  Sunday, like Saturday, produced one blank after another. Peggy and Amy saw theaters that had been turned into television studios, union halls, social clubs, and lodges; theaters converted to restaurants and supermarkets; sites of theaters long vanished and forgotten now occupied by office buildings, apartment houses or the blank-faced, featureless warehouses that fill much of lower Manhattan. On Monday, when their last class was over at two-thirty, Peggy once more took up her list and her bundle of city maps and guides. “Let’s go, Amy,” she said in tones of mixed determination and resignation. “We’ve got a couple of hours this afternoon, and we might as well use them.” “Why don’t we take the afternoon off?” Amy asked. “My feet are just killing me, and I’m sure if I walk for another two hours I’ll come down with an awful blister. We can look again tomorrow, after a day’s rest.” Peggy considered the suggestion for a moment. It would be a relief to take an afternoon off and just loaf about the house. But then she shook her head. “No. If we don’t have any luck, we can take tomorrow off, but I’d like to go out again today. There’s a meeting of the players tonight at Connie’s, you know, and I’d love to be able to report that we found something today. Let’s give it a try.” “All right, Peggy,” Amy agreed, “if you’re game, so am I. And it would be nice to have some good news for the gang tonight. I’m just afraid that we’ll put a damper on the evening when we show up all tired out with some more of our usual bad news.” Peggy half agreed, but knew that if she gave in and let down her pace, she might never again get up the kind of drive she had been working on for the last week. With a deep breath and a determined expression, she swept Amy off with her. “The section we’re looking in today,” she explained as they walked to the subway, “is a little west and south of Greenwich Village. It’s mostly warehouses now, but there were once several theaters there, and since there’s been almost no new construction in the area in the last fifty years, there’s a chance that some of the theaters have been left alone. I’m particularly interested in two of them that I think have a better chance of being there than the others we’ve looked for.” “Why should these two have a better chance?” Amy asked. “The licenses show that there were several theaters built in the city at one time in a way that got around the fire laws. The law said that you couldn’t build a theater with any other kind of space over it, and with land so expensive, it kept a lot of people from building theaters. So a few smart builders put theaters on the top floors of office buildings, and got more rentable space on their ground that way. I’ve found permits for over a dozen of these top-floor theaters.” “But why should they still be there,” Amy asked, “any more than any of the other old theaters?” “Two reasons,” Peggy answered. “In the first place, nobody would want to convert a top-floor theater to a restaurant or a garage or anything like that. And in the second place, the district we’re going to has practically no apartment buildings in it, and that means that there aren’t residents in the neighborhood to want to use a theater for a social club or a church or a funeral parlor. I have a feeling that we’re going to find our theater here, if we find it anywhere.” Amy agreed with Peggy’s logic and further noted that, if they did find a theater in this district, it would be a good location. There were two subway lines that had stops on either side of the area, and several bus lines as well. These observations gave them a somewhat more cheerful outlook, and it was with a renewed sense of anticipation that they came up from the subway and started their search in this promising new district. The streets in this part of town were narrow, and crowded with trucks that were backed up at all angles to loading platforms that ran like boardwalks along the fronts of the buildings. Most of the buildings were produce markets where wholesale food merchants received the meats, vegetables, fruits, and packaged goods that fed the city. Wide protective canopies that overhung their fronts gave the loading platforms the appearance of old-fashioned porches. Other buildings were warehouses, obviously designed for storage. Their blank windowless walls and heavy steel doors made them look like ancient fortresses. Here and there, between these and the produce markets, stood the most familiar kind of New York business building, the so-called “loft,” used for light industry or, occasionally, offices. It was in front of one of these that Peggy stopped. “Here’s our first address,” she said. “According to my list, a theater was licensed here by the original construction permit in 1892.” Amy looked at the worn, red brick front, unconvinced. “A theater here? I can’t imagine it! Maybe this place was built later, after the original building with the theater was torn down.” Peggy shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. I’ve gotten pretty good at architecture in the last few days, and I think I can guess the date of a New York building within a couple of years. This wasn’t built much later than 1892. It must be the original building with the theater. Let’s see if we can get any clue to it.” The girls walked across the street in order to get a better view of the building and, as soon as they turned to look, Peggy’s eyes lighted. “Look up!” she said. “There’s a theater up there, all right!” “How