The Weber Literary Journal Jeremiah and the flock of actors and stage-hands were led down to the dungeon-room door. "He's in there." Jeremiah put his mouth close to the key-hole. "Who's in there?" he yelled. The answer came but very faintly. "We are I am, we'll confess everything if you'll only let us out of here." "Hey you got the money in there?" "Yes yes let us out; we ain't got no coats and it feels like fifty below zero in here." Jeremiah then ordered a club squad which gathered around the big steel door for the purpose of preventing a get-away when the prisoners should be let loose. "Hey there ain't ya ever goin' to let us out of this ice-box?" "Yen, yeh, hand over the key, Sadie," said Jeremiah. "The key oh the key's lost. I dropped it as I was going up the steps to the stage." A general search for the lost key was instituted, but without any success. Jeremiah came to the conclusion that it had dropped through the grating at the foot of the steps where it could never be found amongst the garbage underneath. "The show's got to start," announced Jeremiah. "Get Miss Lake and we'll start." "I beg your pardon, sir, but Miss Lake isn't here. I have searched for her all over the place." The speaker was Laura's maid. "She hasn't been around for half an hour." A search for the star was then made. No star could be found. Jeremiah was almost crazy. Another of those bright ideas suddenly struck Sadie. "Say," said she, "there's a woman in with that crook, in the dungeon-room an' I know he's Laura's husband. Ask her who she is." "She won't answer," said Jeremiah, disgustedly." How do you know who he is?" Sadie then told him what she would have told him once before. 34 The Weber Literary Journal "That's her, then, all right enough, that's her," announced Jeremiah. "It'll be an hour and a half before we can let 'em loose and the show can't be held up that long or half that long." Jeremiah wailed pitifully. "Oh, what can I do, just what can I do? I ought t'uv known she was a crook by the way she talked today." Little Mamie Williams happened on the scene just then. "They want to know when the show's going to start, out there." "Never," growled Jeremiah. "We ain't got no star. Guess I'll have to go out there an' tell them the show's all off. I'll pay 'em all back their money when I can." "Wait a minute," exclaimed Sadie. "Oh, Mr. Hicks, let me play the part." "Gal, what are you talking about?" "Oh, please, Mr. Hicks. I've done it once before, you know." Mamie ran over and whispered something to the worried Jeremiah. "This is rather sudden, but we'll go ahead an' try it," Jeremiah said finally. At Sadie's first appearance, the audience clapped enthusiastically. "She sure looks like Sadie," was whispered among that young lady's admirers. "I tole Jimmie them pitchers of hern looked jes like our Sadie." Followers of Inez, however, scoffed at the idea, and found no resemblance. Bert Loring's face, had anyone bothered to notice it, would have been a puzzle. On the play went, and even Lem Leekins was satisfied. "It sure makes a difference who's playing the part," he was heard to remark. "This little devil's sure a hummer uv a angel. Sadie could take a lesson or two, I'm thinkin'." The audience was positively sobbing as "Little Eva" slowly rose upward to Heaven. Curtain calls followed. "Little Eva, Little Eva," called the crowd, but when Sadie as Sadie, came out and bowed in 35