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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Moving Picture Girls in War Plays, by
+Laura Lee Hope
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Moving Picture Girls in War Plays
+       Or, The Sham Battles at Oak Farm
+
+
+Author: Laura Lee Hope
+
+
+
+Release Date: January 12, 2007  [eBook #20348]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS IN WAR
+PLAYS***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, J. P. W. Fraser, Emmy, and
+the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+(https://www.pgdp.net/c/)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustration.
+      See 20348-h.htm or 20348-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/3/4/20348/20348-h/20348-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/3/4/20348/20348-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS IN WAR PLAYS
+
+Or
+
+The Sham Battles at Oak Farm
+
+by
+
+LAURA LEE HOPE
+
+Author of "The Moving Picture Girls," "The Moving Picture
+Girls at Sea," "The Outdoor Girls Series,"
+"The Bobbsey Twins Series," "The Bunny
+Brown Series," Etc.
+
+Illustrated
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+The Saalfield Publishing Co.
+Akron, Ohio        New York
+Made in U.S.A.
+
+Copyright, 1916, by
+Grosset & Dunlap
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "HERE THEY COME!" YELLED PAUL, AS THE FIRST OF THE
+SOLDIERS CAME INTO VIEW--_Page 78._
+
+_The Moving Picture Girls in War Plays._]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+          CHAPTER                                PAGE
+
+              I THE OLD NEWSPAPER                  1
+
+             II OFF FOR OAK FARM                  11
+
+            III HARD AT WORK                      21
+
+             IV A REHEARSAL                       30
+
+              V A DARING RIDER                    40
+
+             VI A NEEDED LESSON                   48
+
+            VII ESTELLE'S LEAP                    61
+
+           VIII A MASSED ATTACK                   70
+
+             IX MISS DIXON'S LOSS                 79
+
+              X LIEUTENANT VARLEY                 87
+
+             XI WONDERINGS                        97
+
+            XII AN INTERRUPTION                  103
+
+           XIII FORGETFULNESS                    111
+
+            XIV IN THE SMOKE                     120
+
+             XV THE HOSPITAL TENT                130
+
+            XVI A RETAKE                         137
+
+           XVII ESTELLE'S STORY                  143
+
+          XVIII "WHAT CAN WE DO?"                149
+
+            XIX A BIG GUN                        158
+
+             XX A WRONG SHOT                     164
+
+            XXI THE BIG SCENE                    171
+
+           XXII ALICE DOES WELL                  179
+
+          XXIII A BAD FALL                       186
+
+           XXIV A DENIAL OF IDENTITY             192
+
+            XXV REUNION                          199
+
+
+
+
+THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS
+IN WAR PLAYS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE OLD NEWSPAPER
+
+
+"There, I think I have everything in that I'll need at Oak Farm."
+
+"Everything! Good gracious, Ruth, how quickly you pack! Why, I've oceans
+and oceans of things yet to go into my trunk! Oh, there are my scout
+shoes. I've been looking everywhere for them. I'll need them if I do any
+hiking in those war scenes," and Alice DeVere dived under a pile of
+clothing, bringing to light a muddy, but comfortable, pair of walking
+shoes. "I don't know what I'd do without them," she murmured.
+
+"Alice!" cried Ruth, her sister, and the shocked tone of her voice made
+the younger girl look up quickly from the contemplation of the shoes.
+
+"Why, what have I done now?" came in rather injured accents. "I'm sure I
+didn't use any slang; and as for not having all my things packed as
+quickly as you, why, Ruth, my dear, you must remember that you are an
+exception--the one that proves the rule."
+
+"I didn't say you used any slang, Alice dear. Nor did I intimate that
+you were behind in your packing. I'll gladly help you. But it---- Those
+shoes!" and she pointed a finger dramatically at the "brogans," as Alice
+sometimes called them.
+
+"Those shoes? What's the matter with them? They're a perfectly good
+pair, as far as I can see; and they're mighty comfortable."
+
+"Oh, Alice--mighty?"
+
+"Well, I can't get over using such words, especially since we heard so
+many strong expressions from the sailors when we were in those sea
+films. Mine sound weak now. But what's the matter with the shoes, Ruth?"
+
+"They're so muddy, dear. They will soil all your pretty things if you
+put them in your trunk in that condition. You don't want that, do you?"
+
+"I should say not--most decidedly! Especially since pretty things with
+me last about one day. I don't see how it is you keep yours so nice and
+fresh, Ruth."
+
+"It's because I'm careful, dear."
+
+"Careful! Bosh! Care killed a cat, they say. I'm sure I'm careful,
+too---- Oh, here's that lace collar I've been looking everywhere for!"
+
+She made a sudden reach for it, there was a ripping, tearing sound, and
+Alice was gazing ruefully at a rent in the sleeve of her dress.
+
+"Oh, for the love of trading stamps!" she ejaculated.
+
+"Alice!" gasped Ruth.
+
+"Well, I don't care! I had to say something. Look at that rip! And I
+wanted to wear this dress to-day. Oh----"
+
+"That's just it, Alice," interrupted Ruth, in a gentle, chiding voice.
+"You are too impulsive. If you had reached for that lace less hurriedly
+you wouldn't have torn your dress. And if you took care of your things
+and didn't let your laces and ribbons get strewn about so, they would
+last longer and look fresher. I don't want to lecture----"
+
+"I know you don't, you old dear!" and Alice leaned over--they were both
+sitting on the floor in front of trunks--and made a motion as though to
+embrace her sister. But a warning rip caused her to desist, and, looking
+over her shoulder, she found her skirt caught on a corner of the trunk.
+
+"There! Did you ever?" she cried. "I can't even give you a
+sisterly hug without pulling myself to pieces. I'm all
+upset--excited--unstrung--Wellington Bunn doing Hamlet isn't to be
+compared to me. I must get straightened out."
+
+"I guess that's it--you're all tangled up in your packing," said Ruth,
+with a laugh. "Truly, I don't mean to lecture, Alice, but you must go a
+bit slower."
+
+"Not with this packing--I can't, and be ready in time. Why! you are all
+prepared to go. I'll just throw the things into my trunk and----"
+
+"Now, don't do that. Don't throw things in. You can put in twice as much
+if you lay the things in neatly. I'll help you. But--oh, dear----!"
+
+Ruth made a gesture of despair.
+
+"What's the matter now? What are you registering?" and Alice used the
+moving picture term for depicting one of the standard emotions. The
+girls were both moving picture actresses.
+
+"I'm trying to register dismay at the muddy state of those scout shoes,
+as you call them, Alice. They may be nice and comfortable, as you say,
+and really they do look so. And I have no doubt you will find them
+useful if we have to do much tramping over the hills of Oak Farm.
+But----"
+
+"Oh, we'll have to do plenty of hiking, as Russ Dalwood warned us,"
+Alice put in. "You know, there are to be several Civil War plays filmed,
+and they didn't have automobiles or motor cycles to get about on in
+those days. So we'll have to walk. And it will be over rough ground, so
+I thought these shoes would be just the thing."
+
+"They will, Alice. I must get a pair myself, I think. But I was just
+wondering how you got them so terribly muddy. How did you?"
+
+"Oh, Paul Ardite and I were in that Central Park scene the other day.
+You know, 'A Daughter of the Woods,' and some of the scenes were filmed
+in the park. It was muddy, and I didn't get a chance to have the brogans
+cleaned, for I had to jump from the park into the ballroom scene of 'His
+Own Enemy,' and there was no time. We had to retake in that scene
+because one of the extras was wearing white canvas shoes instead of
+ballroom slippers, and the director didn't notice it until the film was
+run out in the projection room.
+
+"So that accounts for the mud on the shoes, Ruth. But I suppose I can
+'phone down to the janitor and have him send them out to the Italian at
+the corner. He'll take the mud off."
+
+"No, I don't know that you can do that, Alice. We haven't any too much
+time. If I had an old newspaper, I could wrap the shoes up in that for
+you, and pack them in the bottom of your trunk. Then the mud wouldn't
+soil your clothes."
+
+"An old newspaper? Here's a stack of them. Daddy just brought them from
+his room. Guess he's going to throw them away."
+
+Alice reached up to a table and lifted the top paper from a pile near
+the edge. She opened it with a flirt of her hand and was about to wrap
+the muddy shoes in it when some headlines on one page caught her
+attention. She leaned eagerly forward to read them, and spent more than
+a minute going over the article beneath.
+
+"Well," remarked Ruth finally, with a smile, "if you're going to do
+that, Alice, you'll never get packed. What is it that interests you?"
+
+"This, about a missing girl. Why, look here, Ruth, there's a reward of
+ten thousand dollars offered for news of her! Why, I don't remember
+seeing this before. Look, it's quite startling. A San Francisco
+girl--Mildred Passamore--mysteriously disappears while on a train bound
+for Seattle--can't find any trace of her--parents distracted--they've
+got detectives on the trail--going to flood the country with photographs
+of her--all sorts of things feared--but think of it!--ten thousand
+dollars reward!"
+
+"Let me see," and in spite of the necessity for haste in the packing,
+Ruth DeVere forgot it for the moment and came to look over her sister's
+shoulder to read the account of the missing California girl.
+
+"It is strange," murmured Ruth. "I don't remember about that. I wonder
+if she could be around here? The New York police are wonderful in
+working on mystery cases."
+
+"But the funny part of it is," said Alice, "that I haven't noticed
+anything about it in the New York papers. Have you? This is a San
+Francisco paper. Naturally they'd have more about it than would the
+journals here. But even the New York papers would have big accounts of
+such a case, especially where such a large reward is offered."
+
+"That's so," agreed Ruth. "I wonder why we haven't seen an account of it
+in our papers. I read them every day."
+
+"What's that? An account of what? Have the papers been missing
+anything?" asked a deep, vibrating voice, and an elderly man came into
+the girls' room and regarded them smilingly.
+
+"Oh, hello, Daddy!" cried Alice, blowing him a kiss. "I'm almost ready."
+
+"Hum, yes! You look it!" and he laughed.
+
+"It's this, Daddy," went on Ruth, holding out the paper. "We were going
+to wrap Alice's muddy shoes in this sheet, when we happened to notice an
+account of the mysterious disappearance of a Mildred Passamore, of San
+Francisco, for whom ten thousand dollars reward is offered. There has
+been nothing in the New York papers about it."
+
+Mr. DeVere, an old-time actor, and now employed, with his daughters, by
+a large motion picture concern, reached forth his hand for the paper.
+He gave one look at the article, and then his eyes went up to the
+date-line. He laughed.
+
+"No wonder there hasn't been anything in the New York papers of to-day
+about this case," he said. "This paper is four years old! But I remember
+the Passamore case very well. It created quite a sensation at the time."
+
+"Poor girl! Was she ever found?" asked Ruth.
+
+"Why, yes; I believe she was," said Mr. DeVere, in rather dreamy tones.
+He was looking over other articles in the paper.
+
+"Who got the reward?" asked Alice.
+
+"Eh? What's that?" Her father seemed to come back from a mental journey
+to the past.
+
+"I say, who got the reward?"
+
+"What reward?"
+
+"Why, Daddy! The one offered for the finding of Miss Passamore. The girl
+we just told you about--in the paper--ten thousand dollars. Don't you
+remember?"
+
+"Oh, yes. I was thinking of something else I just read here. Oh, the
+reward! Well, I suppose the police got it. I don't remember, to tell you
+the truth. I know that her disappearance at the time created quite a
+sensation."
+
+"And are you sure she was found?"
+
+"Oh, yes, quite sure. Look here!" and with a smile on his face he
+leaned forward, one rather fat finger pointing to the article he had
+just been reading. "I was wondering how you girls got hold of this old
+back-number paper, but I see it's one of several I saved because they
+had printed notices of my acting. This is a very good and fair criticism
+of my work when I was appearing in Shakespearian drama--a very fair
+notice, ahem!" and Mr. DeVere leaned back in his chair, a gratified
+smile on his face.
+
+"A fair notice! I should say it was!" laughed Alice. "It does nothing
+but praise you, and says the others offered you miserable support."
+
+"Well, it was fair to _me_," said Mr. DeVere. "Yes, I remember that tour
+very well. We were in California at the time of this Miss Passamore's
+disappearance. Helen Gordon was my leading lady then. Ah, yes, that was
+four years ago."
+
+"No wonder there wasn't anything in to-day's New York papers," said
+Alice. "Well, let me wrap up my shoes, and I'll try to have this packing
+done in time to get out to Oak Farm."
+
+"Yes, I just stopped in to see how you were coming on," put in her
+father. "Mr. Pertell wants to get started, and it won't do to disappoint
+him. There are to be several thousand men and horses in the production,
+and the bill for extras will be heavy."
+
+"I'll hustle along, Daddy!" cried Alice. "Do you want that paper?"
+
+"No, you may take it. I'll just tear out this page with the theatrical
+notice of myself."
+
+He handed the remainder of the paper to his daughter, who, with the help
+of her sister, wrapped up the muddy shoes.
+
+Then the girls proceeded with the putting in of other articles and
+garments that would be needed during their stay at Oak Farm.
+
+"I wonder----" began Alice, when there came a knock on their door, and a
+voice demanded:
+
+"I say, girls!--are you there?"
+
+"Yes, Russ. Come on in!" answered Alice.
+
+"Oh, and with the room looking the way it is!" remonstrated Ruth.
+
+"Can't be helped. Russ knows what packing is," Alice declared, as a
+tall, good-looking young man entered.
+
+"Come on!" he cried. "No time to lose."
+
+"What's the matter? Is the place on fire?" asked Ruth.
+
+"No. But there's got to be a retake in that last scene of 'Only a
+Flivver,' and Mr. Pertell sent me to get you. It won't take long, but
+they're in a hurry for it. Come on! Paul is waiting outside in the
+machine and I've got the camera. Hustle!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+OFF FOR OAK FARM
+
+
+"What's that, Russ? A retake?" asked Alice.
+
+"Yes, of that auto scene in the park."
+
+"Is that the one I'm in?" Ruth inquired.
+
+"Yes. You're both in it, and so is Paul. It's the scene where Mr. Bunn
+is struck by the auto mud-guard--not hurt, you know, and you, Ruth, jump
+out to give first aid."
+
+"What's the matter with the scene?" asked Alice. "I certainly struck him
+all right with the mud-guard."
+
+"Yes, that part was all right," Russ admitted. Alice had been running
+the automobile in the scene.
+
+"And didn't I do my first aid business well?" Ruth demanded.
+
+"Yes," Russ acknowledged. "Your part came out perfect. But just at the
+critical moment--you know, where Mr. Bunn was supposed to think he was
+dying and wanted to right the wrong he had done in cutting his daughter
+off in his will with only a dollar--some boys got in the way of the
+camera. They were outsiders, butting in, the way they always do when we
+film stuff in the park. It wouldn't have been so bad, only one of the
+youngsters began to pull off some funny stuff right in range of Mr.
+Bunn's agonized face. I didn't see him at the time, or I'd have stopped
+the running of the film. It was only when we got it in the projection
+room that we discovered it.
+
+"So Mr. Pertell ordered a retake of that one scene, and it's got to be
+done in a hurry. It won't take long. Mr. Bunn will meet us in the park.
+Be sure and wear the same things you had on that day. It won't do to
+have you get out of the auto in one dress, Ruth, and, a second later,
+kneel down beside Mr. Bunn in a gown entirely different."
+
+"All right, Russ, I'll be careful."
+
+"Oh, dear! But my packing!" sighed Alice. "I'll never get it done, and
+we must start for Oak Farm----"
+
+"Mr. Pertell will have to make allowances," said Russ, quickly. "Come
+on--move the boat! You won't be needed in the real war scenes for a
+couple of days, anyhow, though I suppose there'll be rehearsals. But it
+can't be helped. This retake is holding up the whole film, and it's to
+be released next week."
+
+Delaying only long enough to put on the proper dresses and to tell their
+father where they were going, Ruth and Alice DeVere were soon on their
+way to Central Park, where the scene was to be filmed, or photographed
+over again--a "retake," as it is called, the bane alike of camera men
+and directors.
+
+And while the girls--the moving picture girls--are on their way to do
+over a bit of work, I shall take the opportunity of telling my new
+readers something about Ruth and Alice DeVere.
+
+I have called them just what they are: "The Moving Picture Girls," and
+that is the title of the first volume of this series, which depicts them
+and their adventures.
+
+Their mother had died some years previously, leaving them to the care of
+their father, Hosmer DeVere, at one time a talented actor in the
+legitimate drama. But a throat affection forced him to give up his
+acting and, at the opening scene in the first volume, we find him and
+his daughters in rather straitened circumstances, living in a
+second-rate apartment house in New York.
+
+Across the hall dwelt Russ Dalwood, with his mother. Russ was a "camera
+man." That is, he took moving pictures in the big studios and out of
+doors for the Comet Film Company, of which Mr. Frank Pertell was manager
+and director.
+
+It was Russ who suggested to Mr. DeVere a way out of his troubles. He
+could not act in the "legitimate," as his voice was gone; but no voice
+is needed to appear on the films for the movies, since a mere motion of
+the lips suffices, when any speaking is to be done. The "silent drama"
+has been the salvation of many an actor who, if he had to declaim his
+lines, would be a failure.
+
+At first Mr. DeVere would not hear of acting before the camera, but he
+soon came to know that greater actors than he had fallen in line with
+the work, especially since the pay was so large, and finally he
+consented. An account of his success and of the entrance of his
+daughters into the field is given in the initial book.
+
+Ruth, the elder girl, was, like her father, of a romantic turn. Also she
+was rather tall and willowy, as Mr. DeVere had been before he had taken
+on flesh with the passing of the years; and she was cast for parts that
+suited her type. She was deliberate in her actions, and in "registry."
+
+Alice, like her late mother, was warm-hearted and impulsive, plump,
+vivacious and full of fun. Both girls were excellent movie actresses. In
+the company they had joined was Mr. Wellington Bunn, an old actor, who
+hoped, some day, to appear in Hamlet--Hamlet in the legitimate.
+
+Paul Ardite, who played light parts, had become very fond of Alice.
+Russ Dalwood had a liking for Ruth, and the four had many pleasant hours
+in each other's company.
+
+Pearl Pennington was the leading lady at times, and was rather disposed
+to domineer over our girls, as was her chum, Laura Dixon. Mrs. Maguire
+was the "mother" of the film company. She portrayed old lady parts, and
+her two grandchildren, Tommie and Nellie, the orphans, were cast for
+characters suitable to them.
+
+Carl Switzer, a German-American, did comedy parts and was a good fellow,
+though occasionally he would unconsciously say some very funny things.
+His opposite in character was Pepper Sneed, the grouch of the company.
+But Pepper could do valuable work, especially as a villain, and so he
+was kept on. As for Pop Snooks, the company could not have got along
+without him. It was Pop, the property man of the company, who made many
+of the devices used when the company went to "Oak Farm," as told in the
+second volume, where scenes for farm dramas were filmed. Pop could use a
+drawbridge in one scene, and, in the next, convert it into a perfectly
+good cow-barn. Pop was a valuable man.
+
+There were other members of the company, of more or less importance,
+whom you will meet as this story progresses.
+
+It was in the third volume of the series, "The Moving Picture Girls
+Snowbound," that Ruth and Alice succeeded in getting "the proof on the
+film" that saved Mr. DeVere from an unjust charge.
+
+From the cold and frostiness of Deerfield the girls went to Florida,
+where "Under the Palms," many stirring acts were filmed. It was here
+that Alice and Ruth helped find two girls who were lost in the wilds of
+the Everglades.
+
+"The Moving Picture Girls at Rocky Ranch" gave Ruth and Alice a taste of
+cowboy life, and though rivals tried to spoil some of the valuable
+films, they were not altogether successful, even though a prairie fire
+figured in their schemes.
+
+The girls, with their father, had recently returned from a perilous
+trip. This is told about in the volume immediately preceding the one you
+are reading--"The Moving Picture Girls at Sea." In that Alice and Ruth
+proved, not only their versatility as actresses, but also that they
+could be brave and resourceful in the face of danger. And they more than
+repaid the old sailor, Jack Jepson, who saved their lives, by doing him
+a good turn.
+
+"Well, life at Oak Farm will be vastly different from that on the _Mary
+Ellen_," remarked Alice, as she looked from the automobile as it swung
+along through the New York streets on the way to the park.
+
+"Yes," agreed her sister. "But I like it up there."
+
+"There are going to be some strenuous times," said Paul. "We've got to
+do some hustling work."
+
+"All the better," declared Russ. "I like to keep the film running. This
+sitting about all day and reeling off only ten feet makes me tired."
+
+"You like action!" laughed Ruth.
+
+"Yes; and plenty of it."
+
+Oak Farm was the property of the Apgars. There was Mr. Belix Apgar, the
+father, Nance, his wife, and Sandy, an energetic son. The farm was
+located in New Jersey, about forty miles from New York, and it provided
+a picturesque background for the scenes evolved by Mr. Pertell and his
+company. It was during a scene on the farm, some time before, that a
+valuable discovery had been made, which endeared the moving picture
+girls and their chums to the Apgars.
+
+"How did Mr. Pertell come to pick out Oak Farm for the war plays?" asked
+Ruth, as the automobile bounced along.
+
+"Well, I suggested it to him," answered Russ. "I remembered the
+background, and I felt sure we could get all sorts of settings there to
+make the proper scenes. There are hills, mountains, valleys, streams,
+bridges, waterfalls, cliffs and caves. Everything needed for perfectly
+good war dramas."
+
+"How did they come to want that sort of stuff?" asked Paul.
+
+"Oh, war stuff is going big now," Russ answered. "All this talk of
+preparedness, you know, the war in Europe, and all that. The public is
+fairly 'eating up' war pictures."
+
+"I hope we don't have to fire any guns!" exclaimed Ruth, with a shudder.
+
+"You'll see and hear plenty of 'em fired," Russ told her. "There are to
+be some big battle scenes and cavalry charges. But one of you will be
+back of the firing line, I believe."
+
+"How is that?" asked Alice.
+
+"Well, one of you girls is to be cast for an army nurse, and the other
+will be a spy. The spy has to carry a revolver."
+
+"I'm going to be the spy!" cried Alice, impetuously. "I know how to
+shoot a gun."
+
+"I'd rather be the nurse," murmured Ruth, and truly she was better
+fitted for that part.
+
+"'A Girl in Blue and A Girl in Gray' is to be the title of the war
+play--or at least one of them," went on Russ. "There will be some lively
+scenes, and I'll be on the jump most of the time."
+
+"Are you going to film them all?" asked Paul.
+
+"Oh, no. I'm to have several assistants, but I'll be in general charge
+of the camera squad. So, girls, look your prettiest."
+
+"They always do that," said Paul.
+
+"Thank you!" came in a feminine duet.
+
+A little later the place where the retake was to be made was reached.
+Mr. Bunn was on hand, wearing his air of "Hamletian gloom," as Alice
+whispered, and the work of retaking the scenes was soon under way.
+
+This time all went well. Alice drove her "flivver" at Mr. Bunn, who was
+properly knocked down and looked after by Ruth. No small boys, with an
+exaggerated sense of humor, got in the way, and the girls were shortly
+back in their apartment. They had moved to a more pretentious home since
+their success in moving pictures, and the Dalwoods had taken an
+apartment in the same building.
+
+"And now to get on with my packing!" sighed Alice. "All I am sure of is
+that I have my 'brogans' in."
+
+"I'll help you," offered Ruth.
+
+Two days later the Comet Film Company, augmented for the occasion, was
+at the depot in Hoboken, ready to take the Lackawanna train out to Oak
+Farm, New Jersey, where it nestled in the hills of Sussex County.
+
+"I don't see how they are going to take battle scenes with just this
+company," observed Alice, as she surveyed her fellow workers. "And where
+are the guns and horses?"
+
+"They'll come up later," Russ informed her. "There are to be two big
+companies and a couple of batteries, but they won't be on hand until
+they are really needed. It costs too much to keep them when they are not
+working."
+
+"Are you all here?" asked Mr. Pertell hurrying along the seats with a
+handful of tickets--"counting noses," so to speak.
+
+"All here, I think," answered Russ.
+
+"Where is Carl Switzer?" asked the manager.
+
+"He was here a minute ago," Alice said.
+
+"Well, he isn't here now," remarked Mr. Bunn.
+
+"And almost time for the train to start!" exploded the director. "We
+need him in some of the first scenes to-morrow. Get him, somebody!"
+
+"Hey, Mister! Does yer mean dat funny, moon-faced man what talks like a
+pretzel?" asked a newsboy in the station.
+
+"Yes, that's Mr. Switzer," was the answer. "Where is he?"
+
+"I jest seen him go out dat way," and the boy pointed toward the doors
+leading to the street in front of the ferry. This street led over to the
+interned German steamships at the Hoboken piers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+HARD AT WORK
+
+
+"Great Scott!" ejaculated Mr. Pertell. "I might have known that if
+Switzer came anywhere near his German friends he'd be off having a
+confab with them. Go after him, somebody! It's only five minutes to
+train time, and it will take those Germans that long to say how-de-do to
+one another, without getting down to business."
+
+"I'll get him," offered Paul, hurrying off toward the swinging doors.
+
+"I'll go wit' youse," said the newsboy. "I likes t' listen t' him talk.
+Does he do a Dutch act?"
+
+"Sometimes," laughed Paul.
+
+"Youse is actors, ain't youse?" the boy asked.
+
+"Movies," answered Paul, hurrying along toward the entrance to the
+shipyards.
+
+"I wuz in 'em onct," went on the lad. "Dey wuz a scene where us guys wuz
+sellin' papes, an' anudder guy comes along, and t'rows a handful of
+money in de street--he had so much he didn't know what t' do wit'
+it--dat wuz in de picture," he explained. "I wuz in de scene."
+
+"Was it real money?" asked Paul.
+
+"Naw--nottin' but tin," and the tone expressed the disappointment that
+had been experienced. "But we each got a quarter out of it fer bein' in
+de picture, so we didn't make out so worse. Dere's your friend now," and
+the newsboy pointed to the comedian standing at the entrance to one of
+the piers, talking to the watchman. Both had raised their voices high,
+and were using their hands freely.
+
+"Hey, Mr. Switzer, come along!" cried Paul. "It's time for the train."
+
+"Ach! Der train! I t'ought der vos plenty of time. I vant to see a
+friend of mine who is living on vun of dese wessels. Haven't I got der
+time?"
+
+"No, not a minute to spare. You can see him when you come back."
+
+"Ach! Maybe I neffer comes back. If I get in der war plays I may be
+shotted."
+
+"Oh, come on!" laughed Paul, while the newsboy went into amused
+contortions at the exaggerated language and gestures of Mr. Switzer.
+
+"See you later, Hans!" called the comedian to the watchman at the pier.
+
+"Ach, Himmel! Vot I care!" the latter cried. "I don't care even if you
+comes back neffer! You can't get on dose ship!" and he waved his hand at
+the big vessels, interned to prevent their capture by the British
+warships.
+
+"I was having quite an argument with him," said Mr. Switzer, speaking
+"United States," as he walked back to the station with Paul.
+
+"Wouldn't he let you go on board?"
+
+"No. Took me for an English spy, I guess. But I know one of der
+officers, and I thought I'd have time for a chat with him."
+
+"Mr. Pertell is in a hurry," said the young actor.
+
+"Well, if we miss this train there's another."
+
+"Not until to-morrow, and he wants to start the rehearsals the first
+thing in the morning."
+
+"Ach! Den dat's differunt alretty yet again, wasn't it so?" and Mr.
+Switzer winked at the admiring newsboy, and tossed him a quarter, with
+the advice to get a pretzel and use it for a watch charm. Whereat the
+boy went into convulsive laughter again.
+
+"What do you mean, Switzer, by going off just at train time?" demanded
+the indignant director and manager.
+
+"Train time is der time to go off--so long as you don't go off der
+track!" declared the German. "But I vanted to go on--not go off--I
+vanted to go on der ships only dey vouldn't let me. However, better late
+than be a miss vot's like a bird in der hand," and with a shrug of his
+shoulders and a last wink at the newsboy, Mr. Switzer went out to the
+waiting train with the others.
+
+It was a long and rather tedious ride to Oak Farm, which lay some miles
+back in the hills from the railroad station, and it was late afternoon
+when the company of moving picture actors and actresses arrived, to be
+greeted by Sandy Apgar and his father and his mother.
+
+"Well, I _am_ glad to see you all again!" cried Sandy, shaking hands
+with Mr. DeVere, the girls and the others. "It seems like old times!"
+
+"We're glad dot you are glad!" declaimed Mr. Switzer. "Haf you any more
+barns vot need burning down?"
+
+"Not this time," laughed Sandy. "One barn-burning is enough for me." A
+barn, an old one, had been destroyed on the occasion of the previous
+visit of the moving picture company--a burning barn being called for in
+one of the scenes.
+
+Oak Farm was a big place, and, in anticipation of the war plays to be
+enacted there, several buildings had been built to accommodate the extra
+actors and actresses, where they could sleep and eat. The DeVere girls
+and the other members of the regular company would board at the
+farmhouse as they had done before.
+
+Hard work began early the next day. There was much to do in the way of
+preliminary preparation, and Pop Snooks, the property man, with a corps
+of assistants, was in his element. While Ruth, Alice and the others were
+going through a rehearsal of their parts without, of course, the proper
+scenic background, the property man was setting up the different "sets"
+needed in the various scenes.
+
+While they were working on one piece, Sandy Apgar came along on his way
+to look after some of the farming operations.
+
+"Hello!" he cried. "Say! you fellows did that mighty quick."
+
+"Did what?" asked Alice, who stood near, not being engaged for the time
+being.
+
+"Why, dug that well. I didn't know you could strike water so soon," and
+he pointed to an old-fashioned well with a sweep, which stood not far
+from the house. "What'd you use--a post-hole digger?" he asked. "What
+sort of water did you strike?"
+
+Before any one could answer him he strode over to the well, and, as he
+looked down into it, a puzzled look came over his face.
+
+"Well, I'll be jiggered!" he cried. "'Tain't a well at all! Only an
+imitation!"
+
+And that was what it was. Some canvas had been stretched in a circle
+about a framework, and painted to represent stones. The well itself
+stood on top of the ground, not being dug out at all. It made a
+perfectly good water-scene, with a sweep, a chain, a bucket and all.
+
+"I'm supposed to stand there and draw water for the thirsty soldiers,"
+explained Ruth, coming up at this point.
+
+"Huh! How are you goin' to git water out of there?" demanded Sandy.
+"It's as dry as a bone. Why, I've got a good well over there," and he
+pointed to a real one, under an apple tree.
+
+"That's in the shade--couldn't get any pictures there," explained Russ.
+"The well has to be out in the open."
+
+"But what about water?" asked Sandy. "Hang me if I ever heard of a well
+without water!"
+
+"We'll run a hose up to this one," explained Pop Snooks. "A man will lie
+down behind the well-curb, where he won't show in the camera. As fast as
+Ruth lowers her bucket into the well the man'll fill the pail with water
+for the soldiers to drink. It'll be quicker than a real well, and if we
+find we don't like it in one place we can move it to another. This is a
+movable well."
+
+"Well, I'll be----" began Sandy, but words failed him. "This is sure a
+queer business," he murmured as he strode off.
+
+The hard work of preparation continued. All about the farm queer parts
+of buildings were being erected, extra barns, out-houses, bits of fence,
+and the like.
+
+In what are called close-up scenes only a small part of an object shows
+in the camera, and often when a magnificent entrance to a marble house
+is shown, it is only a plaster-of-Paris imitation of a door with a
+little frame around it.
+
+What is outside of that would not photograph; so what is the use of
+building it? Of course in many scenes real buildings figure, but they
+are not built for the purpose.
+
+In one of the war plays a small barn was to be shown, and a soldier was
+supposed to jump through the window of this to escape pursuit. As none
+of the regular buildings at Oak Farm was in the proper location, Pop
+Snooks had been ordered to build a barn.
+
+He did. That is, he built one side of it, propping it up with braces
+from behind, where they would not show. The window was there, and some
+boards; so that, seen through the camera, it looked like a small part of
+a big out-building.
+
+Some hay was piled on the ground to one side, away from the camera, and
+it was on this hay that the escaping soldier would land. Then Ruth was
+to come to him, and go through some scenes. But these would be interior
+views, which would be taken in the improvised studio erected on the farm
+for this purpose.
+
+Mr. Switzer was to be the soldier, and would plunge through the barn
+window head first. He was called on to rehearse the scenes a few days
+after the semblance of a barn had been put in position and the hay laid
+out to make his landing safe.
+
+"Are you ready?" asked Mr. Pertell, who was directing the scene. "All
+ready, there, Switzer?"
+
+"Sure, as ready as I ever shall be."
+
+"All right, then. Now, you understand, you come running out of those
+bushes over there, and when you get out you stop for a minute and
+register caution. Look on all sides of you. Then you see the barn and
+the open window. Register surprise and hope. You say, 'Ah, I shall be
+safe in there!'
+
+"Then you run, look back once or twice to see if you are pursued, and
+make a dive, head first, through the open window on to the hay. All
+ready now?"
+
+"Sure, I'm ready!"
+
+"How about you, Russ?"
+
+"Let her go."
+
+"All ready, then! Camera!"
+
+Russ began to grind away at the film. Mr. Switzer had taken his place in
+the clump of bushes, his ragged Union garments flapping in the wind. He
+came out, looked furtively around, and then, giving the proper
+"registration," he advanced cautiously toward the barn.
+
+"Go on now--run!" cried Mr. Pertell through his megaphone.
+
+The German actor ran. He made a beautiful leap through the window, and
+the next moment there came from him howls of dismay.
+
+"Donner vetter! Ach Himmel! Ach! My face! My hands! Hey, somebody! bring
+a pail of water! Quick!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+A REHEARSAL
+
+
+Mingled in German and English came the shouts of dismay from Herr
+Switzer inside the dummy shed, through the window of which he had leaped
+on to the hay.
+
+"Oh, what is it?" cried Ruth, clasping her hands and registering
+"dismay" unconsciously.
+
+"He must have fallen and hurt himself," ejaculated Alice. "Do, Paul, go
+and see what it is."
+
+"Stop the camera!" yelled Mr. Pertell through his megaphone. "Don't
+spoil the film, Russ. You got a good scene there. He went through the
+window all right, and his yells won't register. Stop the camera!"
+
+"Stopped she is," reported Russ.
+
+Then those of the players who had been looking on and wondering at Mr.
+Switzer's cries could hurry to his rescue.
+
+For it is a crime out of the ordinary in the annals of moving pictures
+for any one not in the scene to get within range of the camera when an
+act is being filmed. It means not only the spoiling of the reel,
+perhaps, but a retaking of that particular action. When Russ ceased to
+grind at the camera crank, however, it was the same as when the shutter
+of an ordinary camera is closed. No more views can be taken. It was safe
+for others to cross the field of vision.
+
+"What's the matter?" cried Paul, who, with Ruth and Alice and some of
+the others trailing after him, was hurrying toward the false front of
+boards that represented a shed.
+
+"Did a cow critter or a sheep step on you?" Russ questioned.
+
+"Ach! My face! My clothes! Ruined!" came in accents of deep disgust from
+the actor. "Never again will I leap through a window without knowing
+into what I am going to land. Ach!"
+
+"What happened?" asked Paul, trying to keep from laughing, for the
+player's voice was so funnily tragic.
+
+"What happened? Come and see!" cried Mr. Switzer. "I have into a
+chicken's home invaded myself already!"
+
+"Invaded himself into a chicken's home!" exclaimed Mr. Pertell. "What in
+the world does he mean?"
+
+"I guess he means he sat down in a hen's nest!" chuckled Paul, and this
+proved to be the case.
+
+Going around to the other side of the erected boards, the players and
+others saw a curious sight.
+
+Seated on the hay, his face, his hair, his hands, and his clothing a
+mass of the whites and yellows of eggs, was Carl Switzer. He held up his
+fingers, dripping with the ingredients of half a dozen omelets.
+
+"The chicken's home was right here, in the hay--where I jumped. I landed
+right in among the eggs--head first. Get me some water--quick!" implored
+the player.
+
+"Didn't you see the eggs before you jumped among 'em?" asked Mr.
+Pertell.
+
+"See them? I should say not! Think you I would have precipitated myself
+into their midst had I done so?" indignantly demanded Mr. Switzer,
+relapsing into his formally-learned English. "I have no desire to be a
+part of a scrambled egg," he went on. "Some water--quick!"
+
+While one of the extra players was bringing the water, Sandy Apgar
+strolled past. He was told what had happened.
+
+"Plumped himself down in a hen's nest, did he?" exclaimed the young
+proprietor of Oak Farm. "Wa'al, now, if you folks go to upsettin' the
+domestic arrangements of my fowls that way I'll have t' be charging you
+higher prices," and he laughed good-naturedly.
+
+"Ach! Dat is better," said Mr. Switzer, when he had cleansed himself.