do you know?” Amy asked wonderingly. “Look at the windows! The first five floors have windows all the same height—a normal ceiling height. But the top floor has windows that must be twenty feet high! That means that the ceiling height is over twenty feet up there. What else could it be but the theater?” “You must be right!” Amy agreed with excitement. “What do we do now?” “Let’s see if there’s a janitor or anyone who can tell us about it; if it’s being used, and what for. Even if someone’s using it, we might be able to rent it from him if we can pay him more than he’s paying now. Let’s go and look!” They ran across the street and into the vestibule of the building, but when Peggy tried the door, she found it locked. A small sign on the door read O & O TRUCKING Co. And the same name was written over the bank of mailboxes. Apparently there were no other tenants in the building, and nobody seemed to be in the O & O offices. “We can always write to them,” Amy suggested, “or we can try them on the phone until we find someone in.” “I guess we’ll have to,” Peggy agreed. But then she noticed the doorbell, almost invisible under many layers of thick green paint. “Wait a minute! Let’s see if the bell works. Maybe there’s a watchman, or somebody else.” The door swung open A push at the button produced a loud ringing from deep within the building. Its sound seemed to echo for seconds after Peggy released the button. “If there’s anybody in there, that’s going to bring him,” she said. After a few minutes’ wait, she decided to try again. This time, at the same instant that she touched the doorbell, the door swung open, revealing a man in dirty overalls who stood blinking at the light and regarding them with a scowl. “Whatta ya want?” he grated. “Are you the superintendent?” Peggy asked politely. “I’m the janitor. Whatta ya wanta know for?” “Well, we’re just wondering about the theater upstairs—” “Theater? Ain’t no theater here, kid,” the man growled, and started to shut the door. “Wait!” Peggy said, holding the door open. “There is a theater upstairs! We know there is! All I want to know is what it’s used for.” “It ain’t used for nothin’,” the janitor started angrily. Then he stopped himself, remembering his first statement. “Besides, you got the wrong place. Like I said, no theater here. Now beat it!” With an extra push, he slammed the door shut, and Peggy and Amy once more were faced with nothing more enlightening than the O & O sign. “Why, I’ve never in my life seen such awful manners!” Amy said, almost with a stamp of her foot. “I’m going to write to that company as soon as we get home and tell them about—” “Amy,” Peggy interrupted, “I think you’re getting excited about the wrong thing. Let’s get away from here and talk this over.” But before leaving the district, she crossed the street once more to be sure that she was not mistaken about the building. Her second look convinced her that she had been right. Those windows could only mean a high-ceilinged room of some sort, and the license clearly stated that it had been a theater. “Amy, there’s just one thing to do now. We’ve got to check the city records again, this time to see the plans of this building. Then, once we’re sure it’s a theater, we’ve got some thinking to do before we act.” “But why would that janitor say there was no theater there if there is one?” Amy said. “That’s the question,” Peggy agreed darkly. “I want to know why he said that, and I want to know what the place is being used for.” “But, Peggy,” Amy protested, “why should we go poking into other people’s business? We already know that they’re not going to rent us this theater, and that they’re downright unpleasant people. Why don’t we just cross this one off, and go look at the others on your list?” “Amy, you’re not thinking clearly,” Peggy said patiently. “It seems to me that the only reason anyone would have for acting the way that janitor did is that there’s something wrong going on in there—something that makes it important for them to keep people out.” “If that’s the case,” Amy said reasonably, “why did the janitor act so suspiciously? If he had just said that the theater’s been converted to some other use and isn’t for rent, we would have gone away and not thought a thing about it.” “That’s true,” Peggy agreed, “but I think we caught him off guard. After all, it’s undoubtedly the first time anyone’s come around to ask him about the theater, and he just didn’t know what to say. Besides, I don’t think he’s very smart. He’s certainly not the man in charge of whatever crooked business is going on in there.” “If you’re sure it’s something crooked, why don’t we just report it to the police?” Amy asked. “We can’t go to the police with just our suspicions,” Peggy replied. “They want some kind of indication that there’s something illegal before they can investigate. In fact, I know they can’t even get a search warrant without evidence. No, I’m afraid we’ll have to look into this on our own.” “But, Peggy,” Amy protested, “we’re supposed to be looking for a theater, not playing cops and robbers!” “This is looking for a theater,” Peggy said intently. “If we uncover something crooked going on in there, and if we can convince the police of it, that building’s going to be vacant pretty soon. Come on! Let’s dig up the plans for this place before the Bureau closes for the night! I want to see what kind of stage the group is going to have to play on!” |
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