"Who are you anyway?"
"Never mind who I am, you do as I say." The man's face was red as a beet under the derby hat.
"It's a detective." "It's outrageous. Let him show his badge."
"It's a holdup."
"It's a raid."
The room had filled suddenly with detectives. They stood in front of the windows. A man in a checked cap with a face knobbed like a squash stood in front of the fireplace. They were pushing the women roughly into the back room. The men were herded in a little group near the door; detectives were taking their names. Ellen still sat on the couch. ". . . complaint phoned to headquarters," she heard somebody say. Then she noticed that there was a phone on the little table beside the couch where she sat. She picked it up and whispered softly for a number.
"Hello is this the district attorney's office? . . . I want to speak to Mr. Baldwin please. . . . George. . . . It's lucky I knew where you were. Is the district attorney there? That's fine . . . no you tell him about it. There has been a horrible mistake. I'm at Hester Voorhees'; you know she has a dancing studio. She was presenting some dances to some friends and through some mistake the police are raiding the place . . ."
The man in the derby was standing over her. "All right phoning wont do no good. . . . Go 'long in the other room."
"I've got the district attorney's office on the wire. You speak to him. . . . Hello is this Mr. Winthrop? . . . Yes O . . . How do you do? Will you please speak to this man?"
She handed the telephone to the detective and walked out into the center of the room. My I wish I hadnt taken my hat off, she was thinking.
From the other room came a sound of sobbing and Hester Voorhees' stagy voice shrieking, "It's a horrible mistake. . . . I wont be insulted like this."
The detective put down the telephone. He came over to Ellen. "I want to apologize miss. . . . We acted on