+"How came it, do you think, Mr. Apgar, that the hen laid her eggs right
+where I was to make my landing when escaping from the Confederates?"
+
+"Huh! More than one hen laid her eggs there, I reckon," the farmer said.
+"There must have been half a dozen of 'em who had rooms in that
+apartment. You see, it's this way. Hens love to steal away and lay their
+eggs in secret places. After you folks built this make-believe shed and
+put the hay in, I s'pose some of my hens seen it and thought it would be
+a good place. So they made a nest there, and they've been layin' in it
+for the last few days."
+
+"More as a week, I should say!" declared Mr. Switzer in his best German
+comedian manner. "There were many eggs!"
+
+"Yes, you did bust quite a few!" said Sandy, critically looking at the
+disrupted nest. "But it can't be helped."
+
+"Well, the film wasn't spoiled, anyhow," observed Mr. Pertell. To him
+that was all that counted. "You got him all right as he went through the
+window, didn't you, Russ?"
+
+"Oh, yes. It wasn't until he was inside, down behind the boards and out
+of sight, that the eggs happened."
+
+"No more eggs for me!" declared the comedian. "I shall never look a
+chicken in the face again."
+
+"Go on with the scene," ordered the director. "You are supposed to steal
+out to the barn to give the hidden soldier food," he said to Ruth. "You
+come out from the house, and are astonished to see a man's head sticking
+out of the shed window. You register surprise, and start to run back to
+the house, but the soldier implores you to stay, and you reluctantly
+listen to him. Then he begs for food----"
+
+"But don't bring me a hard-boiled egg, whatever you do!" called Mr.
+Switzer.
+
+"No funny business now," warned the director, with a laugh. "Go on now,
+and we'll see how you do it."
+
+After one or two trials Mr. Pertell announced himself as satisfied and
+the filming of that part of the war drama went on.
+
+So many details in regard to the taking of moving pictures have been
+given in the previous books of this series that they need not be
+repeated here. Suffice it to say that the pictures of the players in
+motion are taken on a long celluloid strip of film, just as one picture
+is taken on a square of celluloid in a snap-shot camera.
+
+This long reel of film, when developed, is a "negative." From it a
+"positive" strip of film is made, and this is the one that is run
+through the projection machine throwing the pictures on the white screen
+in the darkened theatre. The pictures taken are very small, and are
+greatly magnified on the screen.
+
+So much for the mechanical end of the business. It may interest some to
+learn that the photo-play, as seen in the theatre, is not taken all at
+once, nor in the order in which the scenes are seen as they are reeled
+off.
+
+When a play is decided on, the director or one of his helpers goes over
+the manuscript and picks out all the scenes that take place in one
+location. It may be in a parlor, in a hut, on the side of a mountain, in
+a lonely wilderness, on a battlefield, on a bridge--anywhere, in fact.
+And several scenes, involving several different persons, may take place
+at any one of these places.
+
+It can be understood that it would involve a great deal of work to
+follow the logical sequence of the scenes. That is to say, if the first
+scene was in an office showing a girl taking dictation from her
+employer, and the next showed the same girl and her employer on a
+ferryboat, and the third scene went back to the office, where some
+papers were being examined, it would mean a loss of time to photograph,
+or film, the first office scene, then take every one involved in the
+act to the ferryboat, and then back to the office again.
+
+Instead, the two office scenes, and possibly more, are taken at one
+time, on the same film, one after the other, without regard to whether
+they follow logically or not. Afterward the film is cut apart, and the
+scenes fitted in where they belong.
+
+So, too, all the scenes pertaining to a hut in the wilderness, on a
+bridge, in the woods, in a parlor--it makes no difference where--are
+taken at the same time. In this way much labor and expense are saved.
+
+But it makes a queer sort of story to an uninitiated person looking on;
+and sometimes the players themselves do not know what it is all about.
+
+So Mr. Pertell wanted to get all the scenes centering around the shed at
+the same time, though they were not in sequence. And Ruth and Mr.
+Switzer and the others in the east went through their parts with the
+shed as a background.
+
+In one scene Ruth had to discover the hidden soldier. Then she had to
+steal out to him with food. Later, at night, she was to help him to
+escape. Then, a week later, she was to go out to the same shed and
+discover a letter he had hidden in the hay. That ended the scenes at
+the shed, and it could be taken away to make room for something else.
+
+"Oh, Ruth, you did that splendidly!" exclaimed Alice, as her sister
+finished her work and went up on the shady porch to rest.
+
+"Did you like it? I'm glad."
+
+"Like it? It was great! Where you discovered that letter in the hay,
+your face showed such natural surprise."
+
+"I'm glad it didn't register merriment."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because, as I picked up the letter, I found a big blot of the yellow
+from the hens' eggs on it. I hope it doesn't show in the picture. I had
+all I could do to keep from laughing when I thought of Mr. Switzer in
+the omelet scene."
+
+"Oh, well, you know they want all white stuff yellow when they make
+pictures."
+
+"In the studio, but not outdoors."
+
+This is a fact. As the scenes in the studio are taken in the glare of a
+special kind of electric light, all white objects, even the collars and
+cuffs of the men, are yellow in tone, though in the picture they show
+perfectly white. This is due to the chemical rays of the lights used.
+Out of doors, under sunlight, colors are seen in their own hues.
+
+"You did very well in that funny little scene with Paul," said Ruth to
+her sister.
+
+"You mean in the swing under the apple tree?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I was so afraid he would swing me too high," Alice went on. "He was
+cutting up so. I told him to stop, but he wouldn't."
+
+"It was very natural. I think it will show well. Hark! what's that?"
+cried Ruth, leaping to her feet.
+
+"Thunder," suggested Alice, as a distant, rumbling noise came to their
+ears.
+
+"Sounds more like big guns."
+
+"Oh, that's what it is!" agreed Alice. "They are going to rehearse one
+of the battle scenes this afternoon, I heard Mr. Pertell say. The
+soldiers must have come, and they're practising over in the glen. Come
+on over and watch. We're in on the scenes later, but we can watch now."
+
+"All right," agreed Ruth. "Wait until I get my broad-brimmed hat, the
+sun is hot up here."
+
+Presently the two sisters, with Paul Ardite and some other members of
+the company, were strolling over the fields toward the scene of the
+distant firing. As they came in sight of several hundred men and horses,
+they saw the smoke of cannon and heard the shouting of the director and
+his assistants who were using big megaphones. It was the rehearsal of
+one of the many battle scenes that were to take place about Oak Farm.
+
+"Oh, look at that girl ride!" suddenly exclaimed Alice, pointing to a
+young woman who dashed past on a spirited horse. "Isn't she a wonder?"
+
+"She is indeed," agreed Ruth. "I wonder who she is?"
+
+"One of the extras," said Paul. "A number of them have just arrived.
+We'll begin active work soon, and film some big scenes with you girls in
+them."
+
+Alice gazed across the fields toward the figure of the girl on
+horseback. There was something spirited in her riding, and, though she
+had never seen her before, Alice felt strangely drawn toward the new
+player.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+A DARING RIDER
+
+
+"Come on now, Confederates!"
+
+"No, you Union chaps hold back there in ambush. You're not to dash out
+until you get the signal. Wait!"
+
+"Keep that horse out of the way. He isn't supposed to dash across,
+riderless, until after the first volley."
+
+"Put in a little more action! Fall off as though you were shot, not as
+though you were bending over to see if your horse had a stone under his
+shoe! Fall off hard!"
+
+"And you fellows that do fall off--lie still after you fall! Don't
+twitch as though you wanted to scratch your noses!"
+
+"If some of 'em don't stay quiet after they fall off they'll get stepped
+on!"
+
+"All ready now! Come with a rush when the signal's given!"
+
+Mr. Pertell and his men were stationed near a "battery" of camera men,
+who were ready to grind away; and the director and his assistants were
+calling their instructions through big megaphones. To reach the soldiers
+in the more distant parts of the field recourse was had to telephones,
+the wires of which were laid along the ground in shallow trenches,
+covered with earth so that the trampling of the horses would not sever
+them.
+
+"Get that battery farther back among the trees!" cried Mr. Pertell to
+one of his helpers. "It's supposed to be a masked one, but it's in plain
+sight now. Even the audience would see it, let alone the men it's
+supposed to fire on. Get it back!"
+
+"Yes, sir," answered the man, and he telephoned the instructions to the
+assistant director in charge of a battery of field guns that had been
+thundering away--the sound which had brought Ruth and Alice to the
+scene.
+
+"Do we have any part in the battle scenes?" asked Ruth.
+
+"Yes, quite big parts," Paul informed her. "But you don't go on to-day.
+This is only a rehearsal."
+
+"But they've been firing real powder," remarked Alice, "and it looks as
+though they were going to fire more," and she pointed to where men of
+the masked battery were ramming charges down the iron throats of their
+guns.
+
+"Yes, they're firing, and charging, and doing all manner of stunts, and
+the camera men are grinding away, but they aren't using any film," went
+on Paul. "It's just to get every one used to working under the
+excitement. They have to fire the guns so the horses will get so they
+don't mind them when the real time comes."
+
+Hundreds of extra players had been engaged to come to Oak Farm for these
+battle scenes in the drama, "A Girl in Blue and A Girl in Gray," and
+some of them were already on hand with their mounts. As has been said,
+special accommodations had been erected where they were to stay during
+the weeks they would be needed. There were more men than women among the
+extra people, though a number of women and girls were needed in the
+"town" scenes.
+
+Most of the men were former members of the militia, cowboys and
+adventurers, all of whom were used to hard, rough riding. This was
+necessary, for when battle scenes are shown there must be some "killed,"
+and when a man has a horse shot from under him, or is shot himself,
+riding at full speed, even though the cartridges are blank, the action
+calls for a heavy fall, sudden and abrupt, to make it look real. And
+this is not easy to do, nor is it altogether safe with a mob of riders
+thundering along behind one.
+
+Yet the men who take part in these battle scenes do it with scarcely a
+thought of danger, though often many of them are hurt, as are the
+horses.
+
+In brief the story of the play in which Ruth was to take the part of a
+girl in Blue, and Alice of a girl in Gray, was this. They were cousins,
+and Ruth was visiting Alice's home in the South when the war broke out.
+Alice, of course, sided with her people, and loved the gray uniforms,
+while Ruth's sympathies were with the North.
+
+Ruth determined to go back North and become a nurse, while Alice,
+longing for more active work, offered her services as a spy to help the
+Confederacy. Though on opposite sides, the girls' love for one another
+did not wane.
+
+Then came the scenes of the war. Battles were to be shown, and there
+were plots and counter-plots, in some of which Ruth and Alice had no
+part. Mr. DeVere was cast for a Northern General, and the character
+became him well. Later on Alice and Ruth were to meet in a hospital
+among the wounded. Alice was supposed to get certain papers of value to
+her side from a wounded Union officer. As she was escaping with them
+Ruth was to intercept her, and the two were to have a "strong" scene
+together.
+
+Alice, ignoring the pleadings of her cousin and about to depart with
+the papers, learns that the officer from whom she took them was the same
+one that had saved her father's life on the battlefield. She decides to
+forego her mission as a spy, even though it may mean the betrayal of her
+own cause, when the news comes in of Lee's surrender, and her sacrifice
+is not demanded. Then "all live happily for ever after."
+
+That is but a mere outline of the play, which was to be an elaborate
+production. And it was the rehearsal for the preliminary battles and
+skirmishes that the girls were now witnessing.
+
+"Tell that battery to get ready to fire!" cried Mr. Pertell, and this
+word went over the telephone.
+
+"Come on now with that Union charge!" was the next command.
+
+Then hundreds of horses thundered down the slopes of Oak Farm, while the
+hidden guns thundered. Down went horses and men while the girls screamed
+involuntarily, it all seemed so real.
+
+"It's a good thing we didn't plant no corn in that there field this
+season," observed Belix Apgar, Sandy's father, as he saw the charge.
+
+"That's right," agreed his wife. "There wouldn't have been 'nuff left to
+make a hominy cake."
+
+"Do it over again!" ordered the manager. "Some of you fellows ride your
+horses as if you were going to a croquet game. Get some action into it!"
+
+Once more the battery thundered its harmless shots and the men charged.
+This time the scene was satisfactory, and preparations were made to film
+it. Again the men thundered down the slope, and when they were almost at
+the battery a single rider--a girl--dashed out toward the approaching
+Union soldiers.
+
+"Oh, she'll be killed!" cried Ruth. "They'll ride right over her!"
+
+It did seem so, for she was headed straight toward the approaching
+horsemen.
+
+"She's all right," said Paul. "She's quite a rider, I believe. Her part,
+as a Union sympathizer, is to rush out and warn them of the hidden
+battery, but she is delayed by a Southerner until it is too late, and
+she takes a desperate chance. There go the guns!"
+
+Horses and riders were lost in a cloud of smoke. This time the film was
+being taken. When that charge was over, and men and horses, some
+limping, had gone back to their quarters, Mr. Pertell signaled to the
+daring woman rider to come to him.
+
+"That was very well done, Miss Brown," he said. "You certainly showed
+nerve."
+
+"I am glad you liked it," was the answer in a quiet, well-bred voice.
+"Shall you want me again to-day?"
+
+"Not until later, and it will be an interior. Is your horse all right?"
+
+"Oh, yes. I am in love with him!" and she patted the arching neck of the
+handsome creature. "He is so speedy."
+
+"He sure is speedy, all right," agreed Paul, and the girl--she was
+scarcely more than that--who had been addressed as Miss Brown by the
+director smiled at the young actor. Then she let her friendly gaze rest
+on Ruth and Alice.
+
+"Isn't she fine!" murmured Alice.
+
+"Like to meet her?" whispered Paul.
+
+"Yes!" exclaimed Alice eagerly, paying no attention to Ruth's plucking
+of her sleeve.
+
+"Miss Brown, allow me to present----" and Paul introduced the two DeVere
+girls.
+
+"That was a daring ride of yours!" remarked Alice, with enthusiasm.
+
+"Indeed it was," agreed Ruth, more quietly.
+
+"Do you think so? I'm glad you like it. I have been riding ever since I
+was a little girl."
+
+"Did you learn in the West?" asked Alice.
+
+"Why, yes--that is I--I really--oh, there goes that wild black horse
+again!" and Miss Brown turned to point to an animal ridden by one of
+the Confederate soldiers. The horse seemed unmanageable, and dashed
+some distance across the field before it was brought under control.
+
+Then the talk turned to moving picture work, though Ruth could not help
+wondering, even in the midst of it, why Miss Brown had not been more
+certain of where she had learned to ride.
+
+"It isn't something one would forget," mused Ruth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+A NEEDED LESSON
+
+
+Rehearsals, the filming of scenes, retakes and the studying of their
+parts kept busy not only the moving picture girls, but all the members
+of Mr. Pertell's company. There was work for all, and from the smallest
+girls and boys, including Tommie and Nellie Maguire, to Mr. DeVere
+himself, little spare time was to be had.
+
+Ruth and Alice had important parts, and they were given a general
+outline of what was expected of them. They would be in many scenes, and
+a variety of action would be required. In order that they do themselves
+and the film justice, since they were to be "featured," the girls spent
+much time studying in their rooms and practising to get the best results
+from the various registerings.
+
+"That is going to be a very strong scene for you and Alice," said Mr.
+DeVere to Ruth one day. "I refer to that scene where Alice takes the
+paper and afterwards discovers the identity of the man to whom she owes
+so much--the life of her father. Now let me see how you would play it,
+Alice."
+
+Alice did so, and she did well, but her father was not satisfied. The
+stage traditions meant much to him, and though he had been forced to
+give up many of them when he went into the motion pictures, still he
+knew what good dramatic action was, and he knew that it would "get over"
+just as certainly in the silent drama as it did in the legitimate. So he
+made Alice go over the scene again, and Ruth also, until he was
+satisfied.
+
+"Now, when the time comes, you'll know how to do it," he said. "Don't be
+satisfied with anything but the best you can do, even if it is only a
+moving picture show. I am convinced, more and more, that the silent
+drama is going to take a larger place than ever before the public."
+
+It was on one afternoon following a rather hard day's work before the
+cameras, that Ruth and Alice, with Miss Pennington and Miss Dixon, sat
+on the porch of the farmhouse, waiting for the supper bell. Russ and
+Paul were off to one side, talking, and Mr. DeVere and Mr. Bunn were
+discussing their early days in the legitimate. Mr. Pertell came up the
+walk, a worried look on his face, seeing which Mr. Switzer called out:
+
+"Did a cow step on some of the actors, Herr Director, or did one of our
+worthy farmer's rams knock over a camera after it had filmed one of the
+battle scenes?"
+
+"Neither one, Mr. Switzer," was the answer. "This is merely a domestic
+trouble I have on my mind."
+
+"Domestic!" exclaimed Alice. "You don't mean that some of your pretty
+extra girls have eloped with some of your dashing cowboy soldiers, do
+you? I wouldn't blame them if they----"
+
+"Alice!" chided her sister.
+
+"Oh, well, you know what I mean!"
+
+"No, it isn't quite that," laughed the director, "though you have very
+nearly hit it," and he took a chair near Alice and her sister, and near
+where Pearl Pennington and Laura Dixon were rocking and chewing gum.
+
+"Tell us, and perhaps we can help you," Alice suggested.
+
+"Well, maybe you can. It's about Miss Estelle Brown, the young lady who
+made that daring ride in front of the masked battery the other day."
+
+"What! Has she left?" asked Ruth. "She was such a wonderful rider!"
+
+"No, she hasn't left, but she threatens to; and I can't let her go, as
+she's in some of the films and I'd have to switch the whole plot around
+to explain why she didn't come in on the later scenes."
+
+"Why is she going to leave?" Alice queried.
+
+"Because she has been subjected to some annoyance on the part of a young
+man who is one of the extras. You know the extras all live down in the
+big bungalow I had built for them. I have a man and his wife to look
+after them, and I try to make it as nearly like a happy family as I can.
+But Miss Brown says she can't stay there any longer. This young man--a
+decent enough chap he had seemed to me--is pestering her with his
+attentions. He is quite in love with her, it seems."
+
+"Oh, how romantic!" gurgled Miss Dixon.
+
+"Miss Brown doesn't think so," said the manager dryly. "I don't know
+what to do about it, for I have no place where I can put her up alone."
+
+"Bring her here!" exclaimed Alice, impulsively.
+
+"Indeed, no!" cried Miss Pennington. "We actresses were told that none
+of the extra people would be quartered with us! If that had not been
+agreed to I would not have come to this place."
+
+"Nor I!" chimed in Miss Dixon. "We professionals are not to be classed
+with these extras--and amateurs at that!"
+
+"I know I did promise you regulars that you would be boarded by
+yourselves," said Mr. Pertell, scratching his head in perplexity, "and I
+don't blame you for not wanting, as a general run, to mix with the
+others. For some of them, while they are decent enough, have a big idea
+of their own importance. I wouldn't think of asking you to let one of
+the extra men come here, but this young lady----"
+
+"She is perfectly charming!" broke in Alice. "And she certainly can
+ride!"
+
+"She did seem very nice," murmured Ruth.
+
+"Pooh! A vulgar cowgirl!" sneered Miss Dixon.
+
+"There is a nice room near mine," went on Alice. "She could have that, I
+should think. The Apgars don't use it, and it is certainly annoying to
+be pestered by a young man!" and she looked with uptilted nose at Paul,
+who said emphatically:
+
+"Well, I like that!"
+
+"If I could bring her here----" began Mr. Pertell.
+
+"By all means!" exclaimed Ruth. "We will try to make her happy and
+comfortable--if she is an amateur."
+
+"She has no right to come here!" burst out Miss Dixon.
+
+"No, indeed!" added Miss Pennington. "If she comes, I shall go! I will
+not board in the same place with an amateur cowgirl doing an extra turn
+in the pictures."
+
+"Nor I!" snapped Miss Dixon.
+
+"All right--all right!" said Mr. Pertell quickly. "I know it's contrary
+to my promise, and I won't insist on it. Only it would have made it
+easier----"
+
+"Let Miss Brown come," quickly whispered Alice in the director's ear.
+"They won't leave. They're too comfortable here, and they get too good
+salaries. Let Miss Brown come!"
+
+"Will you stand by me if I do?"
+
+"Yes," said Alice.
+
+"So will I," added Ruth.
+
+Then the supper bell rang and the discussion ended for the time being.
+Later Mr. Pertell explained privately to Ruth and her sister that Miss
+Brown was a quiet and refined young lady about whom he knew little save
+that she had answered his advertisement for an amateur who could ride.
+She had made good and he had engaged her for the war scenes.
+
+"But she tells me that among the young men in the same boarding bungalow
+is one who seems quite smitten with her. He is impudent and exceedingly
+persistent, and she does not desire his attentions. She said she thought
+she would have to leave unless she could get a quiet place where he
+could not follow. It is all right during the day, as he can not come
+near her, but after hours----"
+
+"Do bring her!" urged Alice. "We'll try to make her comfortable. And
+don't fear what they will do," and she nodded toward the two other
+actresses, who had been in vaudeville before going into motion pictures.
+
+So it was that, later in the evening, Miss Brown brought her trunk to
+the Apgar farmhouse and was installed in a room near Alice and Ruth.
+
+"Oh, it is _so_ much nicer here!" sighed Estelle Brown, as she admitted
+Ruth and Alice, who knocked on her door. "I could not have stood the
+other place much longer. Though every one--except that one man--was very
+nice to me."
+
+"Let us be your friends!" urged Alice.
+
+"You are very kind," murmured Estelle, and the more the two girls looked
+at her, the prettier they thought her. She had wonderful hair, a
+marvelous complexion, and white, even teeth that made her smile a
+delight.
+
+"Have you been in this business long?" asked Ruth.
+
+"No, not very--in fact, this is my first big play. I have done little
+ones, but I did not get on very well. I love the work, though."
+
+"Were your people in the profession?" asked Alice.
+
+"I don't know--that is, I'm not sure. I believe some of them were,
+generations back. Oh, did you hear that?" and she interrupted her reply
+with the question.
+
+"That" was the voice of some one in the lower hall inquiring if Miss
+Brown was in.
+
+"It's that--that impertinent Maurice Whitlow!" whispered Estelle to Ruth
+and Alice. "I thought I could escape him here. Oh, what shall I do?"
+
+"I'll say you are not at home," returned Ruth, in her best "stage
+society" manner, and, sweeping down the hall, she met the maid who was
+coming up to tell Miss Brown there was a caller for her below.
+
+"Tell him Miss Brown is not at home," said Ruth.
+
+"Very well," and the maid smiled understandingly.
+
+"Ah! not at home? Tell her I shall call again," came in drawling tones
+up the stairway, for it was warm, and doors and windows were open.
+
+"Little--snip!" murmured Estelle. "I'm so glad I didn't have to see him.
+He's a pest--all the while wanting to take me out and buy ice-cream
+sodas. He's just starting in at the movies, and he thinks he's a star
+already. Oh! but don't you just love the guns and horses?" she asked
+impulsively.
+
+"Well, I can't say that I do," answered Ruth. "I like quieter plays."
+
+"I don't!" cried Alice. "The more excitement the better I like it. I can
+do my best then."
+
+"So can I," said Estelle. Then they fell to talking of the work, and of
+many other topics.
+
+"Did Estelle Brown strike you as being peculiar?" asked Ruth of her
+sister when they were back in their rooms, getting ready for bed.
+
+"Peculiar? What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean she didn't seem to know whether or not her people were in the
+profession."
+
+"Yes, she did side-step that a bit."
+
+"Side-step, Alice?"
+
+"Well, avoid answering, if you like that better. But my way is shorter.
+Say, maybe she has gone into this without her people knowing it, and she
+wants to keep them from bringing her back."
+
+"Maybe, though it didn't strike me as being that way. It was as though
+she wasn't quite sure of herself."
+
+"Sure of herself--what do you mean?"
+
+"Well, I can't explain it any better."
+
+"I'll think it over," said Alice, sleepily. "We've got lots to do
+to-morrow," and she tumbled into bed with a drowsy "good-night."
+
+Miss Laura Dixon and Miss Pearl Pennington most decidedly turned up
+their noses at the breakfast table when they saw Estelle sitting between
+Ruth and Alice. And their murmurs of disdain could be plainly heard.
+
+"She here? Then I'm going to leave!"
+
+"The idea of amateurs butting in like this! It's a shame!"
+
+Fortunately Estelle was exchanging some gay banter with Paul and did not
+hear. But Ruth and Alice did, and the latter could not avoid a thrust at
+the scornful ones. To Ruth, in an unnecessarily loud voice, Alice
+remarked:
+
+"Do you remember that funny vaudeville stunt we used to laugh over when
+we were children--'The Lady Bookseller?'"
+
+"Yes, I remember it very well," answered Ruth. "What about it, Alice?"
+for she did not catch her sister's drift.
+
+"Why, I was just wondering how many years ago it was--ten, at least,
+since it was popular, isn't it?"
+
+"I believe so!"
+
+"It's no such a thing!" came the indignant remonstrance from Miss
+Pennington. It was in this sketch that she had made her "hit," and as
+she now claimed several years less than the number to which she was
+entitled, this sly reference to her age was not relished. "It was only
+_six_ years ago that I starred in that," she went on.
+
+"It seems much longer," said Alice, calmly. "We were quite little when
+we saw you in that. You were so funny with your big feet----"
+
+"Big feet! I had to wear shoes several sizes too large for me! It was in
+the act. I--I----"
+
+"They're stringing you--keep still!" whispered her chum, and with red
+cheeks Miss Pennington subsided.
+
+But Alice's remarks had the desired effect, and there were no more
+references, for the present, directed at pretty Estelle. Miss Dixon and
+Miss Pennington had a scene with Mr. Pertell, though, in which they
+threatened to leave unless Estelle were sent back to the bungalow where
+the other extra players boarded. But the manager remained firm, and the
+two vaudeville actresses did not quit the company.
+
+Hard work followed, and Estelle made some daring rides, once narrowly
+escaping injury from the burning wad of a cannon, which went off
+prematurely as she dashed past the very muzzle. But she put spurs to her
+horse, who leaped over the spurt of fire and smoke. A few feet of film
+were spoiled; but this was better than having an actor hurt.
+
+Alice was sitting on the farmhouse porch one afternoon, waiting for
+Estelle and Ruth to come down, for they were going for a walk together,
+not being needed in the films. Estelle had been taken into companionship
+by the two girls, who found her a very charming companion, though little
+disposed to talk about herself.
+
+Alice, who was reading a motion picture magazine, was startled by
+hearing a voice saying, almost in her ear:
+
+"Is Miss Brown in?"
+
+"Oh!" and Alice looked up to see Maurice Whitlow smirking at her. He had
+tiptoed up on the porch and was standing very close to her. She had
+never been introduced to him, but that is not absolutely insisted on in
+moving picture circles, particularly when a company is on "location."
+
+"Is Miss Brown in?" repeated Whitlow.
+
+"I don't know, I'm sure," replied Alice.
+
+"Ah, well, I'll wait and find out. I'll sit down here by you and wait,"
+went on the young man, drawing a chair so close to that of Alice that it
+touched. "Fine day, isn't it? I say! you did that bit of acting very
+cleverly to-day."
+
+"Did I?" and Alice went on reading.
+
+"Yes. I had a little bit myself. I carried a message from the field
+headquarters to the rear--after more ammunition, you know. Did you
+notice me riding?"
+
+"I did not."
+
+"Well, I saw you, all right. If Miss Brown isn't home, do you want to go
+over to the village with me?"
+
+"I do not!" and Alice was very emphatic.
+
+"Then for a row on the lake?"
+
+"No!"
+
+"You look as though you would enjoy canoeing," went on the persistent
+Whitlow. "You have a very strong little hand--very pretty!" and he
+boldly reached up and removed Alice's fingers from the edge of the
+magazine. "A very pretty little hand--yes!" and he sighed foolishly.
+
+"How dare you!" cried Alice, indignantly. "If you don't----"
+
+"See how you like that pretty bit of grass down there!" exclaimed a
+sharp voice behind Alice, and the next moment Mr. Maurice Whitlow,
+eye-glasses, lavender tie, socks and all, went sailing over the porch
+railing, to land in a sprawling heap on the sod below.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+ESTELLE'S LEAP
+
+
+"Oh!" murmured Alice, shrinking down in her chair. "Oh--my!"
+
+She gave a hasty glance over her shoulder, to behold Paul Ardite
+standing back of her chair, an angry look on his face. Then Alice looked
+at the sprawling form of the extra player. He was getting up with a
+dazed expression on his countenance.
+
+"What--what does this mean?" he gasped, striving to make his tones
+indignant. But it is hard for dignity to assert itself when one is on
+one's hands and knees in the grass, conscious that there is a big grass
+stain on one's white cuff, and with one's clothing generally
+disarranged. "What does this mean? I demand an explanation," came from
+Mr. Maurice Whitlow.
+
+"You know well enough what it means!" snapped Paul. "If you don't, why,
+come back here and try it over again and I'll give you another
+demonstration!"
+
+"Oh, don't, Paul--please!" pleaded Alice in a low voice.
+
+"There's no danger. He won't come," was the confident reply.
+
+By this time Whitlow had picked himself up and was brushing his
+garments. He settled his collar, straightened his lavender tie and wet
+his lips as though about to speak.
+
+"You--you--I----" he began. "I don't see what right you had to----"
+
+"That'll do now!" interrupted Paul, sternly. "It's of no use to go into
+explanations. You know as well as I do what you were doing and why I
+pitched you over the railing. I'll do it again if you want me to, but
+twice as hard. And if I catch you here again, annoying any of the ladies
+of this company, I'll report you to the director. Now skip--and stay
+skipped!" concluded Paul significantly. "Perhaps you can't read that
+notice?" and he pointed to one recently posted on the main gateway
+leading to the big farmhouse. It was to the effect that none of the
+extra players were allowed admission to the grounds without a permit
+from the director.
+
+"Huh! I'm as good an actor as you, any day!" sneered Whitlow, as he
+limped down the walk.
+
+"Maybe. But you can't get over with it--here!" said Paul significantly.
+
+The notice had been posted because so many of the cowboys and girls had
+fairly overrun the precincts of Mr. Apgar's home. He and his family had
+no privacy at all, and while they did not mind the regular members of
+Mr. Pertell's company, with whom they were acquainted, they did not want
+the hundreds of extra men, soldiers, cowboys and horsewomen running all
+over the place.
+
+So the rule had been adopted, and it was observed good-naturedly by
+those to whom it applied. Whitlow must have considered himself above it.
+
+"Did he annoy you much, Alice?" asked Paul.
+
+"Not so very. He was just what you might call--fresh. He asked for Miss
+Brown, and when she wasn't here to snub him he turned the task over to
+me. Ugh!" and Alice began to scrub vigorously with her handkerchief the
+fingers which Whitlow had grasped. "I'm sorry you had that trouble with
+him, Paul," she went on. "But really----"
+
+"It was no trouble--it was a pleasure!" laughed Paul. "I'd like to do it
+over again if it were not for annoying you. I happened to come up behind
+and heard what he was saying. So I just pitched into him. I don't
+believe he'll come back. He'll be too much afraid of losing the work.
+Mr. Pertell has had a great many applications from players out of work
+who want to be taken on as extras, and he can have his pick. So those
+that don't obey the regulations will get short notice. You won't be
+troubled with him again."
+
+And Alice was not, nor was Miss Brown. That is, as regards the extra
+player's trespassing on the grounds about the farmhouse. But he was of
+the kind that is persistent, and on several occasions, when the duties
+of the girls brought them near to where Whitlow was acting, he smiled
+and smirked at them.
+
+Alice wished to tell Paul about it and have him administer another and
+more severe chastisement to Whitlow, but Ruth and Estelle persuaded the
+impulsive one to forego doing so.
+
+"I can look after myself, thank you, Alice dear," Estelle said. "Now
+that I don't have to board in the bungalow with him it is easier."
+
+"Don't make a scene," advised Ruth.
+
+"Oh, but I just can't bear to have him look at me," Alice said.
+
+Several of the scenes in the principal drama had been made, but most of
+the largest ones, those of the battles, of Alice's spy work, and of
+Ruth's nursing, were yet to come.
+
+The making of a big moving picture is the work not of days, but of
+weeks, and often of months. If every scene took place in a studio,
+where artificial lights could be used, the filming could go on every day
+the actors were on hand, or whenever the director felt like working them
+and the camera men. Often in a studio, even, the director will be
+notional--"temperamental," he might call it--and let a day go by, and
+again the glare of the powerful lights may so affect the eyes of the
+players that they have to rest, and so time is lost in that way.
+
+But the time lost in a studio is as nothing compared to the time lost in
+filming the big outdoor scenes. There the sun is a big factor, for a
+brilliant light is needed to take pictures of galloping horses, swiftly
+moving automobiles and locomotives, and every cloudy day means a loss of
+time. For this reason many of the big film companies maintain studios in
+California, where there are many days of sunshine. They can take
+"outdoor stuff" almost any time after the sun is up.
+
+But at Oak Farm there were times when everything would be in readiness
+for a big scene, the camera men waiting, the players ready to dash into
+their parts, and then clouds would form, or it would rain, and there
+would be a postponement. But it was part of the game, and as the
+salaries of the players went on whether they worked or not, they did not
+complain.
+
+One morning Alice, on going into Estelle's room, found her busy
+"padding" herself before she put on her outer garments.
+
+"What in the world are you doing?" Alice asked.
+
+"Getting ready for my big jump," was the answer.
+
+"Your big jump?"
+
+"Yes, you know there is a scene where I carry a message from
+headquarters to one of the Union generals at the front. Your father
+plays the latter part."
+
+"Oh, yes, now I remember. And Daddy is sure no one can do quite as well
+as he can in the tent scene, where he salutes you and takes the message
+you have brought through with such peril."
+
+"Yes, that's nice. Well, I'm to ride along and be pursued by some
+Confederate guerrillas. It's a race, and I decide to take a short cut,
+not knowing the Confederates have burned the bridge. I have to leap my
+horse down an embankment and ford the stream. I'm getting ready for the
+jump now--that's why I'm padding myself. For Petro--that's my
+horse--might slip or stumble in jumping down that embankment, and I want
+to be ready to roll out of the way. It's much more comfortable to roll
+in a padded suit--like a football player's--than in your ordinary
+clothes. Your friend, Russ Dalwood, told me to do this, and I think it
+is a good idea."
+
+"It's sure to be if Russ told you, isn't it, Ruth?" asked Alice, with a
+mischievous look at her sister, who had just come in.
+
+"How should I know?" was the cool response. "I suppose Mr. Dalwood knows
+what he is doing, though."
+
+"Oh, how very formal we are all of a sudden," mocked Alice. "You two
+haven't quarreled, have you?"
+
+"Silly," returned Ruth, blushing.
+
+"Are you really going to jump your horse down a cliff?" asked Alice.
+
+"I really am," was the smiling answer. "There is to be no fake about
+this. But really there is little danger. I am so used to horses."
+
+"Yes, and I marvel at you," put in Ruth. "Where did you learn it all?"
+
+"I don't know. It seems to come natural to me."
+
+"You must have lived on a ranch a long time," ventured Ruth.
+
+"Did I? Well, perhaps I did. Say, lace this up the back for me, that's a
+dear," and she turned around so that Alice or Ruth could fasten a
+corset-like pad that covered a large part of her body. It would not
+show under her dress, but would be a protection in case of a fall.
+
+Alice and Ruth were so greatly interested in the coming perilous leap of
+Estelle's that they did not pursue their inquiries about her life on a
+ranch, though Alice casually remarked that it was strange she did not
+speak more about it.
+
+The two DeVere girls had no part in this one scene, and they went to
+watch it, safely out of range of the cameras. For there were to be two
+snapping this jump, to avoid the necessity of a retake in case one film
+failed.
+
+"All ready now!" called Mr. Pertell, when there had been several
+rehearsals up to the actual point of making the jump. Estelle had raced
+out of the woods bearing the message. The Confederate guerrillas had
+pursued her, and she had found the bridge burned--one built for the
+purpose and set fire to.
+
+"All ready for the jump?" asked the director.
+
+"All ready," Estelle answered, looking to saddle girths and stirrups.
+
+"Then come on!" yelled the director through his megaphone.
+
+Estelle urged her horse forward. With shouts and yells, which, of
+course, had no part in the picture, yet which served to aid them in
+their acting, the players who were portraying the Confederates came
+after her, spurring their horses and firing wildly. On and on rushed the
+steed bearing the daring girl rider.
+
+She reached the place of the burned bridge, halted a moment, made a
+gesture of despair, and then raced for the bank, down which she would
+leap her horse to the ford.
+
+"Come on! Come on!" yelled Mr. Pertell. "That's fine! Come on! You men
+there put a little more pep in your riding. Turn and fire at them, Miss
+Brown! Fire one shot, and one of you men reel in his saddle. That's the
+idea!"
