The Moving Picture Girls Snowbound | Page 5

of the house.
"Unfortunately I was not prosperous enough in those days to have a bank account," answered Mr. DeVere. "A check would be a receipt; but I haven't that. In fact, I haven't a particle of evidence to show that I paid the money. And Dan Merley has my note. He could sue me on it, and any court would give him a judgment against me, so he could collect."
"But that would be paying him twice!" exclaimed Alice.
"I know it, and that is the injustice of it. It would be out of the question for me to raise five hundred dollars now. My throat treatment has been expensive, and though we are making good money at the moving picture business, I have not enough to pay this debt twice."
"He is a wicked man!" burst out Alice.
"My dear!" Ruth gently reproved.
"I don't care! He is, to make daddy pay twice!"
"Yes, it is hard lines," sighed the veteran actor. "I have begged and pleaded with Merley, imploring him to try and remember that I paid him, but he is positive that I did not do so."
"Do you suppose he really thinks so--that he is honest in his belief that you never paid him?" asked Ruth.
"Well, it is a hard thing to say against a man, when I have no proof," replied Mr. DeVere, "but I believe, in his heart, Dan Merley knows I paid him. I think he is just trying to make me pay him over again to cheat me."
"Oh, how can he be so cruel?" cried Alice.
"He is a hard man to deal with," went on her father. "A very hard man. This has been bothering me all day. I simply cannot pay that five hundred dollars; and yet, if I don't----"
"Can they lock you up, Daddy?" Alice questioned, fearfully.
"Oh, no, dear, not that. But he can make it very unpleasant for me. He can force me to go to court, and that would take me away from the film studio. I might even lose my engagement there if I had to spend too much time over a lawsuit.
"But, worst of all, my reputation will suffer. I have always been honest, and I have paid every debt I owed, though sometimes it took a little while to do it. Now if this comes to smirch my character, I don't know what I shall do."
"Poor Daddy!" said Ruth, softly, as she smoothed his rumpled hair.
"There, girls, don't let me bother you," he said, as gaily as he could. "Perhaps there may come a way out."
"Why don't you ask the advice of Mr. Pertell?" suggested Ruth.
"I believe I will," agreed her father. "He is a good business man. I wish I was. If I had been I would have insisted on getting either a receipt from Merley, or my note back. But I trusted him. I thought he was a friend of mine."
"Well, let's have supper," suggested Alice. "Matters may look brighter then."
"And I'll go see Mr. Pertell this evening," promised Mr. DeVere. "He may be able to advise and help me."
The meal was not a very jolly one at first, but gradually the feeling of gloom passed as the supper progressed. Mr. DeVere told of what had happened that day at the film studio where the moving pictures were made.
"Now I think I'll go see Mr. Pertell," the actor announced, as he rose from the table. "He said he would be in his office late to-night, as he is working on some new plans."
"What are they, Daddy?" asked Alice. "Are we to go off to some farm again?"
"Not this time. I believe there are to be some winter scenes taken, though just where we will go for them has not been announced. Well, I'm off," and, kissing the girls good-bye, Mr. DeVere went out.
Ruth and Alice, in his absence, discussed the new source of trouble that had come to them. They had been so happy all summer, that the blow fell doubly heavy.
"Isn't it just horrid!" exclaimed Ruth.
"Too mean for anything!" agreed Alice. "I wish I had that Dan Merley here. I--I'd----"
But Alice did not finish. Ruth had looked at her, to stop her rather impulsive sister from the use of too violent an expression. But there was no need of this. An interruption came in the form of a knock at the door.
"Who is it?" asked Ruth, and there came a little note of fear into her voice, for she was timid, and she realized at once that it was not one of their kind neighbors from across the hall. Russ, his mother, and his brother Billy always rapped in a characteristic manner.
"It's me--Dan Merley, and I want to see the old man!" was the answer. The girls drew together in fright, for they recognized by the thickness of the