"Dear me, Chet," Laura observed soberly. "I think your slang is becoming
atrocious. So Janet was down there!"

"She had been calling on our friend with the broken leg, too," said Chet.

"She does seem interested in him, doesn't she?" Laura said thoughtfully. "I
wonder why?"

"Because her mother's half-brother went to Alaska years ago and they never
heard of him again," said Chet. "She told me."

"Oh!"

"Nothing wonderful about that," the brother declared.

"It is interesting."

"To them, I suppose," said Chet "But why don't you ask Miss Steele to join
you girls in the play you are getting up?"

"I never thought of it," confessed Laura.

"Your thought-works are out of kilter, Sis," declared Chet, laughing again.
"I'd certainly play Miss Steele off against the menace of Hester Grimes."

There was something besides mere sound in Chet Belding's advice, and his
sister appreciated the fact. But she did not go bluntly to the other girls
and suggest the Red Cross girl for the part of "the dark lady." She
realized that, if the new girl could act, she would amply fill the part in
the play. But Hester was supposed to have it now, and the very next day Mr.