+
+Estelle had quickly turned and fired, and one man had most realistically
+showed that he was hit, afterward slumping from his seat.
+
+Now the girl was at the edge of the bank. She was to make a flying jump
+over its edge and come down in the soft sand, sliding to the bottom--in
+the saddle if she could keep her seat, rolling over and over if,
+perchance, she left it.
+
+"That's the idea! Get every bit of that, Russ! That's fine!" yelled Mr.
+Pertell.
+
+"There she goes!" cried Alice, grasping her sister's arm, and as she
+spoke Estelle spurred her horse and it leaped full and fair over the
+edge of the embankment. Estelle had made her big jump. Would she come
+safely out of it?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+A MASSED ATTACK
+
+
+While Russ Dalwood and his helper were grinding their cameras, reeling
+away at the film on which was being impressed the shifting vision of
+Estelle Brown taking her hazardous leap, Alice, Ruth, and the others
+were watching to see how the daring young horsewoman would come out of
+it.
+
+"She's going to land in a minute!" exclaimed Miss Dixon.
+
+"In a minute? In a half second!" cried Alice. "But don't talk!"
+
+"There--she's fallen!" gasped Miss Pennington.
+
+With his feet gathered under him, Petro had come down straight on the
+sliding, shifting sand of the embankment. For a moment it looked as
+though he had stumbled and that Estelle would be thrown.
+
+But she held a firm rein, and leaned far back in the saddle. The horse
+stiffened and then, keeping upright with his forelegs straight out in
+front of him and his hind ones bunched under him, he began to slide.
+
+Down the embankment he slid, as the Italian cavalrymen sometimes ride
+their horses, with Estelle firm in the saddle. And, as a matter of fact,
+the girl said afterward it was from having seen some moving pictures of
+these Italian army riders that she got the idea of doing as she did.
+
+"She won't fall!" murmured Paul.
+
+"Oh, I'm so glad! The picture will be a success, won't it?"
+
+"I should think so," Paul said. "It certainly was a daring ride."
+
+"I wouldn't mind doing it if I had her horse," put in Maurice Whitlow,
+smirking at the girls. "I think you could do that, Miss DeVere," and he
+looked at Alice.
+
+She turned away with only a murmured reply, but, nothing daunted, the
+"pest" went on:
+
+"Estelle is certainly a fine rider. I think she must have been a cowgirl
+on a ranch at one time, though she won't admit it."
+
+"She wouldn't to you, at any rate," said Paul, significantly.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Oh, if you don't know it's of no use to tell you. Look! Now she goes
+into the water!"
+
+The action called for the halting at the top of the embankment of the
+Confederate riders, who dared not make the jump. They fired some futile
+shots at Estelle, then rode around to a less dangerous descent to try to
+catch her. But Estelle was to ford the stream and continue on to the
+Union lines with her message.
+
+Reaching the bottom of the slope, her horse gathered himself together
+for another bit of moving picture work. At the edge of the stream
+another camera man was stationed, for Estelle and her horse were by this
+time too far away from Russ and his helper to make good views possible.
+
+Into the water splashed the girl, urging on her spirited horse, that was
+none the worse for his jump and his long slide.
+
+"Good work! Good work!" cried an assistant director, who was stationed
+near the stream to see that all went according to the scenario. "Keep
+on, Miss Brown!"
+
+Estelle bent low over her horse's neck, to escape possible bullets from
+the Confederate guns, and on and on she raced until she pulled up at the
+tent of "General" DeVere. Here her mission ended, after the father of
+Alice and Ruth, in a dusty uniform of a Union officer, had come out in
+response to the summons from his orderly.
+
+Estelle slipped from her saddle, registered exhaustion, saluted and held
+out the paper she had brought through the Confederate lines at such
+risk. Nor was the risk wholly one of the play, for she might have been
+seriously hurt in her perilous leap.
+
+But, fortunately, everything came out properly and a fine series of
+pictures resulted.
+
+"I'm so glad!" Estelle exclaimed, when it was all over, and, divested of
+her padding, she sat in her room with Ruth and Alice. "I want to 'make
+good' in this business, and riding seems to be my forte."
+
+"Do you like it better than anything else?" asked Alice.
+
+"Yes, I do. And I just love moving pictures, don't you?"
+
+"Indeed we do," put in Ruth. "But we were never cut out for riders."
+
+"I'd like it!" exclaimed Alice. "I'd like to know how to ride a horse as
+well as you do."
+
+"I'll show you," offered Estelle. "I'll be very glad to, and it's easy.
+It's like swimming--all you need is confidence, and to learn not to be
+afraid of your horse but to trust him. Let me show you some day."
+
+"I believe I will!" decided Alice, with flashing eyes. "It will be
+great."
+
+"Better ask father," suggested Ruth.
+
+"Oh, he'll let me, I know. We've ridden some, you know; but I would like
+to ride as well as Estelle," and Alice and Estelle began to talk over
+their plans for taking and giving riding lessons. In the midst of the
+talk the return of the boy who went daily to the village for mail was
+announced.
+
+"Oh, I hope my new waist has come!" Alice exclaimed, for she had written
+to her dressmaker to send one by parcel post. There was a package for
+her--the one she expected--and also some letters, as well as one for
+Ruth. Estelle showed no interest when the distribution of the mail was
+going on.
+
+"Don't you expect anything?" asked Alice.
+
+"Any what?"
+
+"Letters."
+
+"Why, no, I don't believe I do," was the slowly given answer. "I don't
+write any, so I don't get any, I suppose," and both girls noticed that
+there was a far-away look in Estelle's eyes. Perhaps it was a wistful
+look, for surely all girls like to get letters from some one.
+
+"I believe she is estranged from her family," decided Alice to her
+sister afterward. "Did you see how pathetic she looked when we got
+letters and she didn't?"
+
+"Well, I didn't notice anything special," Ruth replied. "But there is
+something queer about her, I must admit. She is so absent-minded at
+times. This morning I asked her if she wanted to go for a walk, and she
+said she had no ticket."
+
+"No ticket?"
+
+"Yes, that's what she said. And when I laughed and told her one didn't
+need a ticket to walk around Oak Farm, she sort of 'came to' and said
+she was thinking about a boat."
+
+"A boat--what boat?"
+
+"That was all she said. Then she began to talk about something else."
+
+"Do you know what I think?" asked Alice, suddenly.
+
+"No. But then you think so many things it isn't any wonder I can't keep
+track of them."
+
+"I think, as I believe I've said before, that she has run away from some
+ranch to be in moving pictures. That's why she doesn't write or receive
+letters. She doesn't want her folks to know where she is."
+
+"I can hardly believe that," declared Ruth. "She is too nice and refined
+a girl to have done anything like that. No, I just think she is a bit
+queer, that is all. But certainly she doesn't tell much about herself."
+
+However, further speculation regarding Estelle Brown was cut short, as
+orders came for the appearance of nearly the entire company in one of
+the plays.
+
+The first scene was to take place in a Southern town, and for the
+purpose a street had been constructed by Pop Snooks and his helpers.
+There was a stately mansion, smaller houses, a store or two and some
+other buildings. True, the buildings were but shells, and, in some
+cases, only fronts, but they showed well in the picture.
+
+Ruth, Alice, and a number of the girls and women and men were to be the
+inhabitants of this village, and were to take part in an alarm and flee
+the place when it was known that the Confederate forces were being
+driven back and through the place by the Unionists.
+
+"Come on--get dressed!" cried Alice, and soon she, her sister, Estelle
+and the other women were donning their Southern costumes, wide skirts,
+with hoops to puff them out, and broad-brimmed hats, under which curls
+showed.
+
+There was to be a massed attack by the Unionists on the town, through
+which the Confederates were to flee, and it was the part of Ruth and
+Alice to rush from their father's "mansion" bearing a few of their
+choice possessions.
+
+All was in readiness. The Southern defenders were on the outskirts of
+the town, drawn up to receive the Unionists. Toward these Confederates,
+their enemies came riding. This was filmed separately, while other
+camera men, in the made street, took pictures of the activities there.
+Men, women and children went in and out of the houses. Though, as Mr.
+Belix Apgar said, "If you call them houses you might as well call the
+smell of an onion a dinner. There ain't nothin' to 'em!"
+
+Suddenly an excited rider dashed into the midst of the peaceful
+activities of the Southern town.
+
+"They're coming! They're coming!" he cried, waving his hat. "The Yankees
+are coming!" This would be flashed on the screen.
+
+Then ensued a wild scene. Colored mammies rushed here and there seeking
+their charges. Men began to look to their arms. Then came the advance
+guard of the retreating Confederates, turning back to fire at their
+enemies.
+
+"Come on now, Ruth--Alice! This is where we make our rush--just as the
+first of the Union soldiers appear!" called Paul, who was acting the
+part of a Southern youth. "Grab up your stuff and come on!"
+
+Ruth was to carry a bandbox and a case supposed to contain the family
+jewels. Alice, who played the part this time of a frivolous young woman,
+was to save her pet cat.
+
+"Here they come!" yelled Paul, as the first of the Unionists came into
+view at the head of the street. "Hurry, girls!"
+
+Out they rushed, down the steps of the mansion, fleeing before the
+mounted Union soldiers, who laughed and jeered, firing at the
+Confederates, who were retreating.
+
+Ruth and Estelle, with some of the other women, were in the lead. Alice
+had lingered behind, for the cat showed a disposition to wiggle out of
+her arms, and she wanted to keep it to make an effective picture.
+
+Finally the creature did make its escape, but Alice was not going to
+give up so easily. She started in pursuit, and then one of the Union
+soldiers, Maurice Whitlow, spurred his horse forward. He wanted to get
+in the foreground of the picture and took this chance.
+
+"Get back where you belong!" yelled the director angrily. "Who told you
+to get in the spotlight? Get back!"
+
+But it was too late. Alice, in pursuit of the cat, was running straight
+toward Whitlow's horse, and the next moment she slipped and went down,
+almost under the feet of the prancing animal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+MISS DIXON'S LOSS
+
+
+"Look out!" shouted Paul, and, dropping what he was carrying, he made a
+leap toward the animal Whitlow was riding.
+
+"Roll out of the way of his feet!" cried the director.
+
+"Shall I keep on with the film?" asked the camera man, for his duty was
+to turn until told to stop, no matter what happened.
+
+"Let it run!" Alice cried. "I can get out of the way. Don't stop on my
+account!"
+
+She had been in motion pictures long enough to know what it meant to
+spoil a hundred feet or more of film in a spirited picture,
+necessitating a retake. She had seen her danger, and had done her best
+to get out of harm's way.
+
+The cat had leaped into some bushes and was out of sight.
+
+Whitlow, his face showing his fear and his inability to act in this
+emergency, had instinctively drawn back on the reins. But it was to the
+intelligent horse itself, rather than to the rider, that Alice owed her
+immunity from harm. For the horse reared, and came down with feet well
+to one side of the crouching girl, who had partly risen to her knees.
+
+At the same moment Paul sprang for the steed's bridle and swerved him to
+one side. Then, seeing that Alice was practically out of danger, Paul's
+rage at the carelessness of Whitlow rose, and he reached up and fairly
+dragged that young man out of the saddle.
+
+"You don't know enough to lead a horse to water, let alone ride one in a
+movie battle scene!" he cried, as he pushed the player to one side. "Why
+don't you look where you're going?"
+
+Whitlow was too shaken and startled to reply.
+
+"Go on. Help her up and keep on with the retreat!" cried the director.
+"That's one of the best scenes of the picture. Couldn't have been better
+if we had rehearsed it. Never mind the cat, Miss DeVere. Run on. Paul,
+you land a couple of blows on Whitlow and then follow Alice. Hold back,
+there--you Union men--until we get this bit of by-play."
+
+Paul, nothing loath, gave Whitlow two hard blows, and the latter dared
+not return them for fear of spoiling the picture, but he muttered in
+rage.
+
+Then Paul, shaking his fist at the Unionists, hurried on after Alice,
+and the retreat continued. What had threatened to be a disaster, or at
+least a spoiling of the scene, had turned out well. It is often so in
+moving pictures.
+
+In the remainder of the scene the girls had little part. They had been
+driven from their home, and, presumably, were taken in by friends. The
+rest of the scenes showed the Union soldiers making merry in the
+Southern town they had captured.
+
+"My! That was a narrow escape you had!" exclaimed Ruth, when she and her
+sister were at liberty to return to the farmhouse. "Were you hurt?"
+
+"No; I strained one arm just a little. But it will make a good scene, so
+Russ said."
+
+"Too good--too realistic!" declared Paul. "When I get a chance at that
+Whitlow----"
+
+"Please don't do anything!" begged Alice. "It wasn't really his fault.
+If I hadn't had the cat----"
+
+"It was his fault for pushing himself to the front the way he did," said
+the young actor. "Only the best riders were picked to lead the charge.
+He might have known he couldn't control his horse in an emergency.
+That's where he was at fault."
+
+"He is a poor rider," commented Estelle. "But you showed rare good
+sense, Alice, in acting as you did. A horse will not step on a person if
+he can possibly avoid it. Mr. Whitlow's horse was better than he was."
+
+"Just the same, I got in two good punches!" chuckled Paul, "and he
+didn't dare hit back."
+
+"He may make trouble for you later," Alice said.
+
+"Oh, I'm not worrying about that. I'm satisfied."
+
+There was a spirited battle scene later in the day between the Union and
+Confederate forces; the latter endeavoring to retake the village.
+
+A Confederate battery in a distant town was sent for, and the Union
+position was shelled. But as by this time the Union cannon had come up
+and were entrenched in the town, an artillery duel ensued.
+
+Views were shown of the Union guns being manned by the men, who wore
+bloody cloths around their foreheads and who worked hard serving the
+cannon. Real powder was used, but no balls, of course, and now and then
+a man would fall dead at his gun.
+
+Similar views with another camera were taken of the Confederate guns and
+the scenes alternated on the screen afterward, creating a big
+sensation.
+
+Then came an attack of the Confederate infantry under cover of the
+Southern battery. This was spirited, detachments of men rushing forward,
+firing and then seeking what cover they could. At times a man would roll
+over, his gun dropping, sometimes several would drop at the same time.
+These were those who were detailed to be shot.
+
+The Unionists replied with a counter charge, and for a time the battle
+waged fiercely on both sides. Then came a lull in the fighting, with the
+Confederates ready to make a last charge in a desperate attempt to
+recapture the town.
+
+"I know what would make a good scene," said Maurice Whitlow, during the
+lull when fresh films were being loaded into the cameras. "If we had an
+airship now some of us Union fellows could go for reinforcements in
+that. It would make a dandy scene."
+
+"An airship!" cried Russ. "Say! remember that these scenes are supposed
+to have taken place in 1863. The only airships then were those the
+inventors were dreaming about or making in their laboratories. No
+airships in Civil War plays! I guess not! Balloons, maybe, but no
+airships."
+
+"More fighting! Camera!" called Mr. Pertell, and again the spirited
+action was under way. Cannon boomed; rifles spat fire and smoke; men
+fought hand to hand, often rolling over dead; riderless horses dashed
+here and there. Now and then a man would narrowly escape being run down.
+As it was, several were burned from being too near the cannon or the
+guns, and one man's leg was broken in a fall from his horse.
+
+But it was part of the game, and no one seemed to mind. A real hospital
+was set up at Oak Farm, not a mere shell of a building, and here the
+injured, as well as those who simulated injury, were attended.
+
+Ruth and some of the women made up as nurses, though this was not the
+big scene in which Ruth and Alice were to take part.
+
+"Confederates retreat!" directed Mr. Pertell, and the Southern forces,
+having been defeated, were forced to withdraw. Their attempt to
+recapture their town had failed.
+
+"Whew! that was hot work!" cried Paul, as he came back to the farmhouse,
+having played his part as a Confederate soldier.
+
+"It certainly was," agreed Mr. DeVere, who had been the directing Union
+General. Now that the "war" was over Northerners and Southerners mingled
+together in friendly converse, their differences forgotten.
+
+"I just can't bear the smell of powder!" complained Miss Dixon. "I wish
+I had my salts."
+
+"I'll get them for you, dear," offered Miss Pennington. "I'm going up to
+our rooms." The former vaudeville actresses, with Ruth, Alice, and some
+of the others, were resting on the farmhouse porch.
+
+Miss Dixon smelled the salts and declared she felt much better.
+
+"There's to be a dance in the village to-night," Paul remarked at the
+supper table.
+
+"Let's go!" proposed Alice. "Will you take me, Paul?"
+
+"Of course I will."
+
+"May I have the pleasure?" asked Russ, of Ruth.
+
+"Why, yes, if the rest go."
+
+"We'll all go!" chimed in Miss Dixon. "Some of the extra men are good
+dancers. They proved it in the ballroom scene the other day. We can get
+a man, Pearl."
+
+"All right, my dear, just as you say."
+
+The little party was soon arranged.
+
+"Estelle might like to go," suggested Alice.
+
+"I'll go to ask her," offered Ruth, for Miss Brown had quit the supper
+table early and gone to her room.
+
+As Ruth mounted the stairs she heard Miss Dixon and Miss Pennington
+talking in the hall outside their rooms.
+
+"I can't see where it can be," Miss Dixon was saying.
+
+"It was on your dresser when I went up for the salts," said her chum.
+"Are you sure you didn't take it after that?"
+
+"Positive! It's gone--that's all there is to it."
+
+"What's gone?" asked Ruth.
+
+"One of my rings," was Miss Dixon's answer. "I left it on my dresser and
+my door was open. It was there when I went down to supper, and we were
+all at the table together----"
+
+"Except Estelle Brown!" said Miss Pennington quickly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+LIEUTENANT VARLEY
+
+
+For a moment Ruth stood looking with wide-open eyes at the two former
+vaudeville actresses. On their part they stared boldly at Ruth, and then
+Miss Dixon turned and slightly winked at Miss Pennington.
+
+"That was one of your valuable rings, wasn't it, dear?" asked Miss
+Pennington, in deliberate tones.
+
+"It certainly was--the best diamond I had. I simply won't let it be
+lost--or taken. I'm going to have it back!"
+
+She spoke in a loud tone, and the door of Estelle's room, farther down
+the hall, opened. Estelle looked out. She was in negligée, and she
+seemed to be suffering.
+
+"Has anything happened?" she asked.
+
+"Yes," answered Miss Dixon. "Something has happened. Some one has stolen
+my diamond ring!"
+
+"Oh!" gasped Ruth, "you shouldn't say that!"
+
+"Say what?"
+
+"Stolen. It's such a--such a harsh word."
+
+"Well, I feel harsh just now. I'm not going to lose that ring. It was on
+my dresser when I went down to supper, and now it's gone. It was
+stolen--or taken, if you like that word better. Perhaps you want me to
+say it was--borrowed?" and she looked scornfully at Ruth.
+
+"It may have slipped down behind your dresser."
+
+"I've looked," said Miss Pennington. "You came up here from the table
+before we did," she went on, addressing Estelle. "Did you see anything
+of any one in Miss Dixon's room?"
+
+"I? No, I saw no one." Estelle was plainly taken by surprise.
+
+"Did you go in yourself," asked Miss Dixon brusquely. "Come, I don't
+mind a joke--if it was a joke--but give me back my ring. I'm going into
+town, and I want to wear it."
+
+"A joke! Give you back your ring! Why, what do you mean?" and Estelle,
+her face flashing her indignation, stepped out into the hall.
+
+"I mean you might have borrowed it," went on Miss Dixon, not a whit
+daunted. "Oh, it isn't anything. I've often done the same thing myself
+when we've been playing on circuit. It's all right--if you give things
+back."
+
+"But I haven't taken anything of yours!" cried Estelle. "I never went
+into your room!"
+
+"Perhaps you have forgotten about it," suggested Miss Pennington coldly.
+"You seem to have a headache, and sometimes those headache remedies are
+so strong----"
+
+"I am tired, but I have no headache," said Estelle simply, "nor have I
+taken any strong headache remedies, as you seem to suggest. I haven't
+been walking in my sleep, either. And I certainly was not in your room,
+Miss Dixon, nor do I know anything about your ring," and with that she
+turned and entered her room, whence, presently, came the sound of
+sobbing.
+
+For a moment Ruth stood still, looking at the two rather flashy
+actresses, and wondering if they really meant what they had insinuated.
+Then Alice's voice was heard calling:
+
+"I say, Ruth, are you and Estelle coming? The boys have the auto and
+they'll take us in. Come on."
+
+Ruth did not answer, and Alice came running up the stairs. She came to a
+halt as she saw the trio standing in the hall.
+
+"Well, for the love of trading stamps! what's it all about?" she asked.
+"Are you posing for Faith, Hope and Charity?"
+
+"Certainly not Charity," murmured Ruth.
+
+"And I certainly have lost what little faith I had, though I hope I do
+get my ring back," sneered Miss Dixon.
+
+"Your ring? What's the matter?" asked Alice. "Have you lost something?"
+
+"My diamond ring was taken off my dresser," said the actress.
+
+"And that Estelle Brown was up here ahead of us, and all alone," said
+Miss Pennington. "She may have borrowed it and forgotten to return it."
+
+"That's what one gets for leaving one's valuable diamond rings around
+where these extra players are allowed to have free access," sneered Miss
+Dixon.
+
+"You mean that little chip diamond ring of yours with the red garnets
+around it?" asked Alice.
+
+"It isn't a chip diamond at all!" fired back Miss Dixon. "It was a
+valuable ring."
+
+"Comparatively, perhaps, yes," and Alice's voice was coolly sneering,
+though she rarely allowed herself this privilege. "I'm sorry it is
+lost----"
+
+"Why don't you say taken?" asked Miss Pennington.
+
+"Because I don't believe it was," snapped Alice. "Either you forgot
+where you laid it or it has dropped behind something. As for thinking
+Estelle Brown even borrowed it, that's all nonsense! I don't believe a
+word of it."
+
+"Nor I!" exclaimed Ruth.
+
+"Did you speak to her about it?" asked Alice, and then as the sound of
+sobbing came from Estelle's room she burst out with:
+
+"You horrid things! I believe you did! Shame on you!" and she hurried to
+the closed door.
+
+"It is I--Alice," she whispered. "Let me in. It's all a terrible
+mistake. Don't let it affect you so, Estelle dear!"
+
+Then Alice opened the unlocked door and went in. Ruth paused for a
+moment to say:
+
+"I think you have made a terrible mistake, Miss Dixon," and then she
+followed her sister to comfort the crying girl.
+
+"Humph! Mistake!" sneered Miss Dixon.
+
+"That's what we get for mixing in with amateurs," added her chum. "Come
+on, we'll speak to Mr. Pertell about it."
+
+But, for some reason or other, the director was not told directly of the
+loss of the ring, nor was Estelle openly accused. She felt as badly,
+though, as if she had been, even when Ruth and Alice tried to comfort
+her.
+
+Estelle had left the table early, but though she had passed Miss Dixon's
+room, she said she had seen no one about.
+
+"Don't mind about the old ring!" said Alice. "It wasn't worth five
+dollars."
+
+"But that I should be accused of taking even five dollars!"
+
+"You're not!" said Ruth, quickly. "They don't dare make an open
+accusation. I wouldn't be surprised if Miss Dixon found she had lost her
+ring and she's ashamed to acknowledge it."
+
+"Oh, but it is dreadful to be suspected!" sighed Estelle.
+
+"You're not--no one in his senses would think of even dreaming you took
+so much as a pin!" cried Alice. "It's positively silly! I wouldn't make
+such a fuss over such a cheap ring."
+
+But Miss Dixon did make a "fuss," inasmuch as she talked often about her
+loss, though she still made no direct accusation against Estelle. But
+Miss Dixon and her chum made life miserable for the daring horsewoman.
+They often spoke in her presence of extra players who did not know their
+places, and made sneering references to locking up their valuables.
+
+At times Estelle was so miserable that she threatened to leave, but Ruth
+and Alice would not hear of it and offered to lay the whole matter
+before Mr. Pertell and have him settle it by demanding that the loser of
+the ring either make a direct accusation or else keep quiet about her
+loss.
+
+Mr. DeVere, who was appealed to by his daughters, voted against this,
+however.
+
+"It is best not to pay any attention to those young ladies," he advised.
+"The friends of Estelle know she would not do such a thing, and no one
+takes either Miss Dixon or Miss Pennington very seriously--not half as
+seriously as they take themselves. It will all blow over."
+
+There were big times ahead for the moving picture girls and their
+friends. Some of the most important battle scenes were soon to be
+filmed, those that had already been taken having been skirmishes.
+
+"I have succeeded in getting two regiments of the state militia to take
+part in a sham battle for our big play," said Mr. Pertell one day. "They
+are to come to this part of the country for their annual manoeuvers
+under the supervision of the regular army officers, and by paying their
+expenses I can have them here for a couple of days.
+
+"They will come with their horses, tents, and everything, so we shall
+have some real war scenes--that is, as real as can be had with blank
+cartridges. It will be a great thing for my film."
+
+"And will they work in with our players?" asked Mr. DeVere.
+
+"Oh, yes, indeed! I intend to use your daughters in the spy and hospital
+scenes, and you as one of the generals. In fact, Mr. DeVere, I depend
+on you to coach the militia men. For though they know a lot about
+military matters, they do not know how best to pose for the camera. So
+I'll be glad if you will act as a sort of stage manager."
+
+"I shall be pleased to," answered the old player. And he was greatly
+delighted at the opportunity.
+
+About a week after Mr. Pertell had mentioned that two regiments of
+militia were coming to Oak Farm, Ruth and Alice awakened one morning to
+see the fields about them dotted with tents and soldiers moving about
+here and there.
+
+"Why, it does look just like a real war camp!" exclaimed Alice, who, in
+a very becoming dressing gown, was at the window. "Oh, isn't it
+thrilling! How dare you?" she exclaimed, drawing hastily back.
+
+"What was it?" asked Ruth from her room.
+
+"One of the officers had the audacity to wave his hand at me."
+
+"You shouldn't have looked out."
+
+"Ha! A pity I can't look out of my own window," and to prove that she
+was well within her rights Alice looked out again, and pretended not to
+see a young man who was standing in the yard below.
+
+There was a bustle of excitement at the breakfast table. All the players
+were eager to know what parts they would have, for this was the biggest
+thing any of them had yet been in--with two regiments taking the field
+one against the other, with many more cannon and guns than Mr. Pertell
+had hitherto used.
+
+"I'll be able to throw on the screen a real battle scene," he said.
+
+"The only trouble," declared Pop Snooks, "is that their uniforms aren't
+like those of the days of sixty-three." Pop was a stickler for dramatic
+correctness.
+
+"It won't matter," said Mr. Pertell. "The views of the battle will be
+distant ones, and no one will be able to see the kind of uniforms the
+men wear. Those who are close to the camera will wear the proper Civil
+War uniforms we have on hand. The officers of the Guard have agreed to
+that."
+
+Considerable preparation was necessary before the big film of the battle
+could be taken, and to this end it was necessary to have several
+conferences among the officers and Mr. Pertell and his camera men and
+assistants, including Mr. DeVere. A number of the Guard officers were
+constantly about the farmhouse, arranging the plans.
+
+One afternoon Alice was sitting on the porch with Estelle, waiting
+until it was time for them to take their parts in a side scene of the
+production. A nattily attired young officer came up the walk, doffing
+his cap.
+
+"I beg your pardon," he said. "I am Lieutenant Varley, and I was sent
+here to ask for Mr. Pertell. Perhaps you can tell me where I can find
+him?"
+
+Alice looked and blushed. He was the one who had audaciously waved to
+her beneath her window, but now he showed no sign of recognition. As his
+gaze rested on the face of Estelle Brown, however, he started.
+
+"Excuse me!" he began, "but did you reach your destination safely?"
+
+"My destination!" exclaimed Estelle. "What do you mean? I don't know
+you!"
+
+"Perhaps not by name. But are you not the young lady whom I met some
+years ago in Portland, Oregon, inquiring how to get to New York?"
+
+"You are mistaken," said Estelle, and her voice was frigid in tone. "I
+have never been in Portland in my life," and she turned aside.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+WONDERINGS
+
+
+For a moment Lieutenant Varley seemed to hesitate, and Alice felt sorry
+for him. He was distinctly not of the type that would try to make an
+acquaintance in this way just because Estelle was a pretty girl. He
+seemed embarrassed and ill at ease. But he was not the sort of young man
+to give up, once he thought he was right, as he obviously did in this
+case. To do so, Alice felt sure he reasoned, would have been to
+acknowledge that he was just the sort he seemingly was not.
+
+"I really beg your pardon," he went on, in a firm but respectful tone.
+"I am sure I have met you before. I do not wonder that you do not
+remember me, but I cannot forget you. Yours isn't a face one easily
+forgets," and he smiled genially, and in a manner to disarm criticism.
+
+"But I never was in Portland," insisted Estelle, and it was plain that
+she was puzzled by his persistence but not offended by it. "And I don't
+remember ever having seen you before."
+
+"Perhaps if I recall some of the circumstances to you it may bring back
+the memory," suggested the lieutenant. "Believe me, I do not do it out
+of mere idle curiosity, but you seemed in such distress at the time, and
+so uncertain of where you wanted to go, that I really wished after I had
+directed you that I had placed you in charge of the conductor of your
+train."
+
+"But I never was in Portland," said Estelle again, "and though I have
+been in New York, I went there from Boston. Surely you have confused me
+with some one else."
+
+The young officer shook his head.
+
+"I couldn't do that," he said with a smile that showed his white, even
+teeth. "It was just about this time three--no, four years ago. I was in
+Portland on business, and as I entered the railroad station you were
+standing there----"
+
+Estelle shook her head, smiling.
+
+"Well, for the sake of argument," admitted the lieutenant, "say it was
+some one who looked like you."
+
+"All right," agreed Miss Brown, and she and Alice drew near the porch
+railing, on the other side of which stood the officer with doffed hat.
+
+"A young lady was standing there, and she seemed quite bewildered," went
+on Lieutenant Varley. "I saw that she was in some confusion, and asked
+if I could be of any service to her. She said she wanted to get to New
+York, but did not know which train to take. I asked her if she had her
+ticket, and she replied in the negative. I asked her if she wanted to
+buy one, and she said she did, showing a purse well filled with
+bills----"
+
+"Then surely it could not have been I!" exclaimed Estelle with a merry
+laugh. "I never had a purse well-filled with bills. We moving picture
+players--at least in my class--don't go about like millionaires.
+Gracious! I only wish I did have a well-filled purse, don't you, Alice?"
+
+"Surely. But what else happened? I'm interested in the story."
+
+"And I was interested in the young lady," went on the officer. "I bought
+her ticket for her with the money she handed me, and put her on the
+train. She was quite young--about as old as you"--and he smiled at
+Estelle, "and I asked her if some one was going to meet her. She said
+she thought so, but was not sure, at any rate she felt that she could
+look after herself. I left her, and meant to speak to the conductor
+about her, but did not have time.
+
+"I have often wondered since whether she arrived safely, and when I saw
+you sitting here I felt that I could ascertain. For I certainly took you
+for that young lady."
+
+"I am sorry to spoil your romance," said Estelle, "but I am not the one.
+I never was farther West than Chicago, and then only for a little while,
+filling a short engagement in the movies."
+
+"Well, I won't insist on your identity," said the lieutenant, "but I'm
+sure I'm not mistaken. However, I won't trouble you further----"
+
+"Oh, it has been no trouble," interrupted Estelle. "I'm sure I hope you
+will find that young lady some day."
+
+"I hope so, too," and the lieutenant bowed. But, judging from his face,
+Alice thought, it was plain that he was sure he had already found the
+young lady in question.
+
+At that moment Mr. Pertell came out on the porch and saw the lieutenant.
+
+"Ah, I'm glad you are here," observed the manager. "I want to ask you a
+great many things. This staging of sham battles is not as easy as I
+thought it would be."
+
+"We can have the sham battles all right," answered the officer, with a
+smile. "But I can imagine it is not easy to get good moving pictures of
+them. We have to operate over a large area, and we can't always tell
+what the next move will be. Though, of course, for the purpose of making
+views we can ignore military regulations and strain a point or two."
+
+"That's just what I want to talk about," remarked Mr. Pertell. "In the
+attack, for instance, the way the plans have been made the sun is wrong
+for getting good views. Can't we switch the two armies around?"
+
+"Well, I suppose we can. I'll speak to the colonel about it," and then
+the two went inside, where Mr. Pertell had his office in the parlor of
+the farmhouse.
+
+"What do you think of him, Estelle?" asked Alice.
+
+"Why, I think he's very nice, but he's altogether wrong about me."
+
+"And yet he seemed so positive."
+
+"Yes, that is what makes it strange. But I never saw him before--that
+is, as far as I know; and I'm certain I was never in Portland. He must
+be mistaken, but it was nice of him to admit it. I thought at first he
+was using the old method to get acquainted."
+
+"So did I. But he isn't that kind."
+
+"He doesn't seem to be."
+
+Russ Dalwood came around the corner of the porch with Paul Ardite and
+Hal Watson, a young man lately engaged to play juvenile roles. Hal had
+become very friendly with the little group that circled around Ruth and
+Alice.
+
+"You girls have an hour yet before you go on," Russ informed them. "We
+haven't anything to do until then, either. Want to take a run in to
+town? I've got to call at the express office for some extra film, and
+the auto is ready. Where's Ruth?"
+
+"Up in her room. I'll go for her," offered Alice. "Shall we have time?"
+
+"Plenty. You can even buy yourself some candy--or let us do it for you,"
+laughed Paul.
+
+"We'll let you do it!" said Estelle, as Alice hastened to summon her
+sister.
+
+"Ruth! Ruth! where are you?" called Alice, as she ran upstairs--Alice
+seldom walked.
+
+"Here, just reading over my new part. What's the matter?"
+
+"We're going for an auto ride with the boys. Come along. You can study
+in the car."
+
+"Yes, a lot of studying I could do under those circumstances. But I'll
+come--I want a bit of diversion. Who else is going?"
+
+Alice told her, and then spoke about the young lieutenant.
+
+"Wasn't it queer he should be mistaken?" she asked.
+
+Ruth did not reply for a moment.
+
+"Wasn't it?" repeated her sister.
+
+"I was just wondering," said Ruth, slowly. "Was it?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+AN INTERRUPTION
+
+
+While Alice was putting on her hat Ruth looked at her in some surprise.
+
+"Was it?" she repeated.
+
+"Was what?" asked her sister.
+
+"Was it a mistake?"
+
+"Of course it was, Ruth! Didn't I tell you Estelle said he must have
+taken her for some one else, as she had never been in Portland in her
+life? Of course, it was a mistake. What makes you think it wasn't?"
+
+"Because, Alice, I am beginning to have doubts regarding Estelle."
+
+"Doubts! You don't mean about the ring?"
+
+"Of course not! But I am beginning to think she is not altogether what
+she seems to be."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Well, nothing serious, of course. And if she has done what I think she
+has it isn't any worse than many girls have done, and have gained by it,
+rather than lost, though it was risky."
+
+"You mean?"
+
+"I mean that I believe she isn't telling us all she knows. She is hiding
+something about her past. And I believe it is that she has run away from
+home because her family would not let her go into moving pictures. You
+know we sort of suspected that before. Now, in that case, she would have
+every reason to deny that she had seen that young lieutenant in
+Portland."
+
+"Why should she, providing I grant that you are right?"
+
+"Because he might know her friends and would tell them where she was.
+And she doesn't want that known until she has made a reputation. I don't
+blame her. If ever I ran away----"
+
+"Ruth! _you_ are not thinking of it, are you?"
+
+"Silly! Of course not. But if I should I wouldn't want to run back home
+until I had something to show for my efforts. It may be that way in
+Estelle's case. She doesn't want to return like the prodigal son."
+
+"I believe you're entirely wrong," declared Alice. "What I think is that
+she perhaps comes of good people. When I say that I don't mean that they
+were any better than we are, but that they so regarded themselves, and
+would look askance at motion picture players. Well, Estelle doesn't want
+to bring any annoyance on her family, and that may be the reason she
+doesn't tell much about herself. But as for that young officer's having
+seen her, I believe Estelle when she says he is mistaken. Don't you?"
+
+"I don't know what to believe," returned Ruth. "But I'm not going to
+worry over it."
+
+"And you won't tell her you don't believe she is what she seems to be?"
+
+"Of course not, you little goose! But I'm going to keep my eyes open.
+You know we may be able to give her some good advice. You and I, Alice,
+don't meet with near the temptations that assail other girls in this
+business, and it's because father is with us all the while. Now Estelle
+isn't so fortunate; so I propose that we sort of look after her."
+
+"Oh, I'm very willing to do that."
+
+"And if we see anything that is likely to cause her trouble, we must
+shield her from it. That is what I mean by sort of keeping watch over
+her. At the same time, I believe that she is not altogether what she
+seems. She is hiding something from us--even though we are trying to be
+so kind to her. But she doesn't really mean to do it. She is just
+afraid, I think."
