Hour of Enchantment / A Mystery Story for Girls

man by his ingenuity and tireless energy had drawn from the very bottom of th

they rode on gay launches or diminutive motor buses, or laughed at the talking cow and the puppet show; to climb with them the magic mountain where

absorbed in it did she become that she all but forgot to call Jeanne and tel

of it, and at once d

"Are you there? I've got exciting news. We are to meet a movie quee

Jeanne's tone wa

't tel

't you t

know. Good-bye. S

erment, her mind all awhirl with questions. Who was this movie p

nner at the hotel, and having bestowed a knowing look upon the check boy, custodian of her mysterious laundry bag, she made her way to the fairgrounds and for a tim

Snuggles right down and makes itself feel right at home. Surely this is so. And I, wandering here with this throng from all over this broad land, feel as if I ha

lden Temple. And here, more by instinct than desire, she sought once mo

ous voice of the mandarin. "This," he was saying, "is the laughing Buddha,

"Long ears, long life," she whispered. "There is one Chinaman who needs to

ot for to kill. Oh, no, he is for drive demons away. Always ring li

. Make land dry. Rice not come up. Millet not get

the three-bladed knife and the bell," she was thinking to herself. "How strange! I

g river. Nor did she emerge until she stood before an immense affair that, seeming a

el her mind went into a tailspin. Had sh

dragged great mahogany logs through the forest, there a magnificent trans-continental limited leaped at her from the mouth of a tun

ndred moving picture projectors she knew right well.

ut her, entranced, when with a sudden

elf looking into the mask-like

at she thought she might f

arted forward. Seeing a door knob, she grasped it. The door opened. Before her wa

n profound darkness. Only far above her sh

ness? That great dome of the Transportation Building was thronge

he door was closed. Had it shut itself? Had the l

aded knife!" she tho

's words came back to her. Scant comfort in this. It was

ve feet from the ground, up that narrow ladder, was the top of the dom

n seconds of time. Then, without havin

o go higher and higher, feeling her way every step in t

ened by the mysterious silence of Orientals. They moved about with p

she told herself, "climb

ser and closer until with a sigh that was half a sob, she tumbled

e breath

man, she seized a trap door, slam

be able to

t could be drawn. It would fasten down th

she sprang to her feet and, whirling into an intox

was free. Petite Jeanne did not

k of it, but a vast inverted saucer two hundred feet in diameter, she sprea

ther away were the tepees of the red men. Close at hand all manner of lights were blinking, racing, plunging, dancing. These were the wild thrill-

beneath her eye. At last her gaze wandered to t

ned to that great circle of

It is suspended in air. Great steel cables h

thought. And yet, wha

called her appointment

re was something in her tone that tells me an e

sound of her voice would be lost in the roar of the merry-mad throng. From the Midway came th

n. The ladder i

d and twenty-five feet, had been nerve-wrackin

terrible

after all, he h

some guard had seen her mount that

ll find out about the long-eared one; lift the tra

t there, I-I've

and whispering: "Now!" s

There was no one at t

the dome and allow them to dangle until they came into contact with a r

e reached soli

d it, swung the door open, stepped out, closed it silently, glanced to th