the ferry was nosing into its pier. Gates clanged, their baggage was loaded aboard a taxi, and almost before they knew it they were whirling away toward the heart of the city. Helen had given their hotel address.

Up onto an elevated roadway sped their cab where it rocketed along at forty-five miles an hour. Then they shot onto an incline and eased down into a street below. Traffic lights slowed them up now, but in less than ten minutes after leaving the ferry they were in Times Square, the very heart of the throbbing city, where Broadway and Seventh Avenue cross to form a great triangular opening.

At the hotel desk Janet registered for both of them.

"We were to have reservations," she said.

The clerk checked the registration list and marked their names off. Then they were whisked away to their rooms, high up and on the inside, where they could sleep in something like quiet. They had two rooms with a connecting bath.

"Well, what do you think of the city?" asked Helen.

"I'm still a little breathless," admitted Janet. "Los Angeles was large--but New York--it just seems to swallow you up."

They dressed carefully in preparation for their trip to Radio City and at nine-thirty o'clock went down stairs and inquired the best way to reach their destination. The clerk on duty suggested that they walk.

"It's only a short distance. Go one block to Sixth Avenue, turn to the left, and continue six blocks to Radio City."

The morning air was clear and cool as they set forth, walking briskly and taking in everything about them. On Sixth Avenue elevated trains rumbled overhead, but up the street they could see the towering building which housed Radio City and their steps quickened.

They reached their destination in a few minutes and turned to the right to the entrance which led to the offices of the World Broadcasting Company, the chain which was to put their program on the air. The lobby was of chromium and black and they stepped into a modernistic elevator that whisked them upward so rapidly they were breathless.

They stepped out at the twenty-seventh floor and into a luxuriously furnished lobby where there were comfortable chairs and restful lights. A young woman at the reception desk looked up as the girls advanced.

"We're to join the company from the Ace studios," Janet explained.

"Your names?" The inquiry was purely impersonal.

"Janet Hardy and Helen Thorne."

The young woman checked their names and called a page.

"Take them to studio K," she directed.

Janet and Helen turned and followed the page, who was leading them to a new chapter of their lives--one more thrilling than they could have imagined even in their deepest dreams.