+
+"And you really believe that lieutenant knows her?"
+
+"He may. At least I think, from what you said, that he is honest in his
+belief. But we will watch and wait. We must try to help Estelle in the
+hour of trial."
+
+"Of course we will. Now hurry, for they are waiting for us."
+
+"Such a funny thing just happened to me!" cried Estelle to the party of
+young folks when they were in the automobile and on the way to the
+village. "I was mistaken for some one else."
+
+"What--again?" asked Alice.
+
+"No, the same incident that you witnessed," and she related the episode
+of the lieutenant as Alice had detailed it to Ruth.
+
+"That was queer," commented Hal Watson.
+
+"I should say so!" exclaimed Russ.
+
+"Was he at all fresh?" Paul asked, and his air was truculent.
+
+"Not in the least!" Estelle hastened to assure him. "He was honestly
+mistaken about it, that was all," and she enlarged on the incident, and
+seemed so genuinely amused by it that Alice nudged her sister as much as
+to say:
+
+"See how much in error you are."
+
+But Ruth only smiled, and Alice noticed that she regarded Estelle more
+closely than ever.
+
+The party made merry in the town, going into the "Emporium," for
+ice-cream sodas; and even the presence of Maurice Whitlow at the other
+end of the counter, where he was imbibing something through a straw,
+could not daunt Alice's high spirits. Whitlow smiled and smirked in the
+direction of his acquaintances, but he received no invitation to join
+them.
+
+As Estelle was going out in the rear of the party, the extra player slid
+up to her and asked:
+
+"Mayn't I have the pleasure of buying you some more cream?"
+
+"You may not!" exclaimed Estelle, not turning her head, and there were
+snickers from the other patrons in the place. Maurice turned the shade
+of his scarlet tie, and slid out a side door.
+
+"You're getting too popular," chided Alice to her friend. "First it's
+the young lieutenant, and now it's your former admirer."
+
+"I can dispense with the admiration of both!"
+
+"Even the lieutenant?" asked Ruth, meaningly.
+
+"Oh, he wasn't so bad," and Estelle either was really indifferent, or
+she assumed indifference in a most finished manner that would have done
+credit to a more experienced actress than she was.
+
+"What's the matter--are we late?" asked Paul, as, on the way back to Oak
+Farm, he saw Russ look at his watch and then speed up the car a bit.
+
+"Yes, a little. Mr. Pertell said he wanted to begin that skirmish scene
+at eleven exactly, and it's ten minutes to that now. We can just about
+make it. The sun will be in just the right position for making the film.
+It's in a thicket you know, and the light isn't any too good. That's the
+scene you girls are in," he went on.
+
+"Speed along," urged Paul. "I've got to get into my uniform and make up
+a bit."
+
+There is very little "make up" done for moving pictures taken in the
+open, and not as much done for studio work as there is on the regular
+stage. The camera is sharper than any eye, and make-up shows very
+plainly on the screen. Of course, eyes are often darkened and lips
+rouged a bit to make them appear to better advantage. Even the men make
+up a little but not much. For close-up views, though, where the faces
+are more than life size, artistic make-up is very essential. The camera,
+in this case, is a magnifying glass, and the most peach-blow complexion
+would look coarse unless slightly powdered.
+
+"We'll be all right if we don't get a puncture," said Hal.
+
+No sooner were these words out of his mouth than there came a hiss of
+escaping air.
+
+"There she goes!" cried Paul. "Stop, Russ!"
+
+"No, we haven't time. I'm going to keep on. It's better to get in on the
+rims and cut a shoe to ribbons than to spoil the film."
+
+They sped along in spite of the flat tire. And it was well they did, for
+Mr. Pertell was anxiously waiting for his players when they arrived at
+Oak Farm.
+
+"You cut it pretty fine," was his only comment. "Don't do it again. Now
+get ready for that skirmish scene."
+
+This was one little incident in the big war play. In it Ruth and Alice
+were to be shown driving along a country road. There was to be an alarm,
+and a body of Confederate cavalry was to encounter one of the outposts
+of the Union army. There was to be a skirmish and a fight, and the Union
+men were to be driven off, leaving some dead and wounded. The girls,
+though shocked, were to look after the wounded.
+
+All was in readiness. The soldiers, some drawn from the newly-arrived
+National Guards, were posted in their respective places. Lieutenant
+Varley was to play the part of one of the wounded Unionists.
+
+"All ready--come on with the carriage!" called Mr. Pertell to Ruth and
+Alice, who were waiting out of range of the camera. They had rehearsed
+the direction they were to take. "Go on!" called the director to Russ.
+"Camera!"
+
+The grinding of the film began, and Ruth and Alice acted their parts as
+they drove along in the old-fashioned equipage. Suddenly, in front of
+them the bushes crackled.
+
+"There they come!" cried Ruth, pulling back the horses as called for in
+the play. "The soldiers!"
+
+But instead of a band of men in blue breaking out on the road, there
+came a herd of cows, that rushed at the carriage, while the horses
+reared up and began to back.
+
+"Stop the camera! Stop that! Cut that out!" frantically cried Mr.
+Pertell through his megaphone. "Hold back those men!" he added to his
+assistant who had signaled for the Confederates to rush up.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+FORGETFULNESS
+
+
+Ruth and Alice for the moment were not quite certain whether or not this
+was a part of the scene. Very often the director would spring some
+unexpected effect for the sake of causing a natural surprise that would
+register in the camera better than any simulated one.
+
+But these were real cows, and they did not seem to have rehearsed their
+parts very well, for they rushed here and there and surrounded the
+carriage, to the no small terror of the horses, which Ruth had all she
+could do to hold in.
+
+"Oh, what shall we do?" cried Alice. "I'm going to jump out!"
+
+"You'll do nothing of the sort!" exclaimed her sister. "Sit where you
+are! Do you want to be trampled on or pierced with those sharp horns,
+Alice?"
+
+"I certainly do not!"
+
+"Then sit still! This must be a mistake."
+
+It did not take much effort on Ruth's part to make Alice remain in the
+carriage with all those cows about. For she had learned on Rocky Ranch
+that while a crowd of steers will pay no attention to a person on a
+horse, once let the same person dismount, and he may be trampled down.
+
+These, of course, were not wild steers--Alice could see that. But she
+thought the same rule, in a measure, might hold good.
+
+More cows crashed through the bushes until the road was fairly blocked,
+and then came another rush of many feet and the Union skirmish party
+came galloping along. They had received no orders to hold back, and so
+dashed up.
+
+At the same moment a ragged boy with a long whip came rushing up.
+Evidently, he was in charge of the cows, but when he saw the soldiers in
+their uniforms, a look of fear spread over his face.
+
+"I didn't do nothin', Mister Captain! Honest I didn't!" he yelled.
+"These is pap's cows, an' I'm drivin' 'em over to the man he sold 'em
+to. I didn't do nothin'."
+
+"Nobody said you did!" laughed Lieutenant Varley with a bow to Ruth and
+Alice in the carriage. "But why did you drive them in here to spoil the
+picture?"
+
+"I didn't know nothin' about no picture--honest I didn't! I took this
+road because it was shorter. Don't shoot pap's cow-critters. I'll take
+'em away."
+
+"Well, that's all we want you to do," said Mr. Pertell, coming up with a
+grim smile. "You nearly got yourself and your cow-critters in trouble,
+my boy. Drive 'em back now, and we'll go on with the film. Did any of
+'em get in, Russ?" he asked.
+
+"Just a few, on the last inch or so of the reel. I can cut that out and
+go on from there. Hold the carriage where it is, Ruth," he called.
+
+"All right," she answered, for she had now quieted the restive horses.
+
+"Don't be afraid, boy," said Alice to the lad. "You won't be hurt."
+
+"And won't they hurt pap's cow-critters, neither?"
+
+"No, indeed. It was all a mistake."
+
+"I--I didn't know there was no war goin' on," remarked the lad, as he
+sent an intelligent dog he had with him after the straying animals. "Me
+an' pap we lives away over yonder on t'other side of the mountain. An'
+we don't never hear no news. I was plum skeered when I seen all them
+ossifers. Thought sure I was ketched, same as I've heard my grandpap
+tell about bein' ketched in the army. He was a soldier with Sherman,
+and I've heard him tell about capturin' cow-critters when they was on
+the march."
+
+"Well, this would be like old times to him, I suppose," said Mr.
+Pertell. "But this is only in fun, my boy--to make motion pictures. So
+take your cows away and we'll go on with the work. Drive 'em on," and
+the boy did so with a curious, backward look at the girls in the
+carriage, and at the Union soldiers, who were going back to their places
+to get ready anew for the skirmish charge.
+
+"And this time we'll have it without cows," said Mr. Pertell. "They
+might go all right in a film of Sherman's march, but not in this
+skirmish fight. All ready now. Take your places again."
+
+The preliminary advance of the carriage, containing Ruth and Alice had
+been filmed all right. Very little need be cut out. Once the cows were
+beyond the camera range, Russ again began grinding away at the film.
+
+"Now come on--Union soldiers!" cried the director.
+
+From their waiting place Lieutenant Varley led his men; and as they
+swept on past the carriage, Alice and Ruth registering fear, the
+Confederates rushed out to meet them.
+
+Then began the skirmish. Guns popped. Horses reared, some throwing their
+riders unexpectedly, but this made it all the more realistic. Men
+fought hand to hand with swords, using only the flats, of course. Horses
+collided one with another, and the animals seemed to enter into the
+spirit of the conflict fully as much as did the men. There was a rattle
+of rifles, but no cannon were used in this scene.
+
+Russ and his helpers filmed it, and, standing behind them watching the
+mimic fight, was the director, shouting orders through his megaphone
+and, when he could not make himself heard in this way, using a field
+telephone, calling his instructions to helpers stationed out of sight in
+the bushes, where they could relay the commands to those taking part in
+the skirmish.
+
+"A little livelier now!" yelled Mr. Pertell. "Give way, you Union
+fellows, as though you were beaten, and then drive them back to the
+fight, Mr. Varley. That's the way!"
+
+The conflict raged and the cameras clicked away. It was all one to the
+camera men--a parlor drama or a sanguinary conflict. So long as the
+shutter worked perfectly, as long as the focus was correct and the film
+ran freely, the camera men were satisfied.
+
+"Now you Confederates pretend to be overwhelmed, and then rally with a
+rush and sweep the Unionists out of the thicket!" ordered the director.
+
+This was done, and, all the while, at one side of the picture crouched
+Ruth and Alice, as two Southern girls. They had leaped from their
+carriage and were waiting the outcome of the conflict, stooping down out
+of the way of flying bullets.
+
+This was a side scene in the war play, and did not involve the main
+story. Ruth and Alice, as did the other main characters, assumed various
+roles at times.
+
+"Come on now! You Unionists are beaten. Retreat!" called the director,
+and Lieutenant Varley's men rode off, leaving him and some others
+injured on the field of the conflict.
+
+It was here that Alice and Ruth took an active part again. Ruth rushed
+up to the fallen lieutenant and felt his pulse. No sooner had she done
+so than the director cried:
+
+"Stop the camera! That won't do, Miss DeVere!"
+
+"Why not?" she asked.
+
+"Because you felt his pulse with your thumb. No nurse would do that. The
+pulse in the thumb itself is too strong to allow any one to feel the
+pulse in another's wrist. Use the tips of your first and second fingers.
+Now try again. Ready, Russ!"
+
+This time Ruth did it right. It was characteristic of Mr. Pertell to
+notice a little detail like that.
+
+"Not one person in a hundred would object to the pulse being felt with
+the thumb," he explained afterward; "but the hundredth person in the
+audience would be a doctor, and he'd know right away that the director
+was at fault. It is the little things that count."
+
+Ruth and Alice busied themselves ministering to the wounded who were
+made prisoners by the Confederates. The lieutenant was put in their
+carriage and driven away. That ended the scene at the place of the
+skirmish.
+
+"Very well done!" Mr. Pertell told the girls, as they prepared for the
+next act, which was in a room of a Southern house, whither the wounded
+had been carried.
+
+These were busy days at Oak Farm. With the arrival of the two regiments
+of the National Guard, pictures were taken every day, leading up to the
+big battle scene, which had been postponed. When they were not posing
+for the cameras, the guardsmen were drilling in accordance with the
+regulations of the annual state encampment under the direction of the
+regular army officers.
+
+"Well, have you quite recovered from your wounds?" asked Alice of
+Lieutenant Varley one day, as she met him outside the farmhouse.
+
+"Oh, yes, thanks to the care of your sister and yourself. By the way, I
+hope your friend Miss Brown is not angry with me."
+
+"Why should she be?"
+
+"Well, because I thought I had seen her before."
+
+"I don't believe she is. I haven't heard her say. But here she comes
+now. You can ask her," and Estelle came around the turn of the path.
+Seeing Alice talking with the lieutenant, she hesitated, but Alice
+called:
+
+"Come on--we were just speaking about you."
+
+"I wondered why my ears burned," laughed Estelle.
+
+"Perhaps you two are going somewhere," said the officer, preparing to
+take his leave.
+
+"Oh, to no place where you are not welcome," answered Alice, graciously,
+with a side look at her companion to see if Estelle objected. But the
+latter gave no sign, one way or the other.
+
+"Thank you!" exclaimed the guardsman. "I have to take part in a little
+scene in about an hour, but I would enjoy a walk in the meanwhile. You
+are both made up, I see?"
+
+"Yes, we are Southern belles to-day," laughed Alice.
+
+"Belles every day," returned the lieutenant with a bow.
+
+"Nicely said!" laughed Estelle. "You are improving!"
+
+She and Alice wore the costumes of generations ago, big bonnets and
+hoopskirts.
+
+"Let's go over and see what they're filming there," suggested Alice,
+pointing to where a crossroads store had been put up.
+
+The scene at the store was one to represent a dispute among some
+Southerners and some Northern sympathizers. It was to end in a fight in
+which one man was to draw his revolver.
+
+All went well up to the quarrel, and then it became too realistic, for,
+by some chance, there was a bullet in the revolver instead of a blank
+cartridge, and it entered the leg of one of the disputants. He fell and
+bled profusely.
+
+"Get Dr. Wherry!" yelled Mr. Pertell.
+
+"Dr. Wherry went into the village this morning to get some stuff," Russ
+said, "and he hasn't come back yet."
+
+"Then somebody will have to go after him!" cried the director.
+
+"I'll go!" offered Alice. "I can take this horse and carriage!" for a
+rig was hitched outside the "store."
+
+"I'll go with you!" cried Estelle, and then, in costume and made up for
+the pictures as they were, they got into the vehicle and drove off.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+IN THE SMOKE
+
+
+"Do you think he'll die?" asked Estelle, as she took the reins and
+flicked the horse lightly with the whip.
+
+"I hope not," answered Alice.
+
+"Did it make you faint to see the blood?"
+
+"A little. Did it you?"
+
+"Yes. I can't bear it! It makes me---- Oh, it makes me----"
+
+Estelle closed her eyes, and Alice was surprised to see her turn pale,
+even under her rouge, and shudder.
+
+"That's queer," Alice said. "I should have thought, being on a ranch as
+you were, you might have become used to accidents and scenes of
+violence."
+
+"Who said I was on a ranch?"
+
+"Why, you did!"
+
+"I did?"
+
+"Yes; don't you remember? That day when we were talking about branding
+cows----"
+
+"Oh, maybe I did. I'd forgotten. Oh, dear! here comes an auto, and I'm
+not sure about this horse. I'm afraid he'll start to rear."
+
+At this intimation that there might be trouble, Alice's face took on a
+worried look, and she fore-bore to press the questions she had been
+asking Estelle.
+
+The horse showed some signs of fear as he passed the automobile in the
+road, but the man driving the car was considerate enough to stop his
+machine and motion to the girls to pass. They did so, the horse getting
+as far to one side of the road as he could, his nostrils distended and
+his ears pricked forward.
+
+"There! Thank goodness that's over!" sighed Estelle. "Now to make speed
+and get that doctor. I hope the man doesn't die."
+
+"I do too," acquiesced Alice. "Did you see how sharply the man looked at
+us?"
+
+"Who, the man that was shot?"
+
+"No, the one in the auto. He stared and stared!"
+
+"Probably he wondered where in the world we got a horse in these days
+that was afraid of an auto. I wonder myself where this steed has been in
+hiding. There are so many cars now that it is a wonder horses aren't
+using gasoline as perfume."
+
+"No, he wasn't looking at the horse," persisted Alice. "He was looking
+at us. Perhaps he knew you, Estelle."
+
+"Why do you say that? I'm sure I never saw him before. Maybe it was you
+he was staring at."
+
+"No, it was you he was staring at, but I don't blame him. You are very
+striking looking to-day."
+
+"It's this dress. Isn't it quaint?"
+
+"And pretty! Oh, but we mustn't talk so frivolously when that poor man
+may be dying. We must drive faster."
+
+"Talking isn't going to make the horse go any slower. In fact, I think
+maybe he'll go quicker to get the trip over with sooner so he can be rid
+of our chatter. But I don't think the poor man is badly hurt. He may
+bleed a lot, but they can hold that in check until we get the doctor."
+
+They drove on, and were presently in the village. They had been told
+where Dr. Wherry had gone--to a drugstore to get some medical
+supplies--and thither they made their way.
+
+"Do you notice how every one is staring at us?" asked Alice, as they
+drove along the streets.
+
+"They do seem to be," admitted Estelle, looking for the drugstore. "I
+guess it's the horse; he is so bony he has many fine points about him,
+as Russ said. And we're queer looking in these costumes ourselves."
+
+When they alighted at the pharmacy and started in, they became aware of
+the growing sensation they were creating. For a little throng had
+gathered in front of the store, and more men and boys came running up,
+to form in two lines--a living lane--through which Alice and Estelle had
+to pass.
+
+"We certainly are creating a sensation," gasped Alice, growing
+embarrassed.
+
+"Look! a regular bridal crowd," said Estelle in a low voice.
+
+Though they undeniably presented a pretty picture in their paint,
+powder, curls and hoopskirts, they were also an unusual one for that
+little country village.
+
+"Look at the society swells!" cried one boy.
+
+"Dat's de new fashion--makin' your nose look like a flour barrel!" added
+another.
+
+"Aren't those dresses sweet?" sighed a girl.
+
+"They must be the latest New York style," added a companion. "I heard
+that full skirts were coming in again."
+
+"Well, ours are certainly full enough," murmured Alice, looking down at
+her swaying hoops.
+
+And then some one guessed the truth.
+
+"They're actresses--the movie actresses!" came the cry, and this
+attracted more attention than ever, for if there is one person about
+whom the American public is curious, it is the actor.
+
+"Oh my!" exclaimed Estelle, "now we are in for it. Hurry inside the
+store!"
+
+The girls fairly ran into the friendly shelter, and some of the crowd
+attempted to follow, but the drug clerks barred the way, guessing what
+the excitement was about.
+
+"Dr. Wherry!" gasped Alice. "Is he here?"
+
+"Right back there--in the prescription department," a clerk said. "Which
+of you is ill?"
+
+"Neither one!" cried Estelle. "We want him for a man out at Oak Farm.
+He's been shot--an accident in the play. Tell him to hurry, please, and
+then show us some way of getting out through a side door. I can't face
+that crowd--this way," and she looked down at her elaborate hoop-skirted
+costume, which might have been all right in the days of sixty-three, but
+which was unique at the present time.
+
+"What's the trouble?" asked Dr. Wherry, coming from behind the
+ground-glass partition. "Oh, Miss DeVere and Miss Brown!" he went on as
+he recognized the moving picture girls. "Is some one hurt?"
+
+They told him quickly what the trouble was, and he cried:
+
+"I'll go at once. You'd better come back with me in the auto if you
+don't want to run the gauntlet of the staring crowd. I'll bring my
+machine around to the side door."
+
+"What about the horse we drove over?" asked Alice.
+
+"I'll have Mr. Pertell send a man for that."
+
+The girls, in their curiosity-exciting costumes, managed to slip out the
+side door and into the doctor's automobile without attracting the
+attention of the crowd. Then they made the trip back in good time and
+comfort.
+
+"And to think we never for a moment thought of changing our things!"
+cried Alice, when they were at Oak Farm again.
+
+"Or even of rubbing off some of the make-up," added Estelle. "But we
+were so excited--at least I was--when I saw the poor fellow hurt. I hope
+it is not serious."
+
+"No, he's lost a little blood, that's all," said Dr. Wherry. "But I
+thought you were used to such scenes, Miss Brown, coming from the West,
+as you did."
+
+"I from the West? Oh, yes, I have been there. Come on, Alice, let's see
+if they still want us for anything, and, if they don't, we'll change our
+clothes," and Estelle seemed glad of a chance to hurry away.
+
+"I wonder," said Alice to her sister afterward, "whether she is really
+so squeamish as she pretends, or if she doesn't want it known that she
+is from the West?"
+
+"It's hard to say. Estelle is acting more and more queerly every day, I
+think."
+
+"So do I. Though I am quite in love with her. She has such a sweet
+disposition."
+
+"Yes, she is a lovely girl. I only wish there wasn't that bit of mystery
+about her."
+
+"And it is a mystery," went on Alice. "Every once in a while I catch
+Lieutenant Varley looking at her, when he thinks he isn't observed, and
+he shakes his head as though he could not understand it at all."
+
+"Then you think he still feels sure she is the girl he met in Portland?"
+
+"I'm positive he does, and he isn't doing it to further his own ends and
+force an acquaintance with her, either. He honestly believes he has met
+her before."
+
+"Well, it is very strange. But she doesn't seem to want to talk about
+anything connected with her past."
+
+"No, and I suppose we should not try to force matters."
+
+The man who was shot was soon out of danger, and, meanwhile, the taking
+of the war scenes went on with some one else in his place. A number of
+sham engagements had been fought, all working up to the big final
+battle, in which Ruth would play her part as an army nurse, and Alice
+would act as the spy. Estelle, too, had been given a rather important
+part, much to the annoyance of Miss Dixon, who had been expecting it.
+
+The vaudeville actress made sneering and cutting remarks about "extra
+players butting in," and there were veiled insinuations concerning the
+missing ring, but Estelle took no notice, and Alice, Ruth and her other
+friends stood loyally by her.
+
+"We'll film that burning barn scene to-day," said Mr. Pertell one
+morning at the breakfast table, when he had ascertained that the
+atmospheric conditions were right. "That's the one where you two DeVere
+girls are surprised on your little farm by the visit of some Union
+soldiers. You have been caring for a wounded cousin, who has escaped
+through the Union lines, and at the news that the Yankees are coming you
+hide him in the barn. Then the Unionists set fire to it, and you girls
+have to drag him out.
+
+"There'll be no danger, of course, for the fire won't be near you--in
+fact, the barn won't burn at all--only a shack nailed to it. And the
+smoke will be from the regular bomb. You have plenty of them, haven't
+you, Pop Snooks?"
+
+"Oh yes, plenty of smoke bombs, Mr. Pertell."
+
+All was soon in readiness for the burning-barn scene. Ruth and Alice
+received the wounded cousin (an inside scene this) and then, when an old
+colored mammie (Mrs. Maguire) came panting with the news that the
+Yankees were coming, the wounded Confederate was carried out to the
+barn. Then came the visit of the Yankees, who, suspecting the presence
+of the escaped prisoner, made diligent search, but without success.
+
+"Fire the barn, anyhow!" cried the captain.
+
+Then came the spirited scene where Ruth and Alice got their wounded
+relative out. He was a slim young man, and they could easily carry him,
+for he was supposed to be overcome by the smoke.
+
+"Ready, Alice?" asked Ruth, as they went through the action called for
+in the script.
+
+"Yes, ready. You take his head and I'll take his heels. Don't be too
+stiff," Alice admonished the young man. "We can carry you better if
+you're limp."
+
+"I'll be limp enough if I swallow any more of that smoke," choked the
+actor. "It's fierce!"
+
+Indeed, Pop Snooks had been very liberal in the matter of smoke bombs.
+Great clouds of the black vapor swirled here and there, and Ruth and
+Alice had to get free breaths whenever they could.
+
+"Come on!" yelled the director through his megaphone. "Lively!"
+
+Alice and Ruth, half carrying, half dragging, the wounded soldier,
+staggered out, Russ clicking away at the camera.
+
+"Good! That's good! It's fine!" exclaimed the enthusiastic director.
+
+Ruth was conscious that she was suddenly dragging more of the weight of
+the man's body than at first. But she thought one of Alice's hands had
+possibly slipped off, and she did not want to call a halt to get a
+better hold.
+
+"My! But this is choking!" gasped Ruth.
+
+Finally, she staggered out into the open, dragging the soldier by his
+shoulders. She slumped down on the ground, in a place free from smoke,
+and registered exhaustion.
+
+"Where's Alice?" cried Paul, who was holding back in readiness for his
+appearance in the scene. "Where's Alice?"
+
+"Isn't she there?" gasped Ruth, rising on her elbow.
+
+"No, she isn't. She must be----"
+
+"Hold that pose, Ruth! Don't stir or you'll spoil the scene!" yelled the
+director. "We'll get your sister!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE HOSPITAL TENT
+
+
+"The show must go on!" This is the motto of circus and theatrical
+performers the world over. No matter what happens, under what strain or
+pain the player labors, no matter what occurs short of death itself, the
+public must not be allowed to guess that anything is wrong. And
+sometimes even death itself has been no barrier--for players have gone
+through with their parts on the stage when, but the act previous, they
+have learned that some loved one had passed away.
+
+And more than one clown has bounded into the sawdust ring with merry
+quip and jest, with a smile on his painted face, while his heart was
+breaking with grief.
+
+And so it was with Ruth DeVere. As she staggered out of the smoke clouds
+and saw that Alice had not followed, at once the dreadful thought came
+to her that her sister had been overcome by the fumes. And, although the
+smoke bombs were harmless as regards fire, the breathing of the
+chemical fumes for any length of time might mean death.
+
+Thus, as Ruth was about to stagger to her feet to go back into the murky
+cloud to look for Alice, there came the director's orders to "hold that
+pose!"
+
+The show must go on! That meant it would not do to spoil the scene, ruin
+the film, and necessitate a retake if, by any possibility, it could be
+avoided.
+
+"Stay where you are, Ruth! Stop the camera, Russ! Hold the pose--both of
+you. We'll go on from there when we get Alice out!"
+
+And Ruth, her heart torn with anguish, must remain. She was glad her
+father was not present.
+
+"Get in there and get the girl!" cried Pop Snooks who was busy lighting
+more smoke bombs. "Get that girl, some of you fellows!" For he had
+guessed in an instant what had happened. It was not the first time one
+of the players had been overcome by the heavy fumes.
+
+Into the cloud dashed some of the head property man's helpers. Russ and
+Paul, who could leave their posts while the camera was not in motion,
+also penetrated the murkiness.
+
+Fortunately, Alice had been overcome when within a few feet of the clear
+atmosphere, and it was the work of but an instant for Paul to carry her
+outside, where she could breathe pure air.
+
+"The poor dear!" cried Mrs. Maguire. "Here, give her this ammonia and
+water."
+
+"Don't come too close to her, Mrs. Maguire!" warned the director. "Your
+black make-up will come off on her face, and it will show in the film."
+
+The director had to think of all those things, though it might seem a
+bit heartless.
+
+"I'll be careful," promised the motherly old woman. "I'll be careful."
+
+Alice sipped the aromatic spirits of ammonia, and felt better.
+
+"Did I faint?" she asked. "How silly of me!"
+
+"Are you all right?" asked Ruth, still in her place by the side of the
+soldier, who was supposed to be unconscious.
+
+"Yes, Ruth dear. I'm all right now. Oh, and did I leave you to carry him
+all alone? I'm so sorry!"
+
+"It was all right. I dragged him."
+
+"Yes, the scene is all right," said Mr. Pertell. "Now, Alice, I don't
+want to be heartless, but will you be ready to go on in this, or shall
+we abandon it and make a retake?"
+
+"Oh, I'll go on. Just a moment, and I'll be all right."
+
+After a minute or two the plucky girl recovered from the effects of the
+smoke, and, though she was weak and wan, managed to go through her part.
+She and Ruth carried their "cousin" out of the burning barn which was
+then allowed to fall to ruins. Or rather, the extra part, built on for
+the purpose, was, Pop Snook's smoke bombs effectually concealing from
+the audience the fact that the real barn was not in the least harmed.
+
+"Well, I'm glad that's over," said Alice with a sigh, as a little later
+she washed off her make-up and donned her ordinary clothes.
+
+"Do you feel bad?" her sister asked.
+
+"Yes, sort of choked."
+
+"Then let's take a walk up on the hill where there is always a breeze."
+
+On the grassy eminence with the fresh breezes blowing about them, Alice
+soon felt much better. But Mr. Pertell called off some of the scenes set
+down for next day, so that she might have a rest.
+
+"We'll soon be ready for the big hospital scene, Ruth, and also for the
+one where you try to get away with the papers, Alice," said Mr. Pertell
+to the two girls one day. "And, in order that everything may run
+smoothly I've made a little change in the scenario. I'm going to have a
+preliminary hospital scene. In that you will be a sort of orderly, or
+assistant nurse, Ruth. And there comes an emergency in which you do so
+well that you are sent for to be a nurse in one of the big hospitals
+maintained near the front. That will make the story more logical.
+
+"So we'll have one of those hospital scenes to-day. I'll stage a small
+engagement, and have a number of men wounded. They'll be brought in, and
+there will be a night scene. The doctors and other nurses go off duty,
+and you are in charge. An emergency occurs--maybe a bandage slips from
+an artery and you sit and hold the wound until a doctor can come and tie
+the artery again. We'll work it out as we go along."
+
+"Is there anything for me?" asked Alice.
+
+"No, your part will stand all right as it is until you get to the big
+hospital scene. Come on now, Ruth; we'll have a rehearsal."
+
+The rehearsal went off well, and the little change promised to
+strengthen the story of the war play. The hospital was set up near Mr.
+Apgar's corn-crib.
+
+"And maybe that'll be a good thing," he said. "If you folks use enough
+of them there disinfectants and carbolic acid, you may scare away all
+the rats and mice that eat my corn in the winter."
+
+"Oh! will there be rats and mice?" asked Ruth, apprehensively.
+
+"Not in the hospital," said Mr. Pertell with a laugh. "It will be
+strictly sanitary--as much so as things were in the days of
+sixty-three."
+
+The fight between the two forces was staged some distance away from the
+hospital, and the guns soon began to rattle and to roar again. The girls
+did not mind them by this time, however.
+
+This skirmish had no particular part in the general story, but it was
+filmed just the same, as it could be spliced in with the other fighting
+scenes.
+
+"And you can't get too much of that," Mr. Pertell said.
+
+Russ, with some helpers, was taking the fighting pictures preliminary to
+the hospital act. He was nearing the end of the reel in his machine
+when, to his dismay, he found he had forgotten to bring a spare one.
+
+"Here, you!" he called to one of the extra soldiers lying lazily on the
+grass near the camera, "hop over and ask Pop Snooks to give you an extra
+reel for me."
+
+The man did not answer.
+
+"Don't you hear me?" yelled Russ, grinding away at the film which was
+being quickly used up. "Go and get me that reel!"
+
+Still no response.
+
+"Are you deaf?" shouted Russ, and then he thought perhaps the discharge
+of so many cannon had made the man unable to hear.
+
+"Go over and punch that fellow!" cried Russ to Paul. "Wake him up, and
+tell him to get me that extra reel."
+
+"All right," Paul assented. "I'd go myself only I have to carry a
+message to headquarters in a minute or two."
+
+He ran over and kicked the soldier, who seemed to be asleep.
+
+"Hi! What's the idea?" demanded the rudely awakened one.
+
+"The camera man wants you to go to get him some film."
+
+"Who--me?"
+
+"Yes--you! Skip!"
+
+"I can't go get no film!"
+
+"You can't? Why not?"
+
+"'Cause I'm dead, that's why! I was told to be killed, and I was. I fell
+off my hoss dead, an' I'm deader'n a door nail. I dassn't git up to git
+no film for nobody. I'm dead!"
+
+And the man rolled over and closed his eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+A RETAKE
+
+
+"What's the matter over there?" called Russ to Paul. "Is he going to get
+my film?"
+
+"He says he can't."
+
+"Can't? Why not? Has he lost his legs?"
+
+"No. But he's dead. This is carrying realism to the extreme."
+
+"Oh, good-night!" cried Russ. "I haven't but a few feet left. Make him
+go."
+
+"I won't go I tell you," the man cried. "I was told to play dead, and
+I'm goin' to," and he stuck to the instructions he had received.
+
+Fortunately, one of Russ' helpers was free a moment later, and he went
+for the extra roll of film, while the dead man enjoyed his part to his
+satisfaction.
+
+"Well, he did just right," said Mr. Pertell, when told of the incident
+afterward. "I wish more performers would do exactly as they are told. Of
+course, I don't mean to say a player must slavishly do just as I tell
+him. But in some cases a dead man's coming to life might spoil a big
+scene."
+
+Matters were now in readiness for the preliminary hospital scene. A ward
+had been fitted up in a shed where electric lights could be used to get
+the necessary illumination, the current being brought from town. In the
+shed were ranged white beds, in which a number of wounded men were
+reposing. Other men were in wheeled chairs, while still others sat up as
+if recovering from a long and dangerous siege from wounds. All were
+picturesquely bandaged.
+
+The preliminary scenes had been taken. The doctor had made his rounds of
+the wounded on the cots. He had taken their temperature and had felt
+their pulses, while the other women of the company, as nurses,
+accompanied the surgeon on his journey. Other wounded were brought in.
+
+Night settled down in the hospital. The big, hissing electric lights
+were turned off, and from outside a window "moonlight" streamed in. The
+moonlight, of course was made by another electric light, properly
+shaded.
+
+"Now, I think we're ready for you, Ruth," said the director. "You are on
+duty alone in the ward when the emergency occurs."
+
+In the glow of the beams of light from the window Ruth, on duty alone,
+took her place.
+
+"All ready now!" called Mr. Pertell, from where he was standing behind
+Russ, who was grinding away at the camera. "You start from your
+half-doze, Ruth, and listen. Then you approach one of the cots and
+discover that the bandage has slipped and that the man is bleeding to
+death. You press on the artery, and finally rouse another of the
+hospital patients--one not badly wounded--and send him for the surgeon."
+
+Ruth carried out the instructions perfectly. Her acting was so very
+natural that afterward, when the film was shown, more than one person
+found himself holding his breath lest Ruth should remove her thumb from
+the severed artery.
+
+The slightly wounded man limped out to get the surgeon, who came rushing
+in, and the artery was tied. Then followed words of praise for Ruth.
+This laid the foundation for her summons to a larger hospital when the
+proper time came.
+
+The next day more battle views were the order of the day. In one of
+these Estelle had to do some fast riding, to leap her horse across a
+ditch and speed away from pursuing troopers.
+
+"Aren't you nervous for fear you'll fall?" asked Ruth, as the young
+horsewoman was making ready.
+
+"Well, no. I don't think about that part. All I am afraid of is that I
+may get out of range of the camera. You see I'm not very old at this
+business."
+
+"Just how did you come to get into it?" asked Alice.
+
+"Why, it was a sort of accident. I was on a boat one day, leaning over
+the rail looking at the water, when a gentleman came up, begged my
+pardon for speaking without being introduced, and asked me if I had ever
+been in the movies.
+
+"I hadn't, though I had often thought I would like to be, and I told him
+so. He asked me to call at his studio, and I did. They gave me a 'try
+out,' found I photographed well, and they cast me for small parts. Then
+they found out I could ride and they let me do some outdoor stuff. From
+then on I did very well, and when I heard your company was going to make
+a big war play, I applied to Mr. Pertell. He took me, I'm glad to say."
+
+"And we're glad you're here," ejaculated Alice.
+
+"We'll go out and watch you jump; it fascinates me, though it makes me
+afraid," Ruth declared. "My sister and I did some riding while we were
+at Rocky Ranch, but it was nothing to what you do."
+
+"Oh, it takes practice, that's all," answered Estelle.
+
+There were some animated scenes previous to the one in which Estelle
+took part. There was a fight over the possession of a bridge, and the
+Confederates, having driven off their enemies, prepared to blow it up to
+prevent the Union army from using it.
+
+Estelle was to try to reach the bridge before it was destroyed, but,
+failing in that, she was to ride her horse to a narrow part of the
+stream and leap over.
+
+All went well, and the time came for her to take her swift ride to try
+to reach the bridge. On and on she galloped, until she was met by a
+colored man who warned her of the fact that in another moment the bridge
+would be destroyed.
+
+"She's going pretty close!" murmured Mr. Pertell, as he stood near Russ,
+who was filming the scene. "Some of those timbers may fall pretty near
+her."
+
+But Estelle seemed to know no fear. She rode straight for the bridge,
+and she was only a short distance away when it blew up, the planks and
+rails flying high into the air.
+
+Then she turned her horse to reach, ahead of her pursuers, the place she
+was to jump the stream. So near was she to the bridge that she had to
+swerve her horse quickly to avoid being struck by a fragment of the
+falling wood.
+
+"Plucky girl, that!" murmured Mr. DeVere.
+
+While Estelle was being filmed down by the stream, one of the assistant
+camera men, a new hand, prepared to take a scene where a Southern farmer
+rides up to warn the Confederate cavalry of Estelle's escape, so they
+may take after her. Maurice Whitlow was the farmer.
+
+"Here, you!" cried Mr. Pertell to Whitlow, "ride down there and deliver
+the message--that's your part in this scene."
+
+There was a small automobile which Mr. Pertell had been using standing
+near, and Maurice leaped into this and started across the field toward a
+detachment of the Southern cavalry.
+
+Away rattled Maurice in the car, and the camera man ground away, showing
+the farmer on his way to give the warning. Suddenly Mr. Pertell turned
+and saw what was going on.
+
+"For the love of gasoline, stop!" he cried. "The whole scene is spoiled.
+There'll have to be a retake! Of all the stupid pieces of work this is
+the worst! Stop that camera!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+ESTELLE'S STORY
+
+
+"What's the matter?" cried Russ Dalwood, running back from the stream
+where he had been to see that an assistant was successfully getting the
+scene after Estelle had leaped to the other bank.
+
+"Matter! Look!" cried the director, and he pointed to Maurice, speeding
+to carry his message in the small runabout.
+
+"Good-night!" gasped Russ, who understood at once.
+
+"Why, what's wrong with it?" asked Paul. "Isn't he running the machine
+all right?"
+
+"Oh, he's running it all right," said Mr. Pertell in tones of disgust.
+"And that's just the trouble! I told him to jump on a horse with that
+dispatch, and he goes in the auto!"
+
+"I suppose he thought it was quicker," commented Paul.
+
+"Quicker! Yes, I should say it was! But I'll get him out of there
+quicker than he can shake a stick at a dead mule. The idea of riding in
+an auto to carry a message in Civil War days. Why, there wasn't a real
+auto in the whole world then. How would it look in a film to see an
+up-to-date runabout butting in on a scene of sixty-three. Get him back
+here and make him start over again on a horse as he ought to," went on
+the director. "An auto in sixty-three! Next he'll be sending wireless
+telephone messages about fifty years before they were ever dreamed of!"
+
+Fortunately, not much of the film had been reeled off, and the scene was
+one that could easily be made over. Estelle's leap was not spoiled, nor
+was the blowing up of the bridge.
+
+"Huh! I didn't think anything about there not being autos in those
+days," said Maurice, when he had been brought back and mounted on a
+horse.
+
+"That's just it," commented Mr. Pertell. "You've got to think in these
+days of moving pictures. The audiences are more critical than you would
+suppose. Even the children now laugh at fake scenes and incongruities.
+And as for using a dummy in danger scenes, it's getting harder and
+harder every day to get by with it. You stick to horses or to Shank's
+mules, young man, when it comes to transportation in this war film. No
+autos where they are going to show in the film."
+
+That was only one of the many details the director and his assistants
+had to look after. If eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, it is
+much more so the price of good films. The camera sees everything in a
+pitiless light. It exaggerates faults and it refuses to shut its eye to
+anything at which it is pointed. The absolute truth is told every time.
+
+Of course, there are trick films, but even then the camera tells the
+truth fearlessly. It is only the on-lookers' eyes that are deceived. The
+camera can not be fooled. And though a man may be seen to be shaking
+hands with himself or cutting off his own head, it is done by double
+exposure, and could not be accomplished were it not for the fact that
+the camera and the film are so fearlessly honest and truth-telling.
+
+"What's the matter, Estelle?" asked Alice of the rider that afternoon,
+when they were in Ruth's room resting after the work of the day. "You
+seem to be in pain."
+
+"I am. I strained my side a little in that water jump. Petro slipped a
+bit on the muddy bank."
+
+"Did you do much jumping out West?" asked Ruth, while Alice was getting
+a bottle of liniment.
+
+"In the West? I don't know that I ever jumped there. I can't
+remember----"
+
+Estelle paused, and passed her hand across her eyes as though to shut
+out some vision.
+
+"Are you faint?" asked Ruth.
+
+"No--no, it isn't that. It--it is just that I--that I---- Oh, I wonder
+if I can tell you?" and Estelle seemed in such distress that the two
+sisters hastened to her.
+
+"What is it? Tell me, are you badly hurt?" asked Ruth. For she had known
+of performers who concealed injuries that they might not be laid off,
+and so lose a day's work. "What is the matter, Estelle?"
+
+"It is my--my head."
+
+"Did you fall? I didn't hear them say anything about it!" exclaimed
+Alice.
+
+"No, it isn't that," and the girl looked from one sister to the other.
+"Oh, I wonder if I dare tell you?"
+
+"If there is anything in which we can help you, tell us, by all means!"
+answered Ruth, warmly--sympathetically. "But we don't want to force
+ourselves----"
+
+"Oh, no! It isn't that. I'm only wondering what you will think of me
+afterward."
+
+"We shall love you just the same!" cried impulsive Alice.
+
+"Don't be too sure. But I feel that I must tell some one. I have borne
+all I can alone. It is getting to the point where I fear I shall scream
+my secret to the cameras--or some one!"
+
+Then Estelle had a secret!
+
+"Do tell us. Perhaps we can help you--or perhaps my father can,"
+suggested Ruth.
+
+"I don't believe any one can help me," said Estelle. "But at least it
+will be a relief to tell it. I--I am living under false pretenses!" she
+blurted out desperately.
+
+"False pretenses!" repeated Alice. At once her mind flashed back to Miss
+Dixon's ring. Was it the taking of this that Estelle was hinting at? The
+girl must have guessed what was in the mind of her hearers, for she
+hastened to add:
+
+"Oh, it isn't anything disgraceful. It's just a misfortune. You remember
+you have been asking me where I learned to ride--whether I didn't use to
+live on a ranch--questions like that. Well, you must have noticed that I
+didn't answer."
+
+"Yes, we did notice, and we spoke about it," said truthful Ruth.
+
+"We thought you didn't wish to tell," added Alice.
+
+"Wish to tell! Oh, my dears, I would have been only too glad to tell if
+I could."
+
+"Why can't you?" asked Ruth. "Are you bound by some vow of secrecy? Is
+it dangerous for you to reveal the past?"
+
+"No, it is simply impossible!"
+
+"Impossible!" the two sisters exclaimed.
+
+"Yes, I can no more tell you what life I lived, where I lived, who I
+was, or what I was doing, up to a time of about three or four years ago,
+than I can fly."
+
+"Why not?" asked Alice, puzzled.
+
+"Because the past--up to the time I named--is a perfect blank to me. My
+mind refuses absolutely to tell me who I was or where I lived--who my
+people were--anything of the past. My mind is like a blank sheet of
+paper. I can remember nothing. Oh, isn't it awful!" and she burst into
+tears.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+"WHAT CAN WE DO?"
+
+
+"You poor dear!" cried Alice, and she knelt down on the floor beside
+Estelle and put her arms about the weeping girl. Ruth, too, with an
+expression of sympathy, stroked the bowed head.
+
+"We want so much to help you," Ruth murmured.
+
+"Let me get you something," begged Alice. "Some smelling salts--some
+ammonia--shall I call any one--the doctor----?"
+
+"No, I--I'll be all right presently," said Estelle in a broken voice.
+"Just let me alone a little while--I mean stay with me--talk to me--tell
+me something. I want to get control of my nerves."
+
+Ruth did not seem to know what to say, but Alice pulled a small bottle
+from her pocket, and held it under Estelle's nose.
+
+"It's the loveliest new scent," she said. "I bought a sample in town."
+
+Estelle burst into a laugh, rather a hysterical laugh, it is true, but a
+laugh nevertheless. It showed that the strain and tension were relaxing
+to some extent.
+
+"Isn't it sweet?" Alice asked.
+
+"It is, dear. Let me smell it again. It makes me feel better," and
+Estelle breathed in deep of the odorous scent.
+
+"How silly I was to give way like that," she went on. "But I simply
+couldn't help it. This has been going on for so long, and it got so I
+couldn't stand it another minute. How would you like it not to know who
+you are?"
+
+"Not very much, I'm afraid," said Ruth, softly.
+
+"That, in a way, is why it has been such a relief to be in the moving
+pictures," Estelle went on. "I could be so many different characters,
+and, at times, I thought perhaps, by chance, I might be cast for the
+very part I have lost--cast for my real self, as it were."
+
+"You must have had a hard time," said Alice.
+
+"I haven't told you half the story yet," Estelle went on. "Would you
+like to hear the rest?"
+
+"Indeed we would!" exclaimed Ruth. "Not from any idle curiosity, but
+because we want to help you."
+
+"And I do need some one to help me," murmured Estelle. "I am all alone
+in the world."
+
+"You must have relatives somewhere!" insisted Alice.
+
+"None that I ever heard of. But then, who knows what might have happened
+in the life that is a blank to me--in the life that lies beyond that
+impenetrable wall of the past?
+
+"But I mustn't get hysterical again. Just let me think for a moment, so
+I may tell you my story clearly. I shall be all right in a moment or
+two."
+
+"Let me make you a cup of tea," proposed Ruth. "I'll make some for all
+of us," and presently the little kettle was steaming over the spirit
+lamp, and the girls were sipping the fragrant beverage.
+
+"Thank you. That was good!" murmured Estelle. "I feel better now. I'll
+tell the rest of my miserable story to you."
+
+"Don't make it too miserable," and Alice tried to make her laugh a gay
+one.
+
+"I won't--not any more so than I can help. I think it will do me good to
+let you share the mystery with me."
+
+"Then it is a mystery?" asked Ruth.
+
+"Somewhat, yes. You may think it strange, but I can not think back more
+than three years--four at the most. I am not at all certain of the time.
+But go back as far as I can, all I remember is that I was on a large
+steamer."
+
+"On the ocean?" asked Alice.
+
+"No, on the Great Lakes. I was going to Cleveland, which I learned when
+I asked one of the officers."
+
+"And didn't you know where you were going before you asked?" Ruth
+questioned.
+
+"I hadn't the least idea, my dear. I might just as well have been going
+to Europe. In fact, when I first looked out and saw the water, I thought
+I was on the ocean."
+
+"But where did you come from, what were you doing there, where were your
+people?" cried Ruth.
+
+"That's it, my dear. Where were they? I didn't know. No one knew. All I
+could grasp was the fact that I was there on the boat."
+
+"Alone?"
+
+"Yes, all alone."
+
+"But who bought your ticket--who engaged your stateroom?" questioned
+Ruth.
+
+"That is the queer part of it. I did it myself. When I first became
+conscious that I was in a strange place I was so shocked that I wanted
+to scream--to cry out--to ask all sorts of questions. Then I realized if
+I did that I might be taken for an insane person and be locked up. So I
+just shut myself in my stateroom and did some thinking.
+
+"The first thing I wanted to know was how I got on the steamer, but how
+to find that out without asking questions that the steamship people
+would think peculiar, was a puzzle to me. Finally, I decided to pretend
+to want to change my room, and when I went to the purser I asked him if
+that was the only room to be had.
+
+"'Why no, Miss,' he said, 'but when you came on board and I told you
+what rooms I had, you insisted on taking that one.' That was enough for
+me. I realized then that I had come on board alone, and of my own
+volition, though I had not any recollection of having done so, and I
+knew no more of where I came from than you do now."
+
+"How very strange!" murmured Alice. "And what did you do?"
+
+"Well, I pretended that I had been tired and had not made a wise choice
+of a room, and asked the purser to give me another.
+
+"'I thought, when you picked it out, you wouldn't like that one,' he
+said to me, 'but you looked like a young lady who was used to having her
+own way, so I did not interfere.'
+
+"That was another bit of information. Evidently, I looked prosperous, a
+fact that was borne out when I examined my purse. I had a considerable
+sum in it, and the large valise I found in my room was filled with
+expensive clothes and fittings. Yet where I had obtained it or my money
+or my clothes I could not tell for the life of me. All I knew was that
+I was there on board the ship."
+
+"And did you change your stateroom?" asked Ruth.
+
+"Yes; the purser gave me another one. And then I sat down and tried to
+puzzle it out. Why was I going to Cleveland? I knew no one there, and
+yet I had bought a ticket to that port--or some one had bought it for
+me."
+
+"Did that occur to you?" asked Alice. "That some one might have had an
+object in getting you out of the way."
+
+"Well, if they had, they took a very public and expensive method of
+doing it," Estelle said. "I was on one of the best boats on Lake Erie,
+and I had plenty of money."
+
+"Did you find in what name your room was taken?" asked Ruth. "That might
+have given you a clue."
+
+"The name given was Estelle Brown," was the answer. "I gave that name
+myself, for I recognized my handwriting on the envelope in which I
+sealed some of my jewelry before handing it to the purser to put in his
+safe. Estelle Brown was the name I gave."
+
+"And was it yours?" asked Alice.
+
+"I haven't any reason to believe that it was not. In fact, as I looked
+back then, and as I look back now, the name Estelle Brown seems to be
+my very own--it is associated closely with me. So I'm sure I'm Estelle
+Brown--that is the only part I am sure about."
+
+"But what did you do?" asked Ruth. "Didn't you make some inquiries?"
+
+"I did; as soon as I reached Cleveland. At first I hoped that my memory
+would come back to me when I reached that place. I thought I might
+recognize some of the buildings. In fact, I hoped it would prove to be
+my home, from which I had, perhaps, wandered in a fit of illness.
+
+"But it was of no help to me. I might just as well have been in San
+Francisco or New York for all that the place was familiar to me. So I
+gave that up. Then I began to look over the papers to see if any Estelle
+Brown was missing. But there was nothing to that effect in the news
+columns. All the while I was getting more and more worried.
+
+"I went to a good hotel in Cleveland and stayed two or three days. Then
+I happened to think that perhaps my clothes might offer some clue. I
+examined them all carefully, and the only thing I found was the name of
+a Boston firm on a toilet set. At once it flashed on me that I belonged
+in Boston. I seemed to have a dim recollection of a big monument in the
+midst of a green park, of narrow, crooked streets and historical
+buildings.
+
+"Then, in a flash it came to me--I did belong in Boston. How I had come
+from there I could not guess, but I was sure I lived there. So I bought
+a ticket for there and went as fast as the train could take me.
+
+"But my hopes were dashed. Even the sight of Bunker Hill monument did
+not bring the elusive memory, nor did viewing the other places of
+historic interest. Yet, somewhere in the back of my brain, I was sure I
+had been in that city before. I went to the place where my toilet set
+was bought, but the man had sold out and the new owner could give me no
+information.
+
+"I did not know what to do. My money was running low, and I had not a
+friend to whom to turn. I happened to go in to see some moving pictures,
+and the idea came to me that perhaps I could act. I had rather a good
+face, so some one had hinted."
+
+"You do photograph beautifully," said Alice.
+
+"That's what one of the managers in Boston told me when I applied to
+him," said Estelle. "He gave me a small part, and then I learned that
+New York was really the place to go to get in the movies, so I came on,
+with a letter to a manager from the Boston firm.
+
+"It must have been my face that got me my first engagement, for now I
+know I couldn't act. But, somehow or other, I made good, and then I got
+this engagement with Mr. Pertell.
+
+"And that is my story. You can see what a strange one it is--for me not
+to know who I am. I'm almost ashamed to admit it, and that is why I have
+been avoiding all references to my past. But now I have told you, what
+do you think?"
+
+"I think it's just terrible!" cried Alice. "The idea! Not to know who
+you are."
+
+"The question is," said Ruth, "what can we do to help you? This must not
+be allowed to go any further. Valuable time is being lost. We want to
+help you, Estelle. What can we do? We must try to find out who you are."
+
+"Yes, but how can you?" asked the strange girl.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+A BIG GUN
+
+
+Ruth did not answer for several seconds. She seemed to be thinking
+deeply, and Alice, who was fairly bursting with numberless questions she
+wanted to ask, respected her sister's efforts to bring some logical
+queries to the fore.
+
+"Then your hopes that Boston would prove to be your home were not borne
+out?" asked Ruth, after a bit.
+
+"No, but even yet I feel sure that I have lived at least part of my life
+in Boston, or near there. One doesn't have even shadowy memories of big
+monuments and historic places without some basis; and it was not the
+memory of having seen pictures of them. It was a real vision."
+
+"And the name Estelle Brown?"
+
+"Oh, I'm sure that belongs to me. It seems a very part of myself."
+
+"Did you tell any of this to Mr. Pertell or to the other moving picture
+managers?" asked Alice.
+
+"No. You are the first persons to whom I have told my secret," Estelle
+said. "I was afraid if I mentioned it they might make it public for
+advertising purposes, you know. They might make public the fact that a
+young actress was looking for herself and her parents. I never could
+bear that!"
+
+"But you want to find your folks, don't you?" asked Alice.
+
+"That's the queer part of it," Estelle replied. "I seem never to have
+had any relatives. The way I feel about it now, I would never know that
+I had had a father or a mother. I seem to have just 'growed,' the way
+poor Topsy did in Uncle Tom's Cabin. That is another strange part of my
+present existence. I seem to be in a world by myself, and, as far as I
+can tell, I have always been there."
+
+"What about Lieutenant Varley?" inquired Alice.
+
+"Lieutenant Varley?" and Estelle's voice showed that she was puzzled.
+
+"The young officer who said he met you in Portland."
+
+"Oh, yes. I had forgotten. Well, I have absolutely no recollection of
+that, and I'm sure I would remember if I had been in the West. I'm
+certain I never was there."
+
+"And yet if you weren't in the West how did you learn to ride so well?"
+Ruth queried.
+
+"That's another part of the puzzle, my dear. Riding seems to come as
+natural to me as breathing. I don't seem ever to have learned it any
+more than I learned how to dance. I seem always to have known how."
+
+"There's only one way to account for that," Alice said.
+
+"How?"
+
+"From the fact that you must have started to learn to ride and to dance
+when you were very young--a mere child."
+
+"I suppose that would account for it. And yet, I can't remember ever
+being a child. I don't recall having played with dolls or having made
+mud pies. For me my existence begins about three or four years back, and
+goes on from there, mostly in moving pictures."
+
+"It is a queer case," commented Ruth. "I don't know what to do to help
+you. Perhaps it would be a good thing to speak to Mr. Pertell about it.
+Often when children have been kidnapped, you know, their pictures are
+flashed on the screen in hundreds of cities, and sometimes persons in
+the audiences recognize them. That might be done with you, Estelle."
+
+"No, I wouldn't dream of doing that. Perhaps something may turn up some
+day that will tell me who I really am. And perhaps I shall be sorry for
+having learned."
+
+"No, you will not!" declared Alice. "You come of good people--one can
+easily tell that."
+
+"Thank you, dear. And now I have inflicted enough of my troubles on you.
+Let's talk about something pleasant."
+
+"You haven't burdened us with your troubles, Estelle dear," insisted
+Ruth. "It is a strange story, and we are interested in the outcome."
+
+"Indeed we are," said Alice. "We want very much to help you."
+
+"That's good of you. But I don't see what you can do. I'm just a sort of
+Topsy, and Topsy I'll remain. Now please don't say anything about what I
+have told you to any one--not even to your father--unless I give you
+permission. I don't want to be the object of curiosity, as well as of
+suspicion."
+
+"Suspicion!" cried Alice.
+
+"Yes, about Miss Dixon's ring."
+
+"Oh! no one in the world believes you took that--not even Miss Dixon
+herself. I believe she has found the old paste diamond, and is too mean
+to admit it!" cried impulsive Alice.
+
+"You mustn't say such things!" objected her sister.
+
+"Well, neither must she, then. Oh, Estelle! Wouldn't it be great if you
+should prove to be the daughter of a millionaire!"
+
+"Too great, my dear. Don't let's think about it. But I feel better for
+having unburdened some of my troubles on you. And if you will still be
+as nice to me as you always have been----"
+
+"Why shouldn't we be?" asked Ruth.
+
+"Oh, I don't know, but I thought----"
+
+"Silly!" cried Alice, as she threw her arms about the strange girl and
+kissed her.
+
+Suddenly, from a distant hill, came a dull, booming sound, that, low as
+it was, seemed to make the very ground tremble.
+
+"What's that?" cried Alice.
+
+"Thunder," suggested Ruth.
+
+"It sounded more like an explosion," asserted Estelle.
+
+"There it goes again!" exclaimed Alice.
+
+"Look!" cried her sister.
+
+She pointed through the open window, and as the girls peered out they
+saw the top of the hill fly upward in a shower of dirt and stones.
+
+Once more the deep boom sounded.
+
+"It's a big gun!" cried Alice. "I remember, now. Mr. Pertell said he
+wanted pictures of a siege of a fort, and he sent for a big gun to get
+explosive effects. Come on over!"
+
+"And be blown to pieces?" objected Ruth. "Don't dare go, Alice DeVere!"
+
+"Oh, come on! There's no danger. Russ is going to make the films. I
+guess they're just trying it now. It's too late to make good pictures.
+Come on."
+
+"I'll go," offered Estelle. "I don't mind the noise."
+
+Ruth declined to go, so the other two girls set off. On the porch they
+met Russ and Paul, who confirmed their guess that it was a big siege gun
+which Mr. Pertell had sent to New York to get, so he might show the
+effect of explosive shells.
+
+"I'm going to film some to-morrow," Russ said.
+
+"Be careful," urged Alice. "Don't get blown up!"
+
+"I'm no more anxious for that than any one," laughed Russ, and together
+they set off toward the place where the big gun was being tried out.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+A WRONG SHOT
+
+
+The big gun which Mr. Pertell had secured to make more realistic the war
+play he was preparing for the films, was an old fashioned siege rifle,
+made toward the close of the Civil conflict. It had not been used more
+than a few times, and then it had been stored away in some arsenal. The
+director, hearing of it, had secured it to fire at a certain hill on Oak
+Farm.
+
+This hill would, in the motion pictures, form a stronghold of the
+Southern forces and it would be demolished by shells from the large
+cannon, and then would follow a charge on the part of the Union
+soldiers.
+
+Real shells, with large explosive charges in them, would be used, but it
+is needless to say that when the shots were fired at the hill the
+players taking the parts of the Southerners would be at a safe distance.
+
+"They're just trying it out now," observed Russ, who with Paul, was
+walking over the fields with Alice and Estelle. "Mr. Pertell wants to
+get the range, and decide on the best places from which to make the
+pictures. I think we'll film some to-morrow if it's a good day."
+
+"What's the matter with your eyes, Estelle?" asked Paul, as he looked at
+her. "Were you working in the studio to-day? I know those lights always
+affect my sight."
+
+"Why, no, I wasn't in the studio," and then Estelle realized why her
+eyes were so inflamed--it was from crying. She gave Alice a meaning
+glance, as though to enjoin silence, but she need have had no fears.
+Alice would not betray the secret.
+
+The big gun had been mounted on a level piece of land, not far from the
+hill, and on this plain had been thrown up earthworks behind which the
+Union forces would take their stand in an effort to reduce the
+Confederate stronghold.
+
+"They're going to fire!" cried Estelle as they came within sight of the
+gun, and saw, by the activities of the men about it, that a shot was
+about to be delivered.
+
+Alice covered her ears with her hands, and Russ and Paul stood on their
+tiptoes and opened their mouths wide.
+
+"What in the world are they doing that for?" asked Estelle.
+
+"I can't hear a word you say!" called Alice, making her voice loud, to
+overcome her own hearing handicap.
+
+"There she goes!" cried Russ.
+
+The earth trembled as flames and smoke belched from the muzzle of the
+cannon, and the girls screamed.
+
+Something black was seen for an instant in the air amid the swirl of
+smoke, and then another portion of the hill was seen to lift itself up
+into the air and dirt and stones were scattered about.
+
+"A good shot!" observed Russ, letting himself down off his tiptoes.
+"That would make a dandy scene for the film."
+
+"That's right," agreed Paul, also letting himself down and closing his
+opened mouth.
+
+"Why did you do that?" asked Estelle, when the echoes of the firing had
+died away. "Why did you stand on your toes, and open your mouths?"
+
+"To lessen the shock to our ear drums," answered Paul. "It is the
+concussion, that is, the rushing back of air into the vacuum caused by
+the shot, that does the damage. By opening your mouth you equalize the
+air pressure on the inside and the outside of your ear drums, just as
+you do when you go through a river tunnel. When there is a partial
+vacuum outside your ear, the air inside you presses the drum outward,
+and by opening your mouth--or by swallowing you make the pressure
+equal. Sometimes the pressure outside is greater than the pressure
+inside, and you must also equalize that before you can be comfortable."
+
+"But that wasn't why you stood on your toes," Alice said.
+
+"No; we did that to have less surface of our bodies on the ground so the
+vibration would be less. If one could leap up off the earth at the exact
+moment a shot was fired it would be much better, but it is hard to jump
+at the right instant, and standing on one's toes is nearly as good. Then
+you present only a comparatively small point which the vibrations of the
+earth, caused by the explosion of the gun, can act upon."
+
+"That's a good thing to remember," Estelle said. "Are they going to fire
+again?"
+
+"It looks so," observed Russ. "But if they knock away too much of the
+hill there won't be any left for the pictures to-morrow."
+
+"I believe they want to make the top of the hill flat," said Paul. "They
+are going to have some sort of hand-to-hand fight on it after the
+Unionists capture it," he went on. "I heard Mr. Pertell speaking of it."
+
+"There goes another!" cried Alice, as she saw the same preparations as
+before and one man standing near the gun to pull the lanyard, which, by
+means of a friction tube, exploded the charge.
+
+Once more the projectile shot out and, burying itself in the soft dirt
+of the hill, threw it up in a shower.
+
+"That'll save me a lot of work!" exclaimed a voice behind the young
+people, and, turning, they saw Sandy Apgar smiling at them. "That's a
+new way of plowing," he went on. "It sure does stir up the soil."
+
+"Won't it spoil your hill?" asked Alice.
+
+"Not so's you could notice it. That hill isn't wuth much as it stands.
+It's too steep to plow, and only a goat could find a foothold on it to
+graze. So if you moving picture folks level it for me I may be able to
+raise some crops on it. Shoot as much as you like. You can't hurt that
+hill!"
+
+The men at the gun signaled that they were going to fire no more that
+day, and then, as it was safe, the young folks made a trip to see the
+extent of damage caused by the shells.
+
+Great furrows were torn in the earth and the stones, and the top of the
+hill, that had been rounding, was now quite flat, though far from being
+smooth.
+
+The next day had been set for filming the scenes with the big gun in
+them. Contrary to expectations, no pictures could be taken, as the
+throwing up of the earthworks had not been finished. But a number of men
+from both "armies" were set to work, and as it afforded good practice
+for the militia they were called on to dig trenches, throw up ridges of
+earth, and go through other needful military tactics.
+
+The girls had no part in the scenes with the big gun, except that, later
+on, they were to act as nurses in the hospital tent.
+
+On top of the hill a force of Confederates would be stationed, and they
+were to reply to the fire of the big gun. Of course, when the
+projectiles struck the hill the soldiers would be a safe distance away,
+but by means of trick photography scenes would be shown just as if they
+were sustaining a severe bombardment.
+
+"Is everything ready?" asked Mr. Pertell, a few days after the setting
+up of the big gun, during which interval a sort of fort had been
+constructed on the hill and a redoubt thrown up.
+
+"I think so," answered Russ. "We couldn't have a better day, as far as
+sunshine is concerned. I'm ready to film whenever you are."
+
+"I'll give the word in a minute. Paul, you're in charge of a detachment
+of Union soldiers that storms the hill as soon as the big gun has
+silenced the battery there."
+
+"Very well, sir."
+
+The big gun rattled out its booming challenge and was replied to by
+volleys from the rifles of the Confederates on the hill and by their
+field artillery, which they hurriedly brought up.
+
+Shot after shot was fired, and one after another the Confederate cannon
+were disabled. They were blown up by small charges of powder put under
+them, set off by fuses lighted by the Confederates themselves, but this
+did not show in the picture, and it looked as though the Southern
+battery was blown up by shots from the big gun.
+
+"All ready now, Paul! Lead your men!" yelled the director, who was
+standing near Russ and his camera. "Rush right up the hill. Stop firing
+here!" he called to those in charge of the big gun.
+
+But something went wrong, or some one misunderstood. As Paul was
+charging up the hill at the head of his little band, Russ, turning his
+head for an instant, saw a man about to pull the lanyard of the big gun.
+
+"Don't shoot! Don't shoot!" he yelled. "It's aimed right at Paul and his
+fellows!"
+
+But Russ was too late. The man pulled the cord. There was a deafening
+roar, a cloud of smoke, a sheet of fire, and a black projectile was sent
+hurtling on its way against the hill, up the side of which Paul was
+climbing with his soldiers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE BIG SCENE
+
+
+Nothing could be done! No power on earth could stop that projectile now
+until it had spent itself, or until it had struck something and
+exploded.
+
+Horror-stricken, those near the big gun looked across the intervening
+space. How many would survive what was to follow?
+
+The man who had pulled the lanyard sank to the ground, covering his face
+with his hands.
+
+For a brief instant Paul, leading his men, looked back at the sound of
+the unexpected shot. He had been told that no more were to be fired.
+Doubtless, this was an extra one to make the pictures more realistic.
+But when he saw, in a flash, something black and menacing leaping
+through the air toward him and his men, instinctively he cried:
+
+"Duck, everybody! Duck!"
+
+He fell forward on his face and those of his men who heard and
+understood did likewise.
+
+Ruth, Alice and Estelle, who were watching the scene from a distant
+knoll, hardly understood what it was all about. They had thought no more
+shots would be fired when Paul began his charge, but one had boomed out,
+and surely that was a projectile winging its way toward the partly
+demolished hill.
+
+"That is carrying realism a little too far," said Ruth. "I hope----"
+
+"Paul has fallen!" cried Alice. "Oh--something has happened!"
+
+One must realize that all this took place at the same time. The firing
+of the shot, the realization that it was a mistake, Paul's flash of the
+oncoming projectile, his command to his men and the vision had by the
+girls. All in an instant, for a shot from a big gun does not leave much
+margin of time between starting and arriving even when fired with only a
+small charge of powder for moving picture purposes.
+
+And, so quickly had it happened that Russ had not stopped turning the
+crank of his camera, nor had an assistant on the hillside, where he had
+been stationed to film Paul and his soldiers.
+
+And then the projectile struck. Into the soft dirt of the hillside it
+buried its head, and then, as the explosion came, up went a shower of
+earth and stones. And ever afterward the gunner who inserted that
+charge blessed himself and an ever-watchful Providence that he had put
+in but half a charge, the last of the powder.
+
+For it was this half-charge that saved Paul and his men. The projectile
+struck in the hill a hundred feet below where Paul was leading his force
+up the slope, and though they were well-nigh buried beneath a rain of
+sand and gravel, they were not otherwise hurt--scratches and bruises
+being their portion.
+
+"What are they trying to do, kill us?" cried a man, staggering to his
+feet, blood streaming from a cut on his cheek.
+
+"This is too much like real war for me!" yelled another throwing down
+his gun. "I'm going to quit!"
+
+"No you don't!" shouted Paul. "Come on. It was a mistake. They won't
+fire any more. It will make a great scene on the film. Come on!"
+
+He gave one look back toward the Union battery and saw Mr. Pertell
+fluttering a white flag which meant safety. Waving his sword above his
+head, Paul yelled again:
+
+"Come on! Come on! It's all right! Up the hill with you! That shot was
+only to put a little pep in you!"
+
+"Pep! More like sand! I got a mouthful!" muttered a sergeant.
+
+"Get every inch of that. It's the best scene we've had yet, though it
+was a close call!" telephoned Mr. Pertell to the operator on the side of
+the hill. "Film every inch of it!"
+
+"All right! I'm getting it," answered the camera man and he went on
+grinding away at his crank.
+
+The explosion of the shell had, for the moment, stopped the advance of
+Paul and his men up the hill, but this momentary halt only made it look
+more realistic--as though they really feared they were in danger, as
+indeed they had been. Now the director called:
+
+"It's all right, Paul! Go ahead! Keep on just as if that was part of the
+show."
+
+"It was a lively part all right!" and Paul laughed grimly. "Come on,
+boys!"
+
+And the charge was resumed.
+
+Back of the dismantled battery, whence they had presumably been driven
+by the fire from the big gun, the Confederates were massed. They were
+waiting for Paul's charge, and they, too, had been a little surprised by
+the unexpected firing of the shell.
+
+But now, in response to a signal on the field telephone, they prepared
+to resist the assault.
+
+"Come on, boys! Beat the Yankees back!" was the battle cry that would be
+flashed on the screen.
+
+Then came the fierce struggle, and it was nearly as fierce as it was
+indicated in the pictures. Real blows were given, and more than one man
+went down harder than he had expected to. There were duels with clubbed
+rifles, and fencing combats with swords, though, of course, the
+participants took care not to cut one another.
+
+In spite of this, several received minor hurts. But this result only
+added to the effectiveness of the scene, though it was painful. But in
+providing realism for motion pictures more than one conscientious player
+has been injured, and not a few have lost their lives. It is devotion of
+no small sort to their profession.
+
+Back and forth surged the fight, sometimes Paul's men giving way, and
+again driving the Confederates back from the crest of the hill. Small
+detachments here and there fired volleys of blank cartridges from their
+rifles, but there was not as much of this for the close-up pictures as
+there had been for the larger battle scenes. For while smoke blowing
+over a big field on which hundreds of men and horses are massed makes a
+picture effective, if seen at too close range it hides the details of
+the fighting.
+
+And Mr. Pertell wanted the details to come out in this close-up scene.
+
+Back and forth surged the fight until it had run through a certain
+length of film. Then the orders came that the Confederates were to give
+up and retreat. Before this, however, a number of them had been killed,
+as had almost as many Union soldiers.
+
+Then came a spirited scene. Paul, leading his men, leaped up on the
+earthworks of the Confederate battery, cut down the Southern flag--the
+stars and bars. In its place he hoisted the stars and stripes, and with
+a wild yell that made the fight seem almost real, he and his men
+occupied the heights.
+
+"Well done!" cried Mr. Pertell, enthusiastically, when he came over from
+the ramparts of the big gun. "Are you sure none of you was hurt when
+that shell exploded?"
+
+"None of us," answered Paul. "It fell short, luckily, and the dirt was
+soft. No big rocks were tossed up, fortunately, and we came out of it
+very nicely."
+
+"Glad to hear it. I've discharged the man who fired the gun."
+
+"That's too bad!"
+
+"Well, I hired him over again--but to do something else less dangerous.
+I can't afford to take chances with big cannon. But I think the scene
+went off very well. That stopping and the bursting of the shell made it
+look very real."
+
+"That's good," Paul said, wiping some of the dirt and blood off his
+face, for he had been scratched by the point of some one's bayonet.
+
+That ended this particular scene for the day, and the players could take
+a much-needed rest. Plenty of powder had been burned, and the air was
+rank and heavy with the fumes.
+
+"Are you sure you're all right, Paul?" asked Alice, when he came up to
+the farmhouse later in the day.
+
+"Well, I think I'd be better if you would feel my pulse," he said,
+winking at Russ. "And you don't need to be in a hurry to let go my hand.
+I sha'n't need it right away."
+
+"Silly!" exclaimed Alice, as she turned, blushing, away.
+
+"It must have been a shock to you," said Ruth.
+
+"It was. But it was over so quickly I didn't have time to be shocked
+long. Now, let's talk about something nice. Come on in to the town, and
+I'll buy you all ice-cream."
+
+"That will be nice!" laughed Estelle.
+
+It was several days later that Mr. Pertell, coming to where the moving
+picture girls and their friends were seated on the porch, said:
+
+"The big scene is for to-morrow. In the hospital. This is where you are
+looking after the wounded officer, Ruth, and Alice, on pretense of
+being a nurse seeking to give aid, comes in to get the papers. I want
+this very carefully done, as it is one of the climaxes of the whole
+play. So we'll have some rehearsals in the morning."
+
+"Am I to do that riding act?" asked Estelle.
+
+"Yes, you'll do the horse stunt as usual. There's to be a cavalry
+charge, Miss Brown, so don't get in their way and be run down."
+
+"I'll try not to," she answered.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+ALICE DOES WELL
+
+
+Long rows of wounded men lay stretched out on white cots in the
+hospital. Some wore bandages over their heads all but concealing their
+eyes. Others were so entwined with white wrappings that it was hard to
+say whether they were men or oriental women. Still others raised
+themselves on their elbows, spasms of pain corrugating their brows,
+while red cross nurses held to their lips cooling drinks.
+
+Here at the bedside of one stood a grave surgeon, slowly shaking his
+head as he came to the melancholy conclusion that a further operation
+was useless. Over there they were carrying out a motionless form on a
+stretcher, a sheet mercifully draped over what was left. At the entrance
+to the hospital other bearers were carrying in those who came from the
+scene of the distant firing.
+
+The boom of big guns shook the frail shack that had been turned into a
+hospital. Now and then, as the wind blew in fitful gusts, there was
+borne on it the acrid smell of powder. And again, in some dark corner of
+that building of suffering, there could be seen through the cracks, left
+by hasty builders, the flash of fire that preceded the booming crash of
+the cannon.
+
+A sad-faced woman in black moved slowly down the line of cots led by a
+sympathetic nurse. She came to one bed, stopped as though in doubt,
+passed her hand over her face as if she did not want to admit that what
+she saw she did see, and then she fell on her knees in a passion of
+weeping, while the surgeons turned away their heads. She had found what
+she had sought.
+
+From the farther door there entered a man, limping on crutches
+improvised from the limbs of a tree. Stained bandages were about one arm
+and another leg. His head, too, was wrapped so that only half his face
+showed. A hurrying orderly met him.
+
+"You can't come in here!" he cried.
+
+"Why not, I'd like to know. Ain't this the horspital?"
+
+"Of course it is."
+
+"Then why can't I come in here. I'm hurt, and hurt bad, pardner. Shot
+through leg and arm, and part of my jaw gone. Why can't I come in?"
+
+"'Cause you can't. Didn't we just carry you out for dead? What'll the
+audience think if they see you walking again? Git on out of here!"
+
+"I will not! I've wrapped this bandage around my head on purpose so they
+won't know me. Let me come in, will you? That's real lemonade them
+pretty nurses is givin' out to drink, and I'm as dry as a fish. I've
+been firin' one of them guns until I've swallowed enough smoke to play
+an animated cannon ball. Let me in the horspital."
+
+"Yes, let him in!" called Mr. Pertell through his megaphone. He was at
+the far end of the shack that had been hastily erected on Oak Farm as a
+hospital, for the last big scenes of the war play, "A Girl in Blue and A
+Girl in Gray."
+
+"All right, just as you say," answered the orderly. "Come on in, Bill.
+Are you going to die this time?"
+
+"I am not! I'm going to be one of them converts, and get chicken
+sandwiches and jelly."
+
+"You mean convalescent."
+
+"Um. That's it! Lead me to me bed, will you, for I'm a sadly wounded old
+soldier--that's what I am."
+
+Amid laughter he was led to a cot, where a smiling nurse tucked him in
+between the yellow sheets. For, as has been said, yellow takes the place
+of white in inside scenes.
+
+And this was an inside scene, powerful electric lights dispelling all
+shadows so the cameras could film every motion and expression.
+
+"Now remember!" called Mr. Pertell when the "wounded man," one of the
+extra players, had been comfortably put to bed, "remember no smiling or
+laughing when we begin to make the picture. This is supposed to be
+serious."
+
+The rehearsal went on and finally the director announced that he was
+satisfied. Then the scenes were enacted over again, but with more
+tenseness and with a knowledge that every motion was being filmed with
+startling exactness.
+
+"Now, Ruth, you come on!" called Mr. Pertell. "We've made a little
+change from the original scenario. You're to relieve Miss Dixon, who has
+been on this case. He's one of the Northern officers, you remember, and
+he has with him papers that the Confederacy would do much to get.
+
+"They are under the officer's pillow, you know. He is afraid to let them
+out of his possession. You must humor him, though you know that the
+papers will soon have to be taken away as he is to be operated on. It is
+here that Alice, as the spy, gets her chance. She pretends to be one of
+the nurses of this hospital, dons the uniform, and comes in here to get
+the papers. Are you ready?"
+
+"Yes," answered Ruth.
+
+Then the big hospital scene began.
+
+Ruth, in her garb of a nurse, took her place at the side of the injured
+officer's cot. She felt his pulse, took his temperature and administered
+some medicine. Then the injured man, who was Mr. DeVere himself, sank
+back on his pillows. His hand went under the mass of feathers and
+brought out a packet of papers. At this point a close-up view was taken,
+showing on the screen the papers in magnified shape, so that the
+audience could note that they were Civil War documents. It was these
+that the officer was afraid would fall into the hands of the
+Confederates, so he kept them ever near him.
+
+Ruth made as if to remove them when he had placed them under the pillow
+again, but he awoke with a start and prevented her. This was to show
+that it was necessary for some one to take them while the operation was
+being performed.
+
+Then the scene changed to show Alice preparing for her work as a spy.
+The camera was taken to another part of the hospital, Ruth and her
+father having a respite, though they maintained their positions.
+
+"Did I do all right, Daddy?" asked Ruth.
+
+"Very well, indeed. You are getting to be a good actress. I wish you
+were on the speaking stage."
+
+"I like this ever so much better. I never could speak before a whole
+crowd."
+
+Alice was shown making her way into the hospital, a previous scene
+having depicted her as promising the Confederate officer in whose employ
+as a spy she was, that she would get the papers. She entered the
+hospital, pretending to be in search of a missing relative. Then,
+watching her chance, she prepared a sleeping powder for a tired and
+half-sleeping nurse off duty and prepared to take her uniform.
+
+Alice played her part well. The sleeping nurse aroused, took the drugged
+drink, and went more soundly to sleep than ever. Then Alice was shown in
+the act of taking off the uniform. Another scene showed her walking
+boldly into the ward room to relieve Ruth.
+
+There was a little scene between the two sisters, and Ruth registered
+that Alice must be very careful not to alarm or shock the wounded man
+who was soon to undergo the operation.
+
+Alice acquiesced, and then sat down beside the cot. Slowly and
+carefully, like some pickpocket, she inserted her fingers under the
+pillow. Amid a tenseness that affected even the actors working with her,
+Alice took out the papers, inch by inch, and began to move away with
+them.
+
+It was at this point that she was to be discovered by Paul, in the next
+bed. He had, in a previous scene, supposed to have taken place several
+months before, saved Alice's life, and they had fallen in love, Alice
+promising to wed him after the war. He supposed her to be a true
+Northern girl, and now he discovered that she was a Southern spy.
+
+There was a strong scene here. Paul leaped from his bed, and tried to
+get the papers away from Alice. She, horror-stricken at being discovered
+as a spy by her lover, is torn between affection for him and duty to the
+South. She throws him from her, as he is weakened by illness, and is
+about to escape with the papers, when she fears Paul is dying and she is
+stricken with remorse. She decides to give up her task for the sake of
+her lover.
+
+Slowly and softly, without awakening the old officer, she puts the
+papers back under his pillow and then, stooping over Paul, who has
+fainted from loss of blood, she kisses his forehead and goes out in a
+"fadeaway."
+
+"Good! Great! Couldn't be better!" cried Mr. Pertell, as Alice came out
+of range of the camera. "That was better than I dared to hope. This will
+make a big hit!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+A BAD FALL
+
+
+"Have you made up your mind yet, Estelle?"
+
+"No, Ruth! I haven't. I don't know what to do."
+
+The two girls were in Estelle's room. Miss Brown was putting some
+protective padding under her outer garments, for in a little while she
+was to take part in a desperate ride--one of the last scenes in the big
+war play--a ride that had a part in a cavalry charge that was to be made
+by the desperate Confederates on the hosts of Unionists, who were
+closing in on their enemies. It was to be the last battle--a final stand
+of the Southern States, and they were to lose.
+
+But Estelle was to make a desperate ride to try to save the day. This
+time she was to pose as a daughter of the South. The ride would
+necessarily be a reckless one, and Estelle felt that she might fall; so
+she was preparing for it.
+
+"I don't know what to do," she went on to Ruth, who was helping her.
+"Sometimes I feel like doing as you and your sister suggest, and let
+your father into the secret--and Mr. Pertell too--and have them try what
+they can do to discover who I am.
+
+"Then again, as I think it over, I'm afraid. Suppose I should turn out
+to be some one altogether horrid?"
+
+"You couldn't, my dear, not if you tried. But if you don't want my
+father to know, and would rather work out this mystery yourself, why, I
+won't say another word."
+
+"I want to think about it a little more," Estelle said.
+
+They had been talking about her strange case, and the possible outcome
+of it. Alice had suggested that a motion picture story be written around
+it.
+
+"It could be called 'Who is Estelle Brown?'" Alice said, "and it could
+be a serial. You could pose in it, Estelle, and make a lot of money.
+And, not only that, but you'd find out who your relatives were, I'm
+sure."
+
+"Oh, I couldn't do it!" Estelle had cried. "I'd like the money, of
+course. I never was so happy as when I found I had a purse full when I
+was on that Cleveland boat! But I could not capitalize my misfortune
+that way."
+
+"No, I was only joking," said Alice. And so the matter had gone on. Now
+Ruth had broached the subject again, and Estelle was still undecided.
+
+"Wait until after this big ride of mine," she said. "Then I'll make up
+my mind. I really do want to know who I am, and I think, after this
+engagement, if I don't find out before, I'll go to Boston again. I'm
+sure my people are from that vicinity."
+
+So it was left.
+
+From outside came the stirring notes of a bugle. At the sound of it Ruth
+and Estelle started.
+
+"That's the signal," said the latter. "I must hurry."
+
+"I'll help you," offered Ruth, and she assisted in the tying of the last
+strings, and the snapping of the final fastenings of the suit of
+protective padding the rider wore.
+
+"You don't take part in the actual charge, do you?" asked Alice, who
+came in at this point.
+
+"Well, I have to ride ahead of the Union forces for a way," Estelle
+answered. "But I'm not afraid. Petro will carry me safely, as he has
+done before."
+
+The girls went down and out into the yard. Off on the distant meadow of
+Oak Farm, which had been turned into a battlefield for the time being,
+were two hostile armies. The two regiments of cavalry were to meet in a
+final clash that was to end the war. There was to be the firing of many
+rifles and cannon. There were to be charges and countercharges. Men
+would fall from their horses shot dead. Certain horses, trained for the
+work, would stumble and fall, going down with those who rode them, the
+men having learned how to roll out of the way without getting a broken
+arm or leg. In spite of their training and practice, nearly all expected
+to be scratched and bruised. However, it was all part of the game and in
+the day's work.
+
+"All ready now!" called Mr. Pertell. "We're going to have the first
+skirmish, and, after that, Miss Brown, you are to do your ride. Are you
+ready?"
+
+"Yes," Estelle told the director.
+
+The signal was given through the field telephone and then, with his
+ever-present megaphone, the director began to issue his orders.
+
+The rifles cracked, the big guns rumbled and roared, smoke blew across
+the battlefield and horses snorted and pawed at the ground impatient to
+be off and in the charge. To them it was real, even though their masters
+knew it was only for the movies.
+
+Bugles tooted their inspiring calls, and the officers, who knew the
+significance of the cadence of notes, issued their orders accordingly.
+
+"Deploy to the left!" came the command to a squad of Union cavalry, and
+the men trotted off, to try a flank movement. Then came the firing of a
+Confederate battery in a desperate attempt to scatter the Union forces.
+
+All the camera men in the employ of the Comet Film Company were engaged
+this day, and Russ was at his wits' end to keep each machine loaded with
+film, and to see that his own was working properly.
+
+Pop Snooks had never before been called on to provide so many "props" as
+he was for this occasion, but he thoroughly enjoyed the work, and when,
+at the last minute, he had to make a rustic bridge whereon two lovers
+had a farewell before the soldier rode off to battle, the veteran
+property man improvised one out of bean poles and fence rails that made
+a most artistic picture.
+
+"They'll have to get up the day before breakfast to beat Pop Snooks!"
+exclaimed Russ, admiringly.
+
+All was now ready for the big cavalry charge.
+
+"All ready!" came the order from Mr. Pertell. "Cameras!"
+
+And the cranks began to work, reeling off the sensitive film.
+
+The two bodies of cavalry rushed toward one another, hoofs thundering,
+carbines cracking, sabres flashing in the sun, white puffs of smoke
+showing where the cannon were firing.
+
+"Now Miss Brown!" yelled the director, above the riot of noise. "This is
+where you make the ride of your life!"
+
+"All right!" answered the brave girl, and, giving rein to her horse, she
+dashed off ahead of a detachment of cavalry that was to try to intercept
+her.
+
+On and on rode Estelle. Ruth and Alice, who had finished their part in
+this scene, stood on a little hill, watching her.
+
+On and on dashed Estelle, doing her part well, and foot after foot of
+the film registered her action. She was almost at the end now. She
+reached the Confederate ranks, gave over the message she had carried
+through such danger, and then, turning her horse, dashed away.
+
+How it happened no one could tell. But suddenly Petro stumbled, and
+though Estelle tried to keep him on his feet she could not.
+
+"Oh--oh!" gasped Ruth. "Look!" and then she turned her head away so as
+not to see.
+
+Alice had a flash of Estelle flying over the head of her falling horse,
+and then, unable to stop, the rushing soldiers on their horses rode over
+the very place where Estelle had fallen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+A DENIAL OF IDENTITY
+
+
+Confused shouts, cries, and orders echoed over the field, Mr. Pertell,
+dropping his megaphone, rushed toward the scene of the accident, calling
+on Russ to follow and yelling back an order to have the stretcher men
+and the doctor follow him.
+
+Dr. Wherry was even then waiting in readiness, for it had been feared
+that this big scene might result painfully, if not dangerously, for more
+than one. Some men had also been detailed as stretcher bearers and were
+in waiting.
+
+"Shall we film this?" asked one of Russ's helpers, as the former dashed
+past on his way to help Estelle.
+
+"No. Don't take that accident. It won't fit in with the rest of the
+film. It's all right up to that point, though. We can make a retake of
+the last few feet if we have to."
+
+Even in this time of danger and suspense it was necessary to think of
+the play. That must go on, no matter what happened to the players.
+
+"Go on with the cavalry charge--farther over!" directed Mr. Pertell,
+when he arrived on the scene and found a group of men about the fallen
+girl. "You can't do any good here. We'll look after her. I can't delay
+any longer on this scene. Go on with the charge, and carry out the
+program as it was outlined to you. Russ, you look after the camera men."
+
+"What about Estelle?"
+
+"Dr. Wherry and I will see to her."
+
+The girl's golden hair was tumbled about her head, having come loose and
+fallen from under her hat in her fall. She lay in a senseless heap at
+one side of her horse. The animal had not gotten up, and at first it was
+thought he had been killed. But it developed that Estelle had trained
+him to play "dead" after a fall of this kind, and the intelligent
+creature must have thought this was one of those occasions.
+
+"Easy with her, boys," cautioned the director, as the stretcher men
+tenderly picked up the limp form. "She may have some broken bones."
+
+They placed her carefully on the stretcher and bore her to the hospital.
+Mrs. Maguire was ready to assist the trained nurse, who was kept ready
+for just such emergencies.
+
+"The poor little dear!" exclaimed the motherly Irish woman. "Poor little
+dear!"
+
+Meanwhile, the cavalry charge went on. Estelle had done her part in
+this. Was it the last part she was to play?
+
+Ruth and Alice asked themselves this as they hurried toward the
+hospital.
+
+"Oh, if she should be killed!" gasped Ruth.
+
+"Wouldn't it be dreadful? And no one to tell who she really is," added
+Alice. "We must go to her."
+
+"Yes, as soon as they will let us see her," agreed Ruth.
+
+Dr. Wherry and the trained nurse were busy over the injured girl. A
+quick examination disclosed no broken bones, but it could not yet be
+told whether or not there were internal injuries. They could only wait
+for her to recover consciousness and hope for the best. All that could
+be done was done.
+
+"Plucky little girl!" murmured Mr. Pertell, when told that Estelle was
+resting easily, but was still insensible. "She must have seen that she
+was going to have a bad fall, but she kept on and saved the film for us.
+We won't have to retake her scene at all--merely cut out the accident.
+Do your best for her, Dr. Wherry."
+
+"I will, you may be sure."
+
+Ruth and Alice were told that they could see Estelle as soon as she
+recovered consciousness, and it was safe for visitors to be admitted.
+And several hours after the accident the nurse, Miss Lyon, came to
+summon them from their room, where they were waiting.
+
+"She has opened her eyes," Miss Lyon said.
+
+"Did she ask for us?" Alice asked.
+
+"I can't say that she did. She seems dazed yet. Sometimes in falls like
+this, where the head is injured, it is days before the patient realizes
+what has happened."
+
+"Is her head injured?" Ruth inquired.
+
+"Yes, she seems to have received a hard blow on it. Whether there is a
+fracture or a concussion Dr. Wherry had not yet determined. It will take
+a little time to decide. Meanwhile, you may see her, just for a moment."
+
+Alice and Ruth softly entered the room where Estelle lay on a white bed.
+Her face was pale, but her eyes were bright. There was a subtle odor of
+disinfectants, of opiates and of other drugs in the room--a veritable
+hospital atmosphere.
+
+"Don't startle her," cautioned the nurse, motioning for silence.
+
+"We'll be careful," promised Alice, in a whisper.
+
+The two sisters approached the bed. Estelle looked at them but, strange
+to say, there was no look of recognition in her eyes. Ruth and Alice
+might have been two strangers for all the notice Estelle took of them.
+
+"She--she doesn't know us," whispered Ruth.
+
+"She will, as soon as you speak," said Miss Lyon. "Just talk to her in a
+low voice, but naturally. She'll know you then, I'm sure."
+
+"How--how are you feeling?" asked Ruth, in a whisper.
+
+There was no response--no light of recognition in the eyes.
+
+"A little louder and call her by name," suggested the nurse.
+
+"You try, Alice," Ruth whispered.
+
+Her sister stepped to the bedside.
+
+"Estelle, don't you know me?" Alice asked.
+
+The eyes turned in the direction of the voice.
+
+"Were you speaking to me?" came the question, and both Ruth and Alice
+started at the changed tones of their friend.
+
+"Yes, to you," Alice answered.
+
+"I--I _don't_ know you," was the gentle response.
+
+"Don't you know me--Alice DeVere? And this is my sister, Ruth. Don't you
+know us, Estelle?"
+
+"Is your name Estelle?" came the query.
+
+"No, that is _your_ name," and Alice smiled, though a cold hand seemed
+to be clutching at her heart. "That is your name--you are Estelle. Don't
+you remember?"
+
+"Estelle what? Who is Estelle?"
+
+"You are. You are Estelle Brown! Don't you know your own name?"
+
+The golden head on the white pillow was slowly moved from side to side.
+The bright eyes showed no sign of recognition. Then came the gentle
+voice:
+
+"I am not Estelle Brown. I don't know her. What do you mean? I don't
+know any of you. Why am I here? What has happened? I wish you would take
+me home at once. I live at the Palace."
+
+"What--what does she mean?" gasped Ruth, looking in alarm at the nurse.
+
+"I don't know. Perhaps she is delirious and imagines she is playing in
+the moving pictures. Was there a palace scene?"
+
+"Not since she joined the company. But why does she deny her identity?"
+
+"I can not say. Sometimes after an injury like this happens, people say
+queer things. We had better not disturb her further. I'll call Dr.
+Wherry."
+
+Alice made one more effort to bring recollection to Estelle.
+
+"Don't you know me, dear?" she asked softly. "I am Alice--your friend
+Alice. This is Ruth, and you are Estelle Brown, from Boston, you know."
+
+"Boston? I was never in Boston. And I am not Estelle Brown. You must be
+mistaken."
+
+Her eyes roved around the hospital room, and a look of pain and fright
+dimmed them. Then, seeming to fear that she had been unkind, she said
+gently to Alice:
+
+"I am sorry I do not know you, for you are trying to help me, I am sure.
+But I never heard the name Estelle Brown. I am not she--that is certain.
+If you would only take me home! My people will be worried. We live at
+the Palace and----"
+
+She tried to raise herself up in bed. A look of pain came over her face,
+and she fell back with closed eyes.
+
+"She has fainted!" cried Miss Lyon. "I must get Dr. Wherry at once!
+Don't disturb her!"
+
+She hastened off, while Ruth and Alice, not knowing what to think, went
+softly from the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+REUNION
+
+
+"Nothing but a passing fancy," said Dr. Wherry, later in the day, when
+Ruth and Alice questioned him about Estelle. "When a person has received
+a hard blow on the head, as Estelle has, the memory is often confused.
+She will be all right in a day or so. Rest and quiet are what she
+needs."
+
+"Then she is in no immediate danger?" asked Mr. Pertell.
+
+"None whatever, physically. She came out of that fall very well, indeed.
+The blow on her head stunned her, but the effects of that will pass
+away. She has no internal injuries that I can discover."
+
+The last scenes of the war play were taken. The Confederates, after
+their final desperate stand were driven back, surrounded and captured.
+The "war" ended.
+
+The regiments of cavalry took their departure. The extra players were
+paid off and left. A few simple scenes were yet to be taken about Oak
+Farm, but the big work was over, and every one was glad, for the task
+had been no easy one.
+
+"Does Estelle yet admit her identity?" asked Ruth of Dr. Wherry, two
+days after the accident.
+
+The physician scratched his head in perplexity.
+
+"No, I am sorry to say she doesn't," he answered. "She does not seem to
+recognize that name. I wish you and your sister would come in and speak
+to her again. It may be she will recognize you this time. A little shock
+may bring her to herself. I have seen it happen in cases like this."
+
+Ruth and Alice again went to the hospital. Estelle was still in bed, but
+she seemed to be better. But, as before, there was no sign of
+recognition in the bright eyes that gazed at the two moving picture
+girls.
+
+"Don't you know me--us?" asked Alice, gently.
+
+"Yes. You were here before, soon after I was brought here," was the
+answer.
+
+"Oh, Estelle! don't you know us!" cried Ruth, in horror.
+
+"Whom are you calling Estelle?"
+
+"Why, you. That is your name."
+
+"I am not she. You must be mistaken! Oh, I wish they would take me home.
+I want father--mother--I want Auntie Amma. Oh, why don't they come to
+me?"
+
+Ruth and Alice looked at one another. What did it mean? This babbling of
+strange names? Was it possible that they were on the track of
+discovering the identity of the girl who now denied the name she had
+given?
+
+"Who is your father?" asked Ruth.
+
+"And who is Auntie Amma?" inquired Alice.
+
+"Why, don't you know? They live with me at the Palace. And my doll. Why
+don't you bring my doll?"
+
+"She is delirious again," whispered the nurse. "You had better go.
+Evidently, she thinks she is a child again. Her doll!"
+
+"I want my doll! Why don't you bring me my doll?" persisted the stricken
+girl.
+
+"What doll do you want?" asked Alice.
+
+"My own doll," was the reply. "My dear doll that I always have in bed
+with me when I am ill; my doll Estelle Brown!"
+
+"Estelle Brown!" cried Ruth, in sudden excitement. "Is that the name of
+your doll?"
+
+"Yes! Yes! Bring her to me, please!"
+
+"Who gave you that doll?" asked Ruth, and she waited anxiously for the
+answer.
+
+"My doll--my doll Estelle Brown. Why, my daddy gave her to me, of
+course. My father!"
+
+"And what was your father's name?" asked Ruth in a tense voice.
+
+She and Alice and the nurse leaned forward in eager expectation. They
+all recognized that a crisis was at hand. Would the stricken girl give
+an answer that would be a clue to her identity--the identity she had
+denied? Or would her words trail off into the meaningless babble of the
+afflicted?
+
+"What is your father's name?" Ruth repeated.
+
+The girl in the bed raised herself to a sitting position. She looked at
+the DeVere sisters--at the trained nurse. In her eyes now there was not
+so much brightness as there was weariness and pain.
+
+And also there was more of the light of understanding. She looked from
+one to the other. Her lips moved, but no sound came from them. It was a
+tense moment. Would she be able to answer? Would the obviously injured
+brain be able to sift out the right reply from the mass of words that
+hitherto had been meaningless?
+
+"What is your father's name?" repeated Ruth in calm, even tones. "Your
+father who gave you the doll, Estelle Brown? Who is he?"
+
+Like a flash of lightning from the clear sky came the answer.
+
+"Why, he is Daddy Passamore, of course!"
+
+"Passamore!" gasped Alice. "Passamore?"
+
+"Is your name Passamore?" whispered Ruth.
+
+"Yes, I am Mildred Passamore. My father is Jared Passamore of San
+Francisco. I don't know why I am here, except that I was hurt in the
+railroad accident. If you will telegraph to my father, at the Palace
+Hotel, San Francisco, he will come and get me. And please tell him to
+bring my doll, Estelle Brown.
+
+"I know it seems silly for a big girl like me to have a doll," went on
+the injured one. "But ever since I was a child I have had Estelle with
+me when I was ill. I am ill now, but I feel better than I did. So
+telegraph to Daddy Passamore to bring Estelle Brown with him when he
+comes for me. And tell him I was not badly hurt in the wreck."
+
+And with that, before the wondering eyes of the nurse, of Alice and of
+Ruth, Estelle Brown--no--Mildred Passamore, turned over and calmly went
+to sleep!
+
+For an instant those in the hospital room neither moved nor spoke. Then
+Alice cried:
+
+"That solves it! That ends the mystery! I'll go and get the paper."
+
+"What paper?" asked Ruth.
+
+"Don't you remember? The old paper that I wrapped my scout shoes in when
+we were packing to come to Oak Farm. The one that father saved because
+it had a theatrical notice of him in it.
+
+"It was that four-year-old paper which contained an account of the
+strange disappearance of the wealthy San Francisco girl, Mildred
+Passamore. Don't you remember? There was a reward of ten thousand
+dollars offered for her discovery."
+
+"Oh, I do remember!" gasped Ruth. "And this is she!"
+
+"Must be!" declared Alice. "She says that's her name. And from what she
+told us she can, as Estelle Brown, think back only about four years. She
+must have received some injury that took away her memory. Now she is
+herself again.
+
+"Ruth, I believe we have found the missing Mildred Passamore! We must
+tell daddy at once, and Mr. Pertell. Then we must telegraph Mr.
+Passamore. I'll get his address from the old paper. But the Palace
+Hotel, San Francisco, will reach him, I presume. Oh, isn't it all
+wonderful!"
+
+"It certainly is," agreed Ruth.
+
+They gave one glance at the sleeping girl--Mildred or Estelle--and then
+went out, while Miss Lyon summoned Dr. Wherry to acquaint him with the
+strange turn of the case.
+
+"Mildred Passamore found! How wonderful!" exclaimed Mr. DeVere, when his
+daughters told him what had happened. "But we must make sure. It would
+be a sad affair if we sent word to the father, and it turned out that
+this girl was not his daughter. We must make sure."
+
+Alice got out the old paper. It contained a description of the missing
+Mildred Passamore, and in another newspaper dated a few days before the
+one Alice had used as a wrapper for her shoes (another paper which Mr.
+DeVere had saved because of a notice in it) was a picture of the girl.
+
+"It is she! Our girl--the one we knew as Estelle Brown--is Mildred
+Passamore!" cried Alice as she looked at the picture in the paper.
+
+"There is no doubt of it," agreed Ruth, and Mr. DeVere affirmed his
+daughters' opinions.
+
+Mr. Pertell was told of the occurrence, and, being a good judge of
+pictures and persons, he decided there was no doubt as to the identity.
+
+"We will telegraph to Mr. Passamore at once," decided the director.
+
+The crisis--for such it was in the case of the injured girl--seemed to
+mark a turn for the better. She slept nearly forty-eight hours,
+awakening only to take a little nourishment. Then she slept again. She
+did not again mention any names, nor, in fact, anything else. Her
+friends could only wait for the arrival of Mr. Passamore to have him
+make sure of the identity.
+
+He had sent a message in answer to the one from Mr. Pertell saying that
+he and his wife were hastening across the continent in a special train.
+
+"That means he hasn't found his daughter up to this time," said the
+manager, "and there is every chance that this girl is she."
+
+Three days after her startling announcement Estelle or Mildred, as she
+was variously called, was much better. She sat up and seemed to be in
+her right mind.
+
+"I don't in the least know what it is all about, nor how I came here,"
+she said, smiling. "The last I remember is being in a railroad train on
+my way from San Francisco to visit relatives in Seattle. There was a
+crash, and the next I knew I found myself in bed here. I presume you
+brought me here from the train wreck."
+
+"Yes, you were brought here after the--the--ah, accident," said Mr.
+Pertell, lamely.
+
+"The nurse tells me you are a moving picture company," went on Mildred.
+"I shall be interested to see how you act. I always had a half-formed
+desire to be a moving picture actress, but I know Daddy Passamore would
+never consent to it."
+
+"And she's been in the films for three years or more, and doesn't
+remember a thing about it!" murmured Alice. "Good-night!"
+
+"Alice!" rebuked her sister. But Alice, for once, did not care for
+Ruth's rebuke. Her astonishment was too great. And it was a queer case.
+
+"We must be very careful!" said Dr. Wherry when, after a swift ride
+across the continent, Mr. Passamore and his wife reached Oak Farm. "We
+must not startle the patient."
+
+"Oh, but I want to see my little girl!" cried the mother, with tears in
+her eyes. "My little girl whom I thought gone for ever!"
+
+"I hope this will prove to be she," said Mr. DeVere.
+
+"I'm sure it will!" cried the father. "No one but Mildred would remember
+her old doll--Estelle Brown!" and he held up a battered toy.
+
+Softly, the parents entered the room. The girl on the bed heard some one
+come in, and sat up. There was a look of joy and happiness on her face;
+and yet it was not such as would come after a separation of four years.
+It was as if she had only separated from her loved ones a few hours
+before.
+
+"Oh, Daddy! Momsey!" she cried. "I did so want you! And did you bring
+Estelle Brown?"
+
+"My little girl! My own little lost girl!" cried Mrs. Passamore. "Oh,
+after all these years--when we had given you up for dead!"
+
+"After all these years? Why, Momsey, I left you only two days ago to go
+to Seattle. There must have been a wreck or something; for I heard a
+dreadful crash, and then I awakened here with these nice moving picture
+folk. They were on the same train, I guess."
+
+Dr. Wherry made the parents a signal not to tell the secret just yet.
+
+"And did you bring Estelle?" asked Mildred.
+
+"Yes, here is your doll!" and as Mr. Passamore handed it to his daughter
+he and his wife exchanged tearful glances of joy. The lost had been
+found.
+
+It was a scene of rejoicing at Oak Farm, and the moving picture girls
+came in for a big share of praise. For had it not been for the fact that
+Alice had seen the paper containing the account of the missing girl and
+saved it, the identity of Mildred might not have been disclosed for some
+time.
+
+Finally, she was told what had happened; that for four years she had
+been another person--Estelle Brown--a name she had taken after the
+awakening following the railroad accident because of some kink in the
+brain that retained the memory of the doll.
+
+"Then Lieutenant Varley was right, he must have seen you in Portland,"
+said Alice, when explanations were being made.
+
+"He must have," admitted Mildred. "But I don't understand how it
+happened."
+
+Later on it was all made clear.
+
+Mildred Passamore, the daughter of a wealthy family, living temporarily
+at the Palace Hotel, in San Francisco, had started on a trip to visit
+relatives in Seattle. She was well supplied with money.
+
+The train Mildred was on was wrecked near Portland, Oregon, and the girl
+received a blow on her head that caused her to lose her sense of
+identity completely. She did not seem to be hurt, and she was not in
+need of medical aid. Without assistance, she got on the relief train
+that took the injured in to Portland, and there it was that Lieutenant
+Varley saw her in the station.
+
+Through some vagary of her brain, Mildred imagined she wanted to go to
+New York, and, as she had plenty of money, she bought a ticket for that
+city, the one to Seattle having been lost. Lieutenant Varley had helped
+her and, though he suspected something was wrong with the young lady the
+impression with him was not very strong until it was too late to be of
+assistance to her.
+
+So, her identity completely lost, Mildred started on her trip across the
+continent. What happened on that journey she never could recollect
+clearly. That she got on the Great Lakes and then went to Boston was
+established. The reason for that was that, as a child, she had lived
+there. This accounted for the toilet set her mother had given her, and
+for the recollection of the monument and the historic places.
+
+Why she was attracted to moving pictures could only be guessed at, but
+she "broke in," and "made good." Her ability to ride was easily
+explained. Her father owned a big stock farm, and Mildred had ridden
+since a child. But all this, as well as other remembrances of her
+younger days, was lost after the injury to her head in the railroad
+accident. She retained but one strongly marked memory--the name of her
+doll, the name which she took for her own.
+
+So, as a new personage, she came to Oak Farm, unable to think back more
+than four years, and totally without suspicion that she was the missing
+Mildred Passamore. That she was not recognized as the missing girl was
+not strange, since the search in the East had not been prosecuted as
+vigorously as it had been in the West.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Passamore, hearing that the train on which their daughter
+was traveling had been wrecked, hastened to Portland, but there they
+could find no trace of Mildred. Lieutenant Varley, who might have given
+a clue, had sailed for Europe the day after his meeting with Mildred.
+Then began the search which lasted four years, and had now come to an
+end at Oak Farm.
+
+"And to think that I have been two persons all this while!" exclaimed
+Mildred, when explanations had been made, and she was on the road to
+recovery. "But what made my memory come back?"
+
+"The same thing that took it from you," explained Dr. Wherry. "It was
+the blow you received on the head when you fell from your horse. There
+had been a pressure on your brain, from the railroad crash, and the fall
+from your horse relieved it, so you came to yourself."
+
+"Oh, I wonder if I could have taken Miss Dixon's ring in my second
+personality?" asked Mildred one day, when various happenings were being
+explained to her.
+
+"No, you didn't!" exclaimed Alice. "It was found down under the carpet,
+back of her bureau. A maid discovered it there when cleaning. And that
+snip of a Miss Dixon left without apologizing to you."
+
+"Oh, it doesn't matter, since I am not Estelle Brown, and my doll
+doesn't care what they say about her!" laughed Mildred. Miss Dixon and
+her friend had left Oak Farm to go back to New York, for their part in
+the pictures was finished for the time being.
+
+"And to think that I really became a movie actress, after all!" laughed
+Estelle. "I think I shall continue in it, Daddy! It must be fun, though
+I don't recollect anything about it."
+
+"No you sha'n't!" laughed Mr. Passamore. "Your mother and I want you at
+home for a while."
+
+There is little more to tell.
+
+Mildred Passamore rapidly recovered her health and strength. Her part in
+the pictures was finished and though he did not exactly relish the
+appearance on the screen of his daughter in battle scenes, the
+millionaire, realizing what his refusal would mean to Mr. Pertell, made
+no objections. Besides, it was Estelle Brown who was filmed, not Miss
+Passamore.
+
+"Well, what is next on the program?" asked Alice of the director one
+day, after several other war plays had been made and when they were
+about to leave Oak Farm, to go back to New York.
+
+"Oh, I think I'm going to get out a big film entitled 'Life in the
+Slums.' You and Ruth will play the star parts."
+
+"No!" laughed Alice. "Not since we became millionaires. You will have to
+cast us for rich girls. Mr. Passamore gave us the ten thousand dollars
+reward, you know."
+
+"All right!" laughed the director, "then I'll bill you as the rich-poor
+girls."
+
+Before going back to San Francisco with Mildred, Mr. Passamore had
+insisted that Ruth and Alice take the reward, as it was through their
+agency that he received word of his daughter's whereabouts. But Ruth and
+Alice insisted on sharing their good fortune with their friends in the
+company, so all benefited from it.
+
+The day came for the moving picture players to leave Oak Farm.
+
+"Good-bye, Sandy!" called Alice to the young farmer. "I suppose you're
+glad to see the last of us!"
+
+"Well, not exactly, no'm! Still, I'll be glad not to see houses and
+barns that have only fronts to 'em, and there won't be no more mistakes
+made trying to haul up water from a well that's only made of painted
+muslin. I'll try an' get back to real life for a change!"
+
+The big war play was over. It was a big success when shown on the
+screen, and the pictures of Ruth, Alice and Mildred--or Estelle Brown,
+as she was billed--came out well. The fight where Paul and his men were
+nearly blown up was most realistic.
+
+"You girls are not going to retire, just because you have a little
+money, are you?" asked Russ of Ruth, one day, when they were back in New
+York.
+
+"Indeed, we're not!" cried Alice. "And I wouldn't be surprised if
+Mildred joined us. I had a letter from her the other day, and, after
+seeing herself on the screen, she says she is crazy to do it all over
+again. Give up the movies? Never!"
+
+And it remains for time to show what further fame the Moving Picture
+Girls won in the silent drama. For the present, we will say farewell.
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+   Obvious punctuation errors corrected.
+
+   Page 27, "proping" changed to "propping". (propping it up)
+
+   Page 34, "himmel" changed to "Himmel". (Ach Himmel! Ach!)
+
+   Page 93, "bruskly" changed to "brusquely". (Miss Dixon brusquely)
+
+   Page 94, "Devere" changed to "DeVere". (In fact, Mr. DeVere)
+
+   Page 95, "property" changed to "proper". (the proper Civil)
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS IN WAR
+PLAYS***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 20348-8.txt or 20348-8.zip *******
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+<html>
+<head>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" />
+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Moving Picture Girls in War Plays, by Laura Lee Hope</title>
+    <style type="text/css">
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+<body>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Moving Picture Girls in War Plays, by
+Laura Lee Hope</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: The Moving Picture Girls in War Plays</p>
+<p>       Or, The Sham Battles at Oak Farm</p>
+<p>Author: Laura Lee Hope</p>
+<p>Release Date: January 12, 2007  [eBook #20348]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS IN WAR PLAYS***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>E-text prepared by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, J. P. W. Fraser, Emmy,<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (http://www.pgdp.net/c/)</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h1>The<br />
+Moving Picture Girls<br />
+
+In War Plays</h1>
+
+<h3>OR<br />
+
+The Sham Battles at Oak Farm<br /><br /><br /><br />
+
+BY</h3>
+
+<h2>LAURA LEE HOPE</h2>
+
+<div class='center'>
+AUTHOR OF "THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS," "THE MOVING PICTURE<br />
+GIRLS AT SEA," "THE OUTDOOR GIRLS SERIES,"<br />
+"THE BOBBSEY TWINS SERIES," "THE BUNNY<br />
+BROWN SERIES," ETC.<br />
+
+<br /><br /><br />
+<i>ILLUSTRATED</i>
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+
+<b>THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING CO.</b><br />
+<b><small>AKRON, OHIO &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; NEW YORK</small></b><br />
+<br />
+
+<small>MADE IN U.S.A.</small></div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<span class="smcap"><small>Copyright, 1916, by</small></span><br />
+<small>GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP</small><br />
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;">
+<img src="images/p001.png" width="250" height="400" alt="&quot;HERE THEY COME!&quot; YELLED PAUL, AS THE FIRST OF THE SOLDIERS CAME INTO VIEW." title="&quot;HERE THEY COME!&quot; YELLED PAUL, AS THE FIRST OF THE SOLDIERS CAME INTO VIEW." />
+<span class="caption">&quot;HERE THEY COME!&quot; YELLED PAUL, AS THE FIRST OF THE SOLDIERS CAME INTO VIEW&mdash;<a href='#Page_78'>Page 78</a>.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class='center'><i>The Moving Picture Girls in War Plays.</i></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents">
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">chapter</span></td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='right'><span class="smcap">page</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>I</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Old Newspaper</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1'>1</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>II</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Off for Oak Farm</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_11'>11</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>III</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Hard at Work</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_21'>21</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>IV</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Rehearsal</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_30'>30</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>V</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Daring Rider</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_40'>40</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VI</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Needed Lesson</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_48'>48</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VII</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Estelle's Leap</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_61'>61</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VIII</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Massed Attack</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_70'>70</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>IX</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Miss Dixon's Loss</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_79'>79</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>X</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Lieutenant Varley</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_87'>87</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XI</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Wonderings</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_97'>97</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XII</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">An Interruption</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_103'>103</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XIII</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Forgetfulness</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_111'>111</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XIV</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">In the Smoke</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_120'>120</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XV</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Hospital Tent</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_130'>130</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XVI</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Retake</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_137'>137</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XVII</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Estelle's Story</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_143'>143</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XVIII</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">"What Can We Do?"</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_149'>149</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XIX</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Big Gun</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_158'>158</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XX</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Wrong Shot</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_164'>164</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXI</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Big Scene</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_171'>171</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXII</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Alice Does Well</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_179'>179</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXIII</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Bad Fall</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_186'>186</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXIV</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Denial of Identity</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_192'>192</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXV</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Reunion</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_199'>199</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS<br />IN WAR PLAYS</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<h3>THE OLD NEWSPAPER</h3>
+
+
+<p>"There, I think I have everything in that I'll need at Oak Farm."</p>
+
+<p>"Everything! Good gracious, Ruth, how quickly you pack! Why, I've oceans
+and oceans of things yet to go into my trunk! Oh, there are my scout
+shoes. I've been looking everywhere for them. I'll need them if I do any
+hiking in those war scenes," and Alice DeVere dived under a pile of
+clothing, bringing to light a muddy, but comfortable, pair of walking
+shoes. "I don't know what I'd do without them," she murmured.</p>
+
+<p>"Alice!" cried Ruth, her sister, and the shocked tone of her voice made
+the younger girl look up quickly from the contemplation of the shoes.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, what have I done now?" came in rather injured accents. "I'm sure I
+didn't use any slang; and as for not having all my things packed as
+quickly as you, why, Ruth, my dear, you must<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span> remember that you are an
+exception&mdash;the one that proves the rule."</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't say you used any slang, Alice dear. Nor did I intimate that
+you were behind in your packing. I'll gladly help you. But it&mdash;&mdash; Those
+shoes!" and she pointed a finger dramatically at the "brogans," as Alice
+sometimes called them.</p>
+
+<p>"Those shoes? What's the matter with them? They're a perfectly good
+pair, as far as I can see; and they're mighty comfortable."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Alice&mdash;mighty?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I can't get over using such words, especially since we heard so
+many strong expressions from the sailors when we were in those sea
+films. Mine sound weak now. But what's the matter with the shoes, Ruth?"</p>
+
+<p>"They're so muddy, dear. They will soil all your pretty things if you
+put them in your trunk in that condition. You don't want that, do you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should say not&mdash;most decidedly! Especially since pretty things with
+me last about one day. I don't see how it is you keep yours so nice and
+fresh, Ruth."</p>
+
+<p>"It's because I'm careful, dear."</p>
+
+<p>"Careful! Bosh! Care killed a cat, they say. I'm sure I'm careful,
+too&mdash;&mdash; Oh, here's that lace collar I've been looking everywhere for!"</p>
+
+<p>She made a sudden reach for it, there was a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span> ripping, tearing sound, and
+Alice was gazing ruefully at a rent in the sleeve of her dress.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, for the love of trading stamps!" she ejaculated.</p>
+
+<p>"Alice!" gasped Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I don't care! I had to say something. Look at that rip! And I
+wanted to wear this dress to-day. Oh&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"That's just it, Alice," interrupted Ruth, in a gentle, chiding voice.
+"You are too impulsive. If you had reached for that lace less hurriedly
+you wouldn't have torn your dress. And if you took care of your things
+and didn't let your laces and ribbons get strewn about so, they would
+last longer and look fresher. I don't want to lecture&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I know you don't, you old dear!" and Alice leaned over&mdash;they were both
+sitting on the floor in front of trunks&mdash;and made a motion as though to
+embrace her sister. But a warning rip caused her to desist, and, looking
+over her shoulder, she found her skirt caught on a corner of the trunk.</p>
+
+<p>"There! Did you ever?" she cried. "I can't even give you a sisterly hug
+without pulling myself to pieces. I'm all
+upset&mdash;excited&mdash;unstrung&mdash;Wellington Bunn doing Hamlet isn't to be
+compared to me. I must get straightened out."</p>
+
+<p>"I guess that's it&mdash;you're all tangled up in your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> packing," said Ruth,
+with a laugh. "Truly, I don't mean to lecture, Alice, but you must go a
+bit slower."</p>
+
+<p>"Not with this packing&mdash;I can't, and be ready in time. Why! you are all
+prepared to go. I'll just throw the things into my trunk and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Now, don't do that. Don't throw things in. You can put in twice as much
+if you lay the things in neatly. I'll help you. But&mdash;oh, dear&mdash;&mdash;!"</p>
+
+<p>Ruth made a gesture of despair.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter now? What are you registering?" and Alice used the
+moving picture term for depicting one of the standard emotions. The
+girls were both moving picture actresses.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm trying to register dismay at the muddy state of those scout shoes,
+as you call them, Alice. They may be nice and comfortable, as you say,
+and really they do look so. And I have no doubt you will find them
+useful if we have to do much tramping over the hills of Oak Farm.
+But&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, we'll have to do plenty of hiking, as Russ Dalwood warned us,"
+Alice put in. "You know, there are to be several Civil War plays filmed,
+and they didn't have automobiles or motor cycles to get about on in
+those days. So we'll have to walk. And it will be over rough ground, so
+I thought these shoes would be just the thing."</p>
+
+<p>"They will, Alice. I must get a pair myself, I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> think. But I was just
+wondering how you got them so terribly muddy. How did you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Paul Ardite and I were in that Central Park scene the other day.
+You know, 'A Daughter of the Woods,' and some of the scenes were filmed
+in the park. It was muddy, and I didn't get a chance to have the brogans
+cleaned, for I had to jump from the park into the ballroom scene of 'His
+Own Enemy,' and there was no time. We had to retake in that scene
+because one of the extras was wearing white canvas shoes instead of
+ballroom slippers, and the director didn't notice it until the film was
+run out in the projection room.</p>
+
+<p>"So that accounts for the mud on the shoes, Ruth. But I suppose I can
+'phone down to the janitor and have him send them out to the Italian at
+the corner. He'll take the mud off."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I don't know that you can do that, Alice. We haven't any too much
+time. If I had an old newspaper, I could wrap the shoes up in that for
+you, and pack them in the bottom of your trunk. Then the mud wouldn't
+soil your clothes."</p>
+
+<p>"An old newspaper? Here's a stack of them. Daddy just brought them from
+his room. Guess he's going to throw them away."</p>
+
+<p>Alice reached up to a table and lifted the top paper from a pile near
+the edge. She opened it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> with a flirt of her hand and was about to wrap
+the muddy shoes in it when some headlines on one page caught her
+attention. She leaned eagerly forward to read them, and spent more than
+a minute going over the article beneath.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," remarked Ruth finally, with a smile, "if you're going to do
+that, Alice, you'll never get packed. What is it that interests you?"</p>
+
+<p>"This, about a missing girl. Why, look here, Ruth, there's a reward of
+ten thousand dollars offered for news of her! Why, I don't remember
+seeing this before. Look, it's quite startling. A San Francisco
+girl&mdash;Mildred Passamore&mdash;mysteriously disappears while on a train bound
+for Seattle&mdash;can't find any trace of her&mdash;parents distracted&mdash;they've
+got detectives on the trail&mdash;going to flood the country with photographs
+of her&mdash;all sorts of things feared&mdash;but think of it!&mdash;ten thousand
+dollars reward!"</p>
+
+<p>"Let me see," and in spite of the necessity for haste in the packing,
+Ruth DeVere forgot it for the moment and came to look over her sister's
+shoulder to read the account of the missing California girl.</p>
+
+<p>"It is strange," murmured Ruth. "I don't remember about that. I wonder
+if she could be around here? The New York police are wonderful in
+working on mystery cases."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But the funny part of it is," said Alice, "that I haven't noticed
+anything about it in the New York papers. Have you? This is a San
+Francisco paper. Naturally they'd have more about it than would the
+journals here. But even the New York papers would have big accounts of
+such a case, especially where such a large reward is offered."</p>
+
+<p>"That's so," agreed Ruth. "I wonder why we haven't seen an account of it
+in our papers. I read them every day."</p>
+
+<p>"What's that? An account of what? Have the papers been missing
+anything?" asked a deep, vibrating voice, and an elderly man came into
+the girls' room and regarded them smilingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, hello, Daddy!" cried Alice, blowing him a kiss. "I'm almost ready."</p>
+
+<p>"Hum, yes! You look it!" and he laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"It's this, Daddy," went on Ruth, holding out the paper. "We were going
+to wrap Alice's muddy shoes in this sheet, when we happened to notice an
+account of the mysterious disappearance of a Mildred Passamore, of San
+Francisco, for whom ten thousand dollars reward is offered. There has
+been nothing in the New York papers about it."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. DeVere, an old-time actor, and now employed, with his daughters, by
+a large motion pic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>ture concern, reached forth his hand for the paper.
+He gave one look at the article, and then his eyes went up to the
+date-line. He laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"No wonder there hasn't been anything in the New York papers of to-day
+about this case," he said. "This paper is four years old! But I remember
+the Passamore case very well. It created quite a sensation at the time."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor girl! Was she ever found?" asked Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes; I believe she was," said Mr. DeVere, in rather dreamy tones.
+He was looking over other articles in the paper.</p>
+
+<p>"Who got the reward?" asked Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"Eh? What's that?" Her father seemed to come back from a mental journey
+to the past.</p>
+
+<p>"I say, who got the reward?"</p>
+
+<p>"What reward?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Daddy! The one offered for the finding of Miss Passamore. The girl
+we just told you about&mdash;in the paper&mdash;ten thousand dollars. Don't you
+remember?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes. I was thinking of something else I just read here. Oh, the
+reward! Well, I suppose the police got it. I don't remember, to tell you
+the truth. I know that her disappearance at the time created quite a
+sensation."</p>
+
+<p>"And are you sure she was found?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, quite sure. Look here!" and with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> a smile on his face he
+leaned forward, one rather fat finger pointing to the article he had
+just been reading. "I was wondering how you girls got hold of this old
+back-number paper, but I see it's one of several I saved because they
+had printed notices of my acting. This is a very good and fair criticism
+of my work when I was appearing in Shakespearian drama&mdash;a very fair
+notice, ahem!" and Mr. DeVere leaned back in his chair, a gratified
+smile on his face.</p>
+
+<p>"A fair notice! I should say it was!" laughed Alice. "It does nothing
+but praise you, and says the others offered you miserable support."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it was fair to <i>me</i>," said Mr. DeVere. "Yes, I remember that tour
+very well. We were in California at the time of this Miss Passamore's
+disappearance. Helen Gordon was my leading lady then. Ah, yes, that was
+four years ago."</p>
+
+<p>"No wonder there wasn't anything in to-day's New York papers," said
+Alice. "Well, let me wrap up my shoes, and I'll try to have this packing
+done in time to get out to Oak Farm."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I just stopped in to see how you were coming on," put in her
+father. "Mr. Pertell wants to get started, and it won't do to disappoint
+him. There are to be several thousand men and horses in the production,
+and the bill for extras will be heavy."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I'll hustle along, Daddy!" cried Alice. "Do you want that paper?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, you may take it. I'll just tear out this page with the theatrical
+notice of myself."</p>
+
+<p>He handed the remainder of the paper to his daughter, who, with the help
+of her sister, wrapped up the muddy shoes.</p>
+
+<p>Then the girls proceeded with the putting in of other articles and
+garments that would be needed during their stay at Oak Farm.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder&mdash;&mdash;" began Alice, when there came a knock on their door, and a
+voice demanded:</p>
+
+<p>"I say, girls!&mdash;are you there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Russ. Come on in!" answered Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, and with the room looking the way it is!" remonstrated Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Can't be helped. Russ knows what packing is," Alice declared, as a
+tall, good-looking young man entered.</p>
+
+<p>"Come on!" he cried. "No time to lose."</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter? Is the place on fire?" asked Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"No. But there's got to be a retake in that last scene of 'Only a
+Flivver,' and Mr. Pertell sent me to get you. It won't take long, but
+they're in a hurry for it. Come on! Paul is waiting outside in the
+machine and I've got the camera. Hustle!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<h3>OFF FOR OAK FARM</h3>
+
+
+<p>"What's that, Russ? A retake?" asked Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, of that auto scene in the park."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that the one I'm in?" Ruth inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. You're both in it, and so is Paul. It's the scene where Mr. Bunn
+is struck by the auto mud-guard&mdash;not hurt, you know, and you, Ruth, jump
+out to give first aid."</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter with the scene?" asked Alice. "I certainly struck him
+all right with the mud-guard."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that part was all right," Russ admitted. Alice had been running
+the automobile in the scene.</p>
+
+<p>"And didn't I do my first aid business well?" Ruth demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," Russ acknowledged. "Your part came out perfect. But just at the
+critical moment&mdash;you know, where Mr. Bunn was supposed to think he was
+dying and wanted to right the wrong he had done in cutting his daughter
+off in his will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> with only a dollar&mdash;some boys got in the way of the
+camera. They were outsiders, butting in, the way they always do when we
+film stuff in the park. It wouldn't have been so bad, only one of the
+youngsters began to pull off some funny stuff right in range of Mr.
+Bunn's agonized face. I didn't see him at the time, or I'd have stopped
+the running of the film. It was only when we got it in the projection
+room that we discovered it.</p>
+
+<p>"So Mr. Pertell ordered a retake of that one scene, and it's got to be
+done in a hurry. It won't take long. Mr. Bunn will meet us in the park.
+Be sure and wear the same things you had on that day. It won't do to
+have you get out of the auto in one dress, Ruth, and, a second later,
+kneel down beside Mr. Bunn in a gown entirely different."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, Russ, I'll be careful."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear! But my packing!" sighed Alice. "I'll never get it done, and
+we must start for Oak Farm&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Pertell will have to make allowances," said Russ, quickly. "Come
+on&mdash;move the boat! You won't be needed in the real war scenes for a
+couple of days, anyhow, though I suppose there'll be rehearsals. But it
+can't be helped. This retake is holding up the whole film, and it's to
+be released next week."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Delaying only long enough to put on the proper dresses and to tell their
+father where they were going, Ruth and Alice DeVere were soon on their
+way to Central Park, where the scene was to be filmed, or photographed
+over again&mdash;a "retake," as it is called, the bane alike of camera men
+and directors.</p>
+
+<p>And while the girls&mdash;the moving picture girls&mdash;are on their way to do
+over a bit of work, I shall take the opportunity of telling my new
+readers something about Ruth and Alice DeVere.</p>
+
+<p>I have called them just what they are: "The Moving Picture Girls," and
+that is the title of the first volume of this series, which depicts them
+and their adventures.</p>
+
+<p>Their mother had died some years previously, leaving them to the care of
+their father, Hosmer DeVere, at one time a talented actor in the
+legitimate drama. But a throat affection forced him to give up his
+acting and, at the opening scene in the first volume, we find him and
+his daughters in rather straitened circumstances, living in a
+second-rate apartment house in New York.</p>
+
+<p>Across the hall dwelt Russ Dalwood, with his mother. Russ was a "camera
+man." That is, he took moving pictures in the big studios and out of
+doors for the Comet Film Company, of which Mr. Frank Pertell was manager
+and director.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It was Russ who suggested to Mr. DeVere a way out of his troubles. He
+could not act in the "legitimate," as his voice was gone; but no voice
+is needed to appear on the films for the movies, since a mere motion of
+the lips suffices, when any speaking is to be done. The "silent drama"
+has been the salvation of many an actor who, if he had to declaim his
+lines, would be a failure.</p>
+
+<p>At first Mr. DeVere would not hear of acting before the camera, but he
+soon came to know that greater actors than he had fallen in line with
+the work, especially since the pay was so large, and finally he
+consented. An account of his success and of the entrance of his
+daughters into the field is given in the initial book.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth, the elder girl, was, like her father, of a romantic turn. Also she
+was rather tall and willowy, as Mr. DeVere had been before he had taken
+on flesh with the passing of the years; and she was cast for parts that
+suited her type. She was deliberate in her actions, and in "registry."</p>
+
+<p>Alice, like her late mother, was warm-hearted and impulsive, plump,
+vivacious and full of fun. Both girls were excellent movie actresses. In
+the company they had joined was Mr. Wellington Bunn, an old actor, who
+hoped, some day, to appear in Hamlet&mdash;Hamlet in the legitimate.</p>
+
+<p>Paul Ardite, who played light parts, had be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>come very fond of Alice.
+Russ Dalwood had a liking for Ruth, and the four had many pleasant hours
+in each other's company.</p>
+
+<p>Pearl Pennington was the leading lady at times, and was rather disposed
+to domineer over our girls, as was her chum, Laura Dixon. Mrs. Maguire
+was the "mother" of the film company. She portrayed old lady parts, and
+her two grandchildren, Tommie and Nellie, the orphans, were cast for
+characters suitable to them.</p>
+
+<p>Carl Switzer, a German-American, did comedy parts and was a good fellow,
+though occasionally he would unconsciously say some very funny things.
+His opposite in character was Pepper Sneed, the grouch of the company.
+But Pepper could do valuable work, especially as a villain, and so he
+was kept on. As for Pop Snooks, the company could not have got along
+without him. It was Pop, the property man of the company, who made many
+of the devices used when the company went to "Oak Farm," as told in the
+second volume, where scenes for farm dramas were filmed. Pop could use a
+drawbridge in one scene, and, in the next, convert it into a perfectly
+good cow-barn. Pop was a valuable man.</p>
+
+<p>There were other members of the company, of more or less importance,
+whom you will meet as this story progresses.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It was in the third volume of the series, "The Moving Picture Girls
+Snowbound," that Ruth and Alice succeeded in getting "the proof on the
+film" that saved Mr. DeVere from an unjust charge.</p>
+
+<p>From the cold and frostiness of Deerfield the girls went to Florida,
+where "Under the Palms," many stirring acts were filmed. It was here
+that Alice and Ruth helped find two girls who were lost in the wilds of
+the Everglades.</p>
+
+<p>"The Moving Picture Girls at Rocky Ranch" gave Ruth and Alice a taste of
+cowboy life, and though rivals tried to spoil some of the valuable
+films, they were not altogether successful, even though a prairie fire
+figured in their schemes.</p>
+
+<p>The girls, with their father, had recently returned from a perilous
+trip. This is told about in the volume immediately preceding the one you
+are reading&mdash;"The Moving Picture Girls at Sea." In that Alice and Ruth
+proved, not only their versatility as actresses, but also that they
+could be brave and resourceful in the face of danger. And they more than
+repaid the old sailor, Jack Jepson, who saved their lives, by doing him
+a good turn.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, life at Oak Farm will be vastly different from that on the <i>Mary
+Ellen</i>," remarked Alice, as she looked from the automobile as it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> swung
+along through the New York streets on the way to the park.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," agreed her sister. "But I like it up there."</p>
+
+<p>"There are going to be some strenuous times," said Paul. "We've got to
+do some hustling work."</p>
+
+<p>"All the better," declared Russ. "I like to keep the film running. This
+sitting about all day and reeling off only ten feet makes me tired."</p>
+
+<p>"You like action!" laughed Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; and plenty of it."</p>
+
+<p>Oak Farm was the property of the Apgars. There was Mr. Belix Apgar, the
+father, Nance, his wife, and Sandy, an energetic son. The farm was
+located in New Jersey, about forty miles from New York, and it provided
+a picturesque background for the scenes evolved by Mr. Pertell and his
+company. It was during a scene on the farm, some time before, that a
+valuable discovery had been made, which endeared the moving picture
+girls and their chums to the Apgars.</p>
+
+<p>"How did Mr. Pertell come to pick out Oak Farm for the war plays?" asked
+Ruth, as the automobile bounced along.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I suggested it to him," answered Russ. "I remembered the
+background, and I felt sure we could get all sorts of settings there to
+make the proper scenes. There are hills, mountains,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> valleys, streams,
+bridges, waterfalls, cliffs and caves. Everything needed for perfectly
+good war dramas."</p>
+
+<p>"How did they come to want that sort of stuff?" asked Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, war stuff is going big now," Russ answered. "All this talk of
+preparedness, you know, the war in Europe, and all that. The public is
+fairly 'eating up' war pictures."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope we don't have to fire any guns!" exclaimed Ruth, with a shudder.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll see and hear plenty of 'em fired," Russ told her. "There are to
+be some big battle scenes and cavalry charges. But one of you will be
+back of the firing line, I believe."</p>
+
+<p>"How is that?" asked Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, one of you girls is to be cast for an army nurse, and the other
+will be a spy. The spy has to carry a revolver."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going to be the spy!" cried Alice, impetuously. "I know how to
+shoot a gun."</p>
+
+<p>"I'd rather be the nurse," murmured Ruth, and truly she was better
+fitted for that part.</p>
+
+<p>"'A Girl in Blue and A Girl in Gray' is to be the title of the war
+play&mdash;or at least one of them," went on Russ. "There will be some lively
+scenes, and I'll be on the jump most of the time."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you going to film them all?" asked Paul.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no. I'm to have several assistants, but I'll be in general charge
+of the camera squad. So, girls, look your prettiest."</p>
+
+<p>"They always do that," said Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you!" came in a feminine duet.</p>
+
+<p>A little later the place where the retake was to be made was reached.
+Mr. Bunn was on hand, wearing his air of "Hamletian gloom," as Alice
+whispered, and the work of retaking the scenes was soon under way.</p>
+
+<p>This time all went well. Alice drove her "flivver" at Mr. Bunn, who was
+properly knocked down and looked after by Ruth. No small boys, with an
+exaggerated sense of humor, got in the way, and the girls were shortly
+back in their apartment. They had moved to a more pretentious home since
+their success in moving pictures, and the Dalwoods had taken an
+apartment in the same building.</p>
+
+<p>"And now to get on with my packing!" sighed Alice. "All I am sure of is
+that I have my 'brogans' in."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll help you," offered Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>Two days later the Comet Film Company, augmented for the occasion, was
+at the depot in Hoboken, ready to take the Lackawanna train out to Oak
+Farm, New Jersey, where it nestled in the hills of Sussex County.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I don't see how they are going to take battle scenes with just this
+company," observed Alice, as she surveyed her fellow workers. "And where
+are the guns and horses?"</p>
+
+<p>"They'll come up later," Russ informed her. "There are to be two big
+companies and a couple of batteries, but they won't be on hand until
+they are really needed. It costs too much to keep them when they are not
+working."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you all here?" asked Mr. Pertell hurrying along the seats with a
+handful of tickets&mdash;"counting noses," so to speak.</p>
+
+<p>"All here, I think," answered Russ.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is Carl Switzer?" asked the manager.</p>
+
+<p>"He was here a minute ago," Alice said.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, he isn't here now," remarked Mr. Bunn.</p>
+
+<p>"And almost time for the train to start!" exploded the director. "We
+need him in some of the first scenes to-morrow. Get him, somebody!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hey, Mister! Does yer mean dat funny, moon-faced man what talks like a
+pretzel?" asked a newsboy in the station.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that's Mr. Switzer," was the answer. "Where is he?"</p>
+
+<p>"I jest seen him go out dat way," and the boy pointed toward the doors
+leading to the street in front of the ferry. This street led over to the
+interned German steamships at the Hoboken piers.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<h3>HARD AT WORK</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Great Scott!" ejaculated Mr. Pertell. "I might have known that if
+Switzer came anywhere near his German friends he'd be off having a
+confab with them. Go after him, somebody! It's only five minutes to
+train time, and it will take those Germans that long to say how-de-do to
+one another, without getting down to business."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll get him," offered Paul, hurrying off toward the swinging doors.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll go wit' youse," said the newsboy. "I likes t' listen t' him talk.
+Does he do a Dutch act?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sometimes," laughed Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"Youse is actors, ain't youse?" the boy asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Movies," answered Paul, hurrying along toward the entrance to the
+shipyards.</p>
+
+<p>"I wuz in 'em onct," went on the lad. "Dey wuz a scene where us guys wuz
+sellin' papes, an' anudder guy comes along, and t'rows a handful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> of
+money in de street&mdash;he had so much he didn't know what t' do wit'
+it&mdash;dat wuz in de picture," he explained. "I wuz in de scene."</p>
+
+<p>"Was it real money?" asked Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"Naw&mdash;nottin' but tin," and the tone expressed the disappointment that
+had been experienced. "But we each got a quarter out of it fer bein' in
+de picture, so we didn't make out so worse. Dere's your friend now," and
+the newsboy pointed to the comedian standing at the entrance to one of
+the piers, talking to the watchman. Both had raised their voices high,
+and were using their hands freely.</p>
+
+<p>"Hey, Mr. Switzer, come along!" cried Paul. "It's time for the train."</p>
+
+<p>"Ach! Der train! I t'ought der vos plenty of time. I vant to see a
+friend of mine who is living on vun of dese wessels. Haven't I got der
+time?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, not a minute to spare. You can see him when you come back."</p>
+
+<p>"Ach! Maybe I neffer comes back. If I get in der war plays I may be
+shotted."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, come on!" laughed Paul, while the newsboy went into amused
+contortions at the exaggerated language and gestures of Mr. Switzer.</p>
+
+<p>"See you later, Hans!" called the comedian to the watchman at the pier.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Ach, Himmel! Vot I care!" the latter cried. "I don't care even if you
+comes back neffer! You can't get on dose ship!" and he waved his hand at
+the big vessels, interned to prevent their capture by the British
+warships.</p>
+
+<p>"I was having quite an argument with him," said Mr. Switzer, speaking
+"United States," as he walked back to the station with Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"Wouldn't he let you go on board?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. Took me for an English spy, I guess. But I know one of der
+officers, and I thought I'd have time for a chat with him."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Pertell is in a hurry," said the young actor.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if we miss this train there's another."</p>
+
+<p>"Not until to-morrow, and he wants to start the rehearsals the first
+thing in the morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Ach! Den dat's differunt alretty yet again, wasn't it so?" and Mr.
+Switzer winked at the admiring newsboy, and tossed him a quarter, with
+the advice to get a pretzel and use it for a watch charm. Whereat the
+boy went into convulsive laughter again.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean, Switzer, by going off just at train time?" demanded
+the indignant director and manager.</p>
+
+<p>"Train time is der time to go off&mdash;so long as you don't go off der
+track!" declared the Ger<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>man. "But I vanted to go on&mdash;not go off&mdash;I
+vanted to go on der ships only dey vouldn't let me. However, better late
+than be a miss vot's like a bird in der hand," and with a shrug of his
+shoulders and a last wink at the newsboy, Mr. Switzer went out to the
+waiting train with the others.</p>
+
+<p>It was a long and rather tedious ride to Oak Farm, which lay some miles
+back in the hills from the railroad station, and it was late afternoon
+when the company of moving picture actors and actresses arrived, to be
+greeted by Sandy Apgar and his father and his mother.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I <i>am</i> glad to see you all again!" cried Sandy, shaking hands
+with Mr. DeVere, the girls and the others. "It seems like old times!"</p>
+
+<p>"We're glad dot you are glad!" declaimed Mr. Switzer. "Haf you any more
+barns vot need burning down?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not this time," laughed Sandy. "One barn-burning is enough for me." A
+barn, an old one, had been destroyed on the occasion of the previous
+visit of the moving picture company&mdash;a burning barn being called for in
+one of the scenes.</p>
+
+<p>Oak Farm was a big place, and, in anticipation of the war plays to be
+enacted there, several buildings had been built to accommodate the extra
+actors and actresses, where they could sleep and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> eat. The DeVere girls
+and the other members of the regular company would board at the
+farmhouse as they had done before.</p>
+
+<p>Hard work began early the next day. There was much to do in the way of
+preliminary preparation, and Pop Snooks, the property man, with a corps
+of assistants, was in his element. While Ruth, Alice and the others were
+going through a rehearsal of their parts without, of course, the proper
+scenic background, the property man was setting up the different "sets"
+needed in the various scenes.</p>
+
+<p>While they were working on one piece, Sandy Apgar came along on his way
+to look after some of the farming operations.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello!" he cried. "Say! you fellows did that mighty quick."</p>
+
+<p>"Did what?" asked Alice, who stood near, not being engaged for the time
+being.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, dug that well. I didn't know you could strike water so soon," and
+he pointed to an old-fashioned well with a sweep, which stood not far
+from the house. "What'd you use&mdash;a post-hole digger?" he asked. "What
+sort of water did you strike?"</p>
+
+<p>Before any one could answer him he strode over to the well, and, as he
+looked down into it, a puzzled look came over his face.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'll be jiggered!" he cried. "'Tain't a well at all! Only an
+imitation!"</p>
+
+<p>And that was what it was. Some canvas had been stretched in a circle
+about a framework, and painted to represent stones. The well itself
+stood on top of the ground, not being dug out at all. It made a
+perfectly good water-scene, with a sweep, a chain, a bucket and all.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm supposed to stand there and draw water for the thirsty soldiers,"
+explained Ruth, coming up at this point.</p>
+
+<p>"Huh! How are you goin' to git water out of there?" demanded Sandy.
+"It's as dry as a bone. Why, I've got a good well over there," and he
+pointed to a real one, under an apple tree.</p>
+
+<p>"That's in the shade&mdash;couldn't get any pictures there," explained Russ.
+"The well has to be out in the open."</p>
+
+<p>"But what about water?" asked Sandy. "Hang me if I ever heard of a well
+without water!"</p>
+
+<p>"We'll run a hose up to this one," explained Pop Snooks. "A man will lie
+down behind the well-curb, where he won't show in the camera. As fast as
+Ruth lowers her bucket into the well the man'll fill the pail with water
+for the soldiers to drink. It'll be quicker than a real well, and if we
+find we don't like it in one place we can move it to another. This is a
+movable well."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'll be&mdash;&mdash;" began Sandy, but words failed him. "This is sure a
+queer business," he murmured as he strode off.</p>
+
+<p>The hard work of preparation continued. All about the farm queer parts
+of buildings were being erected, extra barns, out-houses, bits of fence,
+and the like.</p>
+
+<p>In what are called close-up scenes only a small part of an object shows
+in the camera, and often when a magnificent entrance to a marble house
+is shown, it is only a plaster-of-Paris imitation of a door with a
+little frame around it.</p>
+
+<p>What is outside of that would not photograph; so what is the use of
+building it? Of course in many scenes real buildings figure, but they
+are not built for the purpose.</p>
+
+<p>In one of the war plays a small barn was to be shown, and a soldier was
+supposed to jump through the window of this to escape pursuit. As none
+of the regular buildings at Oak Farm was in the proper location, Pop
+Snooks had been ordered to build a barn.</p>
+
+<p>He did. That is, he built one side of it, <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'proping'">propping</ins> it up with braces
+from behind, where they would not show. The window was there, and some
+boards; so that, seen through the camera, it looked like a small part of
+a big out-building.</p>
+
+<p>Some hay was piled on the ground to one side,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> away from the camera, and
+it was on this hay that the escaping soldier would land. Then Ruth was
+to come to him, and go through some scenes. But these would be interior
+views, which would be taken in the improvised studio erected on the farm
+for this purpose.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Switzer was to be the soldier, and would plunge through the barn
+window head first. He was called on to rehearse the scenes a few days
+after the semblance of a barn had been put in position and the hay laid
+out to make his landing safe.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you ready?" asked Mr. Pertell, who was directing the scene. "All
+ready, there, Switzer?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure, as ready as I ever shall be."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, then. Now, you understand, you come running out of those
+bushes over there, and when you get out you stop for a minute and
+register caution. Look on all sides of you. Then you see the barn and
+the open window. Register surprise and hope. You say, 'Ah, I shall be
+safe in there!'</p>
+
+<p>"Then you run, look back once or twice to see if you are pursued, and
+make a dive, head first, through the open window on to the hay. All
+ready now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure, I'm ready!"</p>
+
+<p>"How about you, Russ?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Let her go."</p>
+
+<p>"All ready, then! Camera!"</p>
+
+<p>Russ began to grind away at the film. Mr. Switzer had taken his place in
+the clump of bushes, his ragged Union garments flapping in the wind. He
+came out, looked furtively around, and then, giving the proper
+"registration," he advanced cautiously toward the barn.</p>
+
+<p>"Go on now&mdash;run!" cried Mr. Pertell through his megaphone.</p>
+
+<p>The German actor ran. He made a beautiful leap through the window, and
+the next moment there came from him howls of dismay.</p>
+
+<p>"Donner vetter! Ach <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'himmel'">Himmel</ins>! Ach! My face! My hands! Hey, somebody! bring
+a pail of water! Quick!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<h3>A REHEARSAL</h3>
+
+
+<p>Mingled in German and English came the shouts of dismay from Herr
+Switzer inside the dummy shed, through the window of which he had leaped
+on to the hay.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, what is it?" cried Ruth, clasping her hands and registering
+"dismay" unconsciously.</p>
+
+<p>"He must have fallen and hurt himself," ejaculated Alice. "Do, Paul, go
+and see what it is."</p>
+
+<p>"Stop the camera!" yelled Mr. Pertell through his megaphone. "Don't
+spoil the film, Russ. You got a good scene there. He went through the
+window all right, and his yells won't register. Stop the camera!"</p>
+
+<p>"Stopped she is," reported Russ.</p>
+
+<p>Then those of the players who had been looking on and wondering at Mr.
+Switzer's cries could hurry to his rescue.</p>
+
+<p>For it is a crime out of the ordinary in the annals of moving pictures
+for any one not in the scene to get within range of the camera when an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>
+act is being filmed. It means not only the spoiling of the reel,
+perhaps, but a retaking of that particular action. When Russ ceased to
+grind at the camera crank, however, it was the same as when the shutter
+of an ordinary camera is closed. No more views can be taken. It was safe
+for others to cross the field of vision.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter?" cried Paul, who, with Ruth and Alice and some of
+the others trailing after him, was hurrying toward the false front of
+boards that represented a shed.</p>
+
+<p>"Did a cow critter or a sheep step on you?" Russ questioned.</p>
+
+<p>"Ach! My face! My clothes! Ruined!" came in accents of deep disgust from
+the actor. "Never again will I leap through a window without knowing
+into what I am going to land. Ach!"</p>
+
+<p>"What happened?" asked Paul, trying to keep from laughing, for the
+player's voice was so funnily tragic.</p>
+
+<p>"What happened? Come and see!" cried Mr. Switzer. "I have into a
+chicken's home invaded myself already!"</p>
+
+<p>"Invaded himself into a chicken's home!" exclaimed Mr. Pertell. "What in
+the world does he mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"I guess he means he sat down in a hen's nest!" chuckled Paul, and this
+proved to be the case.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Going around to the other side of the erected boards, the players and
+others saw a curious sight.</p>
+
+<p>Seated on the hay, his face, his hair, his hands, and his clothing a
+mass of the whites and yellows of eggs, was Carl Switzer. He held up his
+fingers, dripping with the ingredients of half a dozen omelets.</p>
+
+<p>"The chicken's home was right here, in the hay&mdash;where I jumped. I landed
+right in among the eggs&mdash;head first. Get me some water&mdash;quick!" implored
+the player.</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't you see the eggs before you jumped among 'em?" asked Mr.
+Pertell.</p>
+
+<p>"See them? I should say not! Think you I would have precipitated myself
+into their midst had I done so?" indignantly demanded Mr. Switzer,
+relapsing into his formally-learned English. "I have no desire to be a
+part of a scrambled egg," he went on. "Some water&mdash;quick!"</p>
+
+<p>While one of the extra players was bringing the water, Sandy Apgar
+strolled past. He was told what had happened.</p>
+
+<p>"Plumped himself down in a hen's nest, did he?" exclaimed the young
+proprietor of Oak Farm. "Wa'al, now, if you folks go to upsettin' the
+domestic arrangements of my fowls that way I'll have t' be charging you
+higher prices," and he laughed good-naturedly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Ach! Dat is better," said Mr. Switzer, when he had cleansed himself.
+"How came it, do you think, Mr. Apgar, that the hen laid her eggs right
+where I was to make my landing when escaping from the Confederates?"</p>
+
+<p>"Huh! More than one hen laid her eggs there, I reckon," the farmer said.
+"There must have been half a dozen of 'em who had rooms in that
+apartment. You see, it's this way. Hens love to steal away and lay their
+eggs in secret places. After you folks built this make-believe shed and
+put the hay in, I s'pose some of my hens seen it and thought it would be
+a good place. So they made a nest there, and they've been layin' in it
+for the last few days."</p>
+
+<p>"More as a week, I should say!" declared Mr. Switzer in his best German
+comedian manner. "There were many eggs!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you did bust quite a few!" said Sandy, critically looking at the
+disrupted nest. "But it can't be helped."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, the film wasn't spoiled, anyhow," observed Mr. Pertell. To him
+that was all that counted. "You got him all right as he went through the
+window, didn't you, Russ?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes. It wasn't until he was inside, down behind the boards and out
+of sight, that the eggs happened."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No more eggs for me!" declared the comedian. "I shall never look a
+chicken in the face again."</p>
+
+<p>"Go on with the scene," ordered the director. "You are supposed to steal
+out to the barn to give the hidden soldier food," he said to Ruth. "You
+come out from the house, and are astonished to see a man's head sticking
+out of the shed window. You register surprise, and start to run back to
+the house, but the soldier implores you to stay, and you reluctantly
+listen to him. Then he begs for food&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But don't bring me a hard-boiled egg, whatever you do!" called Mr.
+Switzer.</p>
+
+<p>"No funny business now," warned the director, with a laugh. "Go on now,
+and we'll see how you do it."</p>
+
+<p>After one or two trials Mr. Pertell announced himself as satisfied and
+the filming of that part of the war drama went on.</p>
+
+<p>So many details in regard to the taking of moving pictures have been
+given in the previous books of this series that they need not be
+repeated here. Suffice it to say that the pictures of the players in
+motion are taken on a long celluloid strip of film, just as one picture
+is taken on a square of celluloid in a snap-shot camera.</p>
+
+<p>This long reel of film, when developed, is a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> "negative." From it a
+"positive" strip of film is made, and this is the one that is run
+through the projection machine throwing the pictures on the white screen
+in the darkened theatre. The pictures taken are very small, and are
+greatly magnified on the screen.</p>
+
+<p>So much for the mechanical end of the business. It may interest some to
+learn that the photo-play, as seen in the theatre, is not taken all at
+once, nor in the order in which the scenes are seen as they are reeled
+off.</p>
+
+<p>When a play is decided on, the director or one of his helpers goes over
+the manuscript and picks out all the scenes that take place in one
+location. It may be in a parlor, in a hut, on the side of a mountain, in
+a lonely wilderness, on a battlefield, on a bridge&mdash;anywhere, in fact.
+And several scenes, involving several different persons, may take place
+at any one of these places.</p>
+
+<p>It can be understood that it would involve a great deal of work to
+follow the logical sequence of the scenes. That is to say, if the first
+scene was in an office showing a girl taking dictation from her
+employer, and the next showed the same girl and her employer on a
+ferryboat, and the third scene went back to the office, where some
+papers were being examined, it would mean a loss of time to photograph,
+or film, the first office<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> scene, then take every one involved in the
+act to the ferryboat, and then back to the office again.</p>
+
+<p>Instead, the two office scenes, and possibly more, are taken at one
+time, on the same film, one after the other, without regard to whether
+they follow logically or not. Afterward the film is cut apart, and the
+scenes fitted in where they belong.</p>
+
+<p>So, too, all the scenes pertaining to a hut in the wilderness, on a
+bridge, in the woods, in a parlor&mdash;it makes no difference where&mdash;are
+taken at the same time. In this way much labor and expense are saved.</p>
+
+<p>But it makes a queer sort of story to an uninitiated person looking on;
+and sometimes the players themselves do not know what it is all about.</p>
+
+<p>So Mr. Pertell wanted to get all the scenes centering around the shed at
+the same time, though they were not in sequence. And Ruth and Mr.
+Switzer and the others in the east went through their parts with the
+shed as a background.</p>
+
+<p>In one scene Ruth had to discover the hidden soldier. Then she had to
+steal out to him with food. Later, at night, she was to help him to
+escape. Then, a week later, she was to go out to the same shed and
+discover a letter he had hidden<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> in the hay. That ended the scenes at
+the shed, and it could be taken away to make room for something else.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Ruth, you did that splendidly!" exclaimed Alice, as her sister
+finished her work and went up on the shady porch to rest.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you like it? I'm glad."</p>
+
+<p>"Like it? It was great! Where you discovered that letter in the hay,
+your face showed such natural surprise."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm glad it didn't register merriment."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because, as I picked up the letter, I found a big blot of the yellow
+from the hens' eggs on it. I hope it doesn't show in the picture. I had
+all I could do to keep from laughing when I thought of Mr. Switzer in
+the omelet scene."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, well, you know they want all white stuff yellow when they make
+pictures."</p>
+
+<p>"In the studio, but not outdoors."</p>
+
+<p>This is a fact. As the scenes in the studio are taken in the glare of a
+special kind of electric light, all white objects, even the collars and
+cuffs of the men, are yellow in tone, though in the picture they show
+perfectly white. This is due to the chemical rays of the lights used.
+Out of doors, under sunlight, colors are seen in their own hues.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You did very well in that funny little scene with Paul," said Ruth to
+her sister.</p>
+
+<p>"You mean in the swing under the apple tree?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"I was so afraid he would swing me too high," Alice went on. "He was
+cutting up so. I told him to stop, but he wouldn't."</p>
+
+<p>"It was very natural. I think it will show well. Hark! what's that?"
+cried Ruth, leaping to her feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Thunder," suggested Alice, as a distant, rumbling noise came to their
+ears.</p>
+
+<p>"Sounds more like big guns."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that's what it is!" agreed Alice. "They are going to rehearse one
+of the battle scenes this afternoon, I heard Mr. Pertell say. The
+soldiers must have come, and they're practising over in the glen. Come
+on over and watch. We're in on the scenes later, but we can watch now."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," agreed Ruth. "Wait until I get my broad-brimmed hat, the
+sun is hot up here."</p>
+
+<p>Presently the two sisters, with Paul Ardite and some other members of
+the company, were strolling over the fields toward the scene of the
+distant firing. As they came in sight of several hundred men and horses,
+they saw the smoke of cannon and heard the shouting of the director and
+his assistants who were using big megaphones. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> was the rehearsal of
+one of the many battle scenes that were to take place about Oak Farm.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, look at that girl ride!" suddenly exclaimed Alice, pointing to a
+young woman who dashed past on a spirited horse. "Isn't she a wonder?"</p>
+
+<p>"She is indeed," agreed Ruth. "I wonder who she is?"</p>
+
+<p>"One of the extras," said Paul. "A number of them have just arrived.
+We'll begin active work soon, and film some big scenes with you girls in
+them."</p>
+
+<p>Alice gazed across the fields toward the figure of the girl on
+horseback. There was something spirited in her riding, and, though she
+had never seen her before, Alice felt strangely drawn toward the new
+player.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<h3>A DARING RIDER</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Come on now, Confederates!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, you Union chaps hold back there in ambush. You're not to dash out
+until you get the signal. Wait!"</p>
+
+<p>"Keep that horse out of the way. He isn't supposed to dash across,
+riderless, until after the first volley."</p>
+
+<p>"Put in a little more action! Fall off as though you were shot, not as
+though you were bending over to see if your horse had a stone under his
+shoe! Fall off hard!"</p>
+
+<p>"And you fellows that do fall off&mdash;lie still after you fall! Don't
+twitch as though you wanted to scratch your noses!"</p>
+
+<p>"If some of 'em don't stay quiet after they fall off they'll get stepped
+on!"</p>
+
+<p>"All ready now! Come with a rush when the signal's given!"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Pertell and his men were stationed near a "battery" of camera men,
+who were ready to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> grind away; and the director and his assistants were
+calling their instructions through big megaphones. To reach the soldiers
+in the more distant parts of the field recourse was had to telephones,
+the wires of which were laid along the ground in shallow trenches,
+covered with earth so that the trampling of the horses would not sever
+them.</p>
+
+<p>"Get that battery farther back among the trees!" cried Mr. Pertell to
+one of his helpers. "It's supposed to be a masked one, but it's in plain
+sight now. Even the audience would see it, let alone the men it's
+supposed to fire on. Get it back!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir," answered the man, and he telephoned the instructions to the
+assistant director in charge of a battery of field guns that had been
+thundering away&mdash;the sound which had brought Ruth and Alice to the
+scene.</p>
+
+<p>"Do we have any part in the battle scenes?" asked Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, quite big parts," Paul informed her. "But you don't go on to-day.
+This is only a rehearsal."</p>
+
+<p>"But they've been firing real powder," remarked Alice, "and it looks as
+though they were going to fire more," and she pointed to where men of
+the masked battery were ramming charges down the iron throats of their
+guns.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, they're firing, and charging, and doing all manner of stunts, and
+the camera men are grinding away, but they aren't using any film," went
+on Paul. "It's just to get every one used to working under the
+excitement. They have to fire the guns so the horses will get so they
+don't mind them when the real time comes."</p>
+
+<p>Hundreds of extra players had been engaged to come to Oak Farm for these
+battle scenes in the drama, "A Girl in Blue and A Girl in Gray," and
+some of them were already on hand with their mounts. As has been said,
+special accommodations had been erected where they were to stay during
+the weeks they would be needed. There were more men than women among the
+extra people, though a number of women and girls were needed in the
+"town" scenes.</p>
+
+<p>Most of the men were former members of the militia, cowboys and
+adventurers, all of whom were used to hard, rough riding. This was
+necessary, for when battle scenes are shown there must be some "killed,"
+and when a man has a horse shot from under him, or is shot himself,
+riding at full speed, even though the cartridges are blank, the action
+calls for a heavy fall, sudden and abrupt, to make it look real. And
+this is not easy to do, nor is it altogether safe with a mob of riders
+thundering along behind one.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Yet the men who take part in these battle scenes do it with scarcely a
+thought of danger, though often many of them are hurt, as are the
+horses.</p>
+
+<p>In brief the story of the play in which Ruth was to take the part of a
+girl in Blue, and Alice of a girl in Gray, was this. They were cousins,
+and Ruth was visiting Alice's home in the South when the war broke out.
+Alice, of course, sided with her people, and loved the gray uniforms,
+while Ruth's sympathies were with the North.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth determined to go back North and become a nurse, while Alice,
+longing for more active work, offered her services as a spy to help the
+Confederacy. Though on opposite sides, the girls' love for one another
+did not wane.</p>
+
+<p>Then came the scenes of the war. Battles were to be shown, and there
+were plots and counter-plots, in some of which Ruth and Alice had no
+part. Mr. DeVere was cast for a Northern General, and the character
+became him well. Later on Alice and Ruth were to meet in a hospital
+among the wounded. Alice was supposed to get certain papers of value to
+her side from a wounded Union officer. As she was escaping with them
+Ruth was to intercept her, and the two were to have a "strong" scene
+together.</p>
+
+<p>Alice, ignoring the pleadings of her cousin and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> about to depart with
+the papers, learns that the officer from whom she took them was the same
+one that had saved her father's life on the battlefield. She decides to
+forego her mission as a spy, even though it may mean the betrayal of her
+own cause, when the news comes in of Lee's surrender, and her sacrifice
+is not demanded. Then "all live happily for ever after."</p>
+
+<p>That is but a mere outline of the play, which was to be an elaborate
+production. And it was the rehearsal for the preliminary battles and
+skirmishes that the girls were now witnessing.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell that battery to get ready to fire!" cried Mr. Pertell, and this
+word went over the telephone.</p>
+
+<p>"Come on now with that Union charge!" was the next command.</p>
+
+<p>Then hundreds of horses thundered down the slopes of Oak Farm, while the
+hidden guns thundered. Down went horses and men while the girls screamed
+involuntarily, it all seemed so real.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a good thing we didn't plant no corn in that there field this
+season," observed Belix Apgar, Sandy's father, as he saw the charge.</p>
+
+<p>"That's right," agreed his wife. "There wouldn't have been 'nuff left to
+make a hominy cake."</p>
+
+<p>"Do it over again!" ordered the manager.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> "Some of you fellows ride your
+horses as if you were going to a croquet game. Get some action into it!"</p>
+
+<p>Once more the battery thundered its harmless shots and the men charged.
+This time the scene was satisfactory, and preparations were made to film
+it. Again the men thundered down the slope, and when they were almost at
+the battery a single rider&mdash;a girl&mdash;dashed out toward the approaching
+Union soldiers.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, she'll be killed!" cried Ruth. "They'll ride right over her!"</p>
+
+<p>It did seem so, for she was headed straight toward the approaching
+horsemen.</p>
+
+<p>"She's all right," said Paul. "She's quite a rider, I believe. Her part,
+as a Union sympathizer, is to rush out and warn them of the hidden
+battery, but she is delayed by a Southerner until it is too late, and
+she takes a desperate chance. There go the guns!"</p>
+
+<p>Horses and riders were lost in a cloud of smoke. This time the film was
+being taken. When that charge was over, and men and horses, some
+limping, had gone back to their quarters, Mr. Pertell signaled to the
+daring woman rider to come to him.</p>
+
+<p>"That was very well done, Miss Brown," he said. "You certainly showed
+nerve."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I am glad you liked it," was the answer in a quiet, well-bred voice.
+"Shall you want me again to-day?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not until later, and it will be an interior. Is your horse all right?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes. I am in love with him!" and she patted the arching neck of the
+handsome creature. "He is so speedy."</p>
+
+<p>"He sure is speedy, all right," agreed Paul, and the girl&mdash;she was
+scarcely more than that&mdash;who had been addressed as Miss Brown by the
+director smiled at the young actor. Then she let her friendly gaze rest
+on Ruth and Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't she fine!" murmured Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"Like to meet her?" whispered Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes!" exclaimed Alice eagerly, paying no attention to Ruth's plucking
+of her sleeve.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Brown, allow me to present&mdash;&mdash;" and Paul introduced the two DeVere
+girls.</p>
+
+<p>"That was a daring ride of yours!" remarked Alice, with enthusiasm.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed it was," agreed Ruth, more quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think so? I'm glad you like it. I have been riding ever since I
+was a little girl."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you learn in the West?" asked Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes&mdash;that is I&mdash;I really&mdash;oh, there goes that wild black horse
+again!" and Miss Brown turned to point to an animal ridden by one of
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> Confederate soldiers. The horse seemed unmanageable, and dashed
+some distance across the field before it was brought under control.</p>
+
+<p>Then the talk turned to moving picture work, though Ruth could not help
+wondering, even in the midst of it, why Miss Brown had not been more
+certain of where she had learned to ride.</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't something one would forget," mused Ruth.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<h3>A NEEDED LESSON</h3>
+
+
+<p>Rehearsals, the filming of scenes, retakes and the studying of their
+parts kept busy not only the moving picture girls, but all the members
+of Mr. Pertell's company. There was work for all, and from the smallest
+girls and boys, including Tommie and Nellie Maguire, to Mr. DeVere
+himself, little spare time was to be had.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth and Alice had important parts, and they were given a general
+outline of what was expected of them. They would be in many scenes, and
+a variety of action would be required. In order that they do themselves
+and the film justice, since they were to be "featured," the girls spent
+much time studying in their rooms and practising to get the best results
+from the various registerings.</p>
+
+<p>"That is going to be a very strong scene for you and Alice," said Mr.
+DeVere to Ruth one day. "I refer to that scene where Alice takes the
+paper and afterwards discovers the identity<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> of the man to whom she owes
+so much&mdash;the life of her father. Now let me see how you would play it,
+Alice."</p>
+
+<p>Alice did so, and she did well, but her father was not satisfied. The
+stage traditions meant much to him, and though he had been forced to
+give up many of them when he went into the motion pictures, still he
+knew what good dramatic action was, and he knew that it would "get over"
+just as certainly in the silent drama as it did in the legitimate. So he
+made Alice go over the scene again, and Ruth also, until he was
+satisfied.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, when the time comes, you'll know how to do it," he said. "Don't be
+satisfied with anything but the best you can do, even if it is only a
+moving picture show. I am convinced, more and more, that the silent
+drama is going to take a larger place than ever before the public."</p>
+
+<p>It was on one afternoon following a rather hard day's work before the
+cameras, that Ruth and Alice, with Miss Pennington and Miss Dixon, sat
+on the porch of the farmhouse, waiting for the supper bell. Russ and
+Paul were off to one side, talking, and Mr. DeVere and Mr. Bunn were
+discussing their early days in the legitimate. Mr. Pertell came up the
+walk, a worried look on his face, seeing which Mr. Switzer called out:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Did a cow step on some of the actors, Herr Director, or did one of our
+worthy farmer's rams knock over a camera after it had filmed one of the
+battle scenes?"</p>
+
+<p>"Neither one, Mr. Switzer," was the answer. "This is merely a domestic
+trouble I have on my mind."</p>
+
+<p>"Domestic!" exclaimed Alice. "You don't mean that some of your pretty
+extra girls have eloped with some of your dashing cowboy soldiers, do
+you? I wouldn't blame them if they&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Alice!" chided her sister.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, well, you know what I mean!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, it isn't quite that," laughed the director, "though you have very
+nearly hit it," and he took a chair near Alice and her sister, and near
+where Pearl Pennington and Laura Dixon were rocking and chewing gum.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell us, and perhaps we can help you," Alice suggested.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, maybe you can. It's about Miss Estelle Brown, the young lady who
+made that daring ride in front of the masked battery the other day."</p>
+
+<p>"What! Has she left?" asked Ruth. "She was such a wonderful rider!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, she hasn't left, but she threatens to; and I can't let her go, as
+she's in some of the films<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> and I'd have to switch the whole plot around
+to explain why she didn't come in on the later scenes."</p>
+
+<p>"Why is she going to leave?" Alice queried.</p>
+
+<p>"Because she has been subjected to some annoyance on the part of a young
+man who is one of the extras. You know the extras all live down in the
+big bungalow I had built for them. I have a man and his wife to look
+after them, and I try to make it as nearly like a happy family as I can.
+But Miss Brown says she can't stay there any longer. This young man&mdash;a
+decent enough chap he had seemed to me&mdash;is pestering her with his
+attentions. He is quite in love with her, it seems."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how romantic!" gurgled Miss Dixon.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Brown doesn't think so," said the manager dryly. "I don't know
+what to do about it, for I have no place where I can put her up alone."</p>
+
+<p>"Bring her here!" exclaimed Alice, impulsively.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, no!" cried Miss Pennington. "We actresses were told that none
+of the extra people would be quartered with us! If that had not been
+agreed to I would not have come to this place."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor I!" chimed in Miss Dixon. "We professionals are not to be classed
+with these extras&mdash;and amateurs at that!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I know I did promise you regulars that you would be boarded by
+yourselves," said Mr. Pertell, scratching his head in perplexity, "and I
+don't blame you for not wanting, as a general run, to mix with the
+others. For some of them, while they are decent enough, have a big idea
+of their own importance. I wouldn't think of asking you to let one of
+the extra men come here, but this young lady&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"She is perfectly charming!" broke in Alice. "And she certainly can
+ride!"</p>
+
+<p>"She did seem very nice," murmured Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Pooh! A vulgar cowgirl!" sneered Miss Dixon.</p>
+
+<p>"There is a nice room near mine," went on Alice. "She could have that, I
+should think. The Apgars don't use it, and it is certainly annoying to
+be pestered by a young man!" and she looked with uptilted nose at Paul,
+who said emphatically:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I like that!"</p>
+
+<p>"If I could bring her here&mdash;&mdash;" began Mr. Pertell.</p>
+
+<p>"By all means!" exclaimed Ruth. "We will try to make her happy and
+comfortable&mdash;if she is an amateur."</p>
+
+<p>"She has no right to come here!" burst out Miss Dixon.</p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed!" added Miss Pennington. "If<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> she comes, I shall go! I will
+not board in the same place with an amateur cowgirl doing an extra turn
+in the pictures."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor I!" snapped Miss Dixon.</p>
+
+<p>"All right&mdash;all right!" said Mr. Pertell quickly. "I know it's contrary
+to my promise, and I won't insist on it. Only it would have made it
+easier&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Let Miss Brown come," quickly whispered Alice in the director's ear.
+"They won't leave. They're too comfortable here, and they get too good
+salaries. Let Miss Brown come!"</p>
+
+<p>"Will you stand by me if I do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"So will I," added Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>Then the supper bell rang and the discussion ended for the time being.
+Later Mr. Pertell explained privately to Ruth and her sister that Miss
+Brown was a quiet and refined young lady about whom he knew little save
+that she had answered his advertisement for an amateur who could ride.
+She had made good and he had engaged her for the war scenes.</p>
+
+<p>"But she tells me that among the young men in the same boarding bungalow
+is one who seems quite smitten with her. He is impudent and exceedingly
+persistent, and she does not desire his attentions. She said she thought
+she would have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> to leave unless she could get a quiet place where he
+could not follow. It is all right during the day, as he can not come
+near her, but after hours&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Do bring her!" urged Alice. "We'll try to make her comfortable. And
+don't fear what they will do," and she nodded toward the two other
+actresses, who had been in vaudeville before going into motion pictures.</p>
+
+<p>So it was that, later in the evening, Miss Brown brought her trunk to
+the Apgar farmhouse and was installed in a room near Alice and Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it is <i>so</i> much nicer here!" sighed Estelle Brown, as she admitted
+Ruth and Alice, who knocked on her door. "I could not have stood the
+other place much longer. Though every one&mdash;except that one man&mdash;was very
+nice to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Let us be your friends!" urged Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"You are very kind," murmured Estelle, and the more the two girls looked
+at her, the prettier they thought her. She had wonderful hair, a
+marvelous complexion, and white, even teeth that made her smile a
+delight.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you been in this business long?" asked Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"No, not very&mdash;in fact, this is my first big play. I have done little
+ones, but I did not get on very well. I love the work, though."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Were your people in the profession?" asked Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know&mdash;that is, I'm not sure. I believe some of them were,
+generations back. Oh, did you hear that?" and she interrupted her reply
+with the question.</p>
+
+<p>"That" was the voice of some one in the lower hall inquiring if Miss
+Brown was in.</p>
+
+<p>"It's that&mdash;that impertinent Maurice Whitlow!" whispered Estelle to Ruth
+and Alice. "I thought I could escape him here. Oh, what shall I do?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll say you are not at home," returned Ruth, in her best "stage
+society" manner, and, sweeping down the hall, she met the maid who was
+coming up to tell Miss Brown there was a caller for her below.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell him Miss Brown is not at home," said Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," and the maid smiled understandingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! not at home? Tell her I shall call again," came in drawling tones
+up the stairway, for it was warm, and doors and windows were open.</p>
+
+<p>"Little&mdash;snip!" murmured Estelle. "I'm so glad I didn't have to see him.
+He's a pest&mdash;all the while wanting to take me out and buy ice-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>cream
+sodas. He's just starting in at the movies, and he thinks he's a star
+already. Oh! but don't you just love the guns and horses?" she asked
+impulsively.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I can't say that I do," answered Ruth. "I like quieter plays."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't!" cried Alice. "The more excitement the better I like it. I can
+do my best then."</p>
+
+<p>"So can I," said Estelle. Then they fell to talking of the work, and of
+many other topics.</p>
+
+<p>"Did Estelle Brown strike you as being peculiar?" asked Ruth of her
+sister when they were back in their rooms, getting ready for bed.</p>
+
+<p>"Peculiar? What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"I mean she didn't seem to know whether or not her people were in the
+profession."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, she did side-step that a bit."</p>
+
+<p>"Side-step, Alice?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, avoid answering, if you like that better. But my way is shorter.
+Say, maybe she has gone into this without her people knowing it, and she
+wants to keep them from bringing her back."</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe, though it didn't strike me as being that way. It was as though
+she wasn't quite sure of herself."</p>
+
+<p>"Sure of herself&mdash;what do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I can't explain it any better."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I'll think it over," said Alice, sleepily. "We've got lots to do
+to-morrow," and she tumbled into bed with a drowsy "good-night."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Laura Dixon and Miss Pearl Pennington most decidedly turned up
+their noses at the breakfast table when they saw Estelle sitting between
+Ruth and Alice. And their murmurs of disdain could be plainly heard.</p>
+
+<p>"She here? Then I'm going to leave!"</p>
+
+<p>"The idea of amateurs butting in like this! It's a shame!"</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately Estelle was exchanging some gay banter with Paul and did not
+hear. But Ruth and Alice did, and the latter could not avoid a thrust at
+the scornful ones. To Ruth, in an unnecessarily loud voice, Alice
+remarked:</p>
+
+<p>"Do you remember that funny vaudeville stunt we used to laugh over when
+we were children&mdash;'The Lady Bookseller?'"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I remember it very well," answered Ruth. "What about it, Alice?"
+for she did not catch her sister's drift.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I was just wondering how many years ago it was&mdash;ten, at least,
+since it was popular, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I believe so!"</p>
+
+<p>"It's no such a thing!" came the indignant remonstrance from Miss
+Pennington. It was in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> this sketch that she had made her "hit," and as
+she now claimed several years less than the number to which she was
+entitled, this sly reference to her age was not relished. "It was only
+<i>six</i> years ago that I starred in that," she went on.</p>
+
+<p>"It seems much longer," said Alice, calmly. "We were quite little when
+we saw you in that. You were so funny with your big feet&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Big feet! I had to wear shoes several sizes too large for me! It was in
+the act. I&mdash;I&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"They're stringing you&mdash;keep still!" whispered her chum, and with red
+cheeks Miss Pennington subsided.</p>
+
+<p>But Alice's remarks had the desired effect, and there were no more
+references, for the present, directed at pretty Estelle. Miss Dixon and
+Miss Pennington had a scene with Mr. Pertell, though, in which they
+threatened to leave unless Estelle were sent back to the bungalow where
+the other extra players boarded. But the manager remained firm, and the
+two vaudeville actresses did not quit the company.</p>
+
+<p>Hard work followed, and Estelle made some daring rides, once narrowly
+escaping injury from the burning wad of a cannon, which went off
+prematurely as she dashed past the very muzzle. But she put spurs to her
+horse, who leaped over the spurt of fire and smoke. A few feet of film<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>
+were spoiled; but this was better than having an actor hurt.</p>
+
+<p>Alice was sitting on the farmhouse porch one afternoon, waiting for
+Estelle and Ruth to come down, for they were going for a walk together,
+not being needed in the films. Estelle had been taken into companionship
+by the two girls, who found her a very charming companion, though little
+disposed to talk about herself.</p>
+
+<p>Alice, who was reading a motion picture magazine, was startled by
+hearing a voice saying, almost in her ear:</p>
+
+<p>"Is Miss Brown in?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" and Alice looked up to see Maurice Whitlow smirking at her. He had
+tiptoed up on the porch and was standing very close to her. She had
+never been introduced to him, but that is not absolutely insisted on in
+moving picture circles, particularly when a company is on "location."</p>
+
+<p>"Is Miss Brown in?" repeated Whitlow.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know, I'm sure," replied Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, well, I'll wait and find out. I'll sit down here by you and wait,"
+went on the young man, drawing a chair so close to that of Alice that it
+touched. "Fine day, isn't it? I say! you did that bit of acting very
+cleverly to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"Did I?" and Alice went on reading.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I had a little bit myself. I carried a message from the field
+headquarters to the rear&mdash;after more ammunition, you know. Did you
+notice me riding?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did not."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I saw you, all right. If Miss Brown isn't home, do you want to go
+over to the village with me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not!" and Alice was very emphatic.</p>
+
+<p>"Then for a row on the lake?"</p>
+
+<p>"No!"</p>
+
+<p>"You look as though you would enjoy canoeing," went on the persistent
+Whitlow. "You have a very strong little hand&mdash;very pretty!" and he
+boldly reached up and removed Alice's fingers from the edge of the
+magazine. "A very pretty little hand&mdash;yes!" and he sighed foolishly.</p>
+
+<p>"How dare you!" cried Alice, indignantly. "If you don't&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"See how you like that pretty bit of grass down there!" exclaimed a
+sharp voice behind Alice, and the next moment Mr. Maurice Whitlow,
+eye-glasses, lavender tie, socks and all, went sailing over the porch
+railing, to land in a sprawling heap on the sod below.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<h3>ESTELLE'S LEAP</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Oh!" murmured Alice, shrinking down in her chair. "Oh&mdash;my!"</p>
+
+<p>She gave a hasty glance over her shoulder, to behold Paul Ardite
+standing back of her chair, an angry look on his face. Then Alice looked
+at the sprawling form of the extra player. He was getting up with a
+dazed expression on his countenance.</p>
+
+<p>"What&mdash;what does this mean?" he gasped, striving to make his tones
+indignant. But it is hard for dignity to assert itself when one is on
+one's hands and knees in the grass, conscious that there is a big grass
+stain on one's white cuff, and with one's clothing generally
+disarranged. "What does this mean? I demand an explanation," came from
+Mr. Maurice Whitlow.</p>
+
+<p>"You know well enough what it means!" snapped Paul. "If you don't, why,
+come back here and try it over again and I'll give you another
+demonstration!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, don't, Paul&mdash;please!" pleaded Alice in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>"There's no danger. He won't come," was the confident reply.</p>
+
+<p>By this time Whitlow had picked himself up and was brushing his
+garments. He settled his collar, straightened his lavender tie and wet
+his lips as though about to speak.</p>
+
+<p>"You&mdash;you&mdash;I&mdash;&mdash;" he began. "I don't see what right you had to&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"That'll do now!" interrupted Paul, sternly. "It's of no use to go into
+explanations. You know as well as I do what you were doing and why I
+pitched you over the railing. I'll do it again if you want me to, but
+twice as hard. And if I catch you here again, annoying any of the ladies
+of this company, I'll report you to the director. Now skip&mdash;and stay
+skipped!" concluded Paul significantly. "Perhaps you can't read that
+notice?" and he pointed to one recently posted on the main gateway
+leading to the big farmhouse. It was to the effect that none of the
+extra players were allowed admission to the grounds without a permit
+from the director.</p>
+
+<p>"Huh! I'm as good an actor as you, any day!" sneered Whitlow, as he
+limped down the walk.</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe. But you can't get over with it&mdash;here!" said Paul significantly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The notice had been posted because so many of the cowboys and girls had
+fairly overrun the precincts of Mr. Apgar's home. He and his family had
+no privacy at all, and while they did not mind the regular members of
+Mr. Pertell's company, with whom they were acquainted, they did not want
+the hundreds of extra men, soldiers, cowboys and horsewomen running all
+over the place.</p>
+
+<p>So the rule had been adopted, and it was observed good-naturedly by
+those to whom it applied. Whitlow must have considered himself above it.</p>
+
+<p>"Did he annoy you much, Alice?" asked Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"Not so very. He was just what you might call&mdash;fresh. He asked for Miss
+Brown, and when she wasn't here to snub him he turned the task over to
+me. Ugh!" and Alice began to scrub vigorously with her handkerchief the
+fingers which Whitlow had grasped. "I'm sorry you had that trouble with
+him, Paul," she went on. "But really&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"It was no trouble&mdash;it was a pleasure!" laughed Paul. "I'd like to do it
+over again if it were not for annoying you. I happened to come up behind
+and heard what he was saying. So I just pitched into him. I don't
+believe he'll come back. He'll be too much afraid of losing the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> work.
+Mr. Pertell has had a great many applications from players out of work
+who want to be taken on as extras, and he can have his pick. So those
+that don't obey the regulations will get short notice. You won't be
+troubled with him again."</p>
+
+<p>And Alice was not, nor was Miss Brown. That is, as regards the extra
+player's trespassing on the grounds about the farmhouse. But he was of
+the kind that is persistent, and on several occasions, when the duties
+of the girls brought them near to where Whitlow was acting, he smiled
+and smirked at them.</p>
+
+<p>Alice wished to tell Paul about it and have him administer another and
+more severe chastisement to Whitlow, but Ruth and Estelle persuaded the
+impulsive one to forego doing so.</p>
+
+<p>"I can look after myself, thank you, Alice dear," Estelle said. "Now
+that I don't have to board in the bungalow with him it is easier."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't make a scene," advised Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but I just can't bear to have him look at me," Alice said.</p>
+
+<p>Several of the scenes in the principal drama had been made, but most of
+the largest ones, those of the battles, of Alice's spy work, and of
+Ruth's nursing, were yet to come.</p>
+
+<p>The making of a big moving picture is the work not of days, but of
+weeks, and often of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> months. If every scene took place in a studio,
+where artificial lights could be used, the filming could go on every day
+the actors were on hand, or whenever the director felt like working them
+and the camera men. Often in a studio, even, the director will be
+notional&mdash;"temperamental," he might call it&mdash;and let a day go by, and
+again the glare of the powerful lights may so affect the eyes of the
+players that they have to rest, and so time is lost in that way.</p>
+
+<p>But the time lost in a studio is as nothing compared to the time lost in
+filming the big outdoor scenes. There the sun is a big factor, for a
+brilliant light is needed to take pictures of galloping horses, swiftly
+moving automobiles and locomotives, and every cloudy day means a loss of
+time. For this reason many of the big film companies maintain studios in
+California, where there are many days of sunshine. They can take
+"outdoor stuff" almost any time after the sun is up.</p>
+
+<p>But at Oak Farm there were times when everything would be in readiness
+for a big scene, the camera men waiting, the players ready to dash into
+their parts, and then clouds would form, or it would rain, and there
+would be a postponement. But it was part of the game, and as the
+salaries of the players went on whether they worked or not, they did not
+complain.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>One morning Alice, on going into Estelle's room, found her busy
+"padding" herself before she put on her outer garments.</p>
+
+<p>"What in the world are you doing?" Alice asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Getting ready for my big jump," was the answer.</p>
+
+<p>"Your big jump?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you know there is a scene where I carry a message from
+headquarters to one of the Union generals at the front. Your father
+plays the latter part."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, now I remember. And Daddy is sure no one can do quite as well
+as he can in the tent scene, where he salutes you and takes the message
+you have brought through with such peril."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that's nice. Well, I'm to ride along and be pursued by some
+Confederate guerrillas. It's a race, and I decide to take a short cut,
+not knowing the Confederates have burned the bridge. I have to leap my
+horse down an embankment and ford the stream. I'm getting ready for the
+jump now&mdash;that's why I'm padding myself. For Petro&mdash;that's my
+horse&mdash;might slip or stumble in jumping down that embankment, and I want
+to be ready to roll out of the way. It's much more comfortable to roll
+in a padded suit&mdash;like a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> football player's&mdash;than in your ordinary
+clothes. Your friend, Russ Dalwood, told me to do this, and I think it
+is a good idea."</p>
+
+<p>"It's sure to be if Russ told you, isn't it, Ruth?" asked Alice, with a
+mischievous look at her sister, who had just come in.</p>
+
+<p>"How should I know?" was the cool response. "I suppose Mr. Dalwood knows
+what he is doing, though."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how very formal we are all of a sudden," mocked Alice. "You two
+haven't quarreled, have you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Silly," returned Ruth, blushing.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you really going to jump your horse down a cliff?" asked Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"I really am," was the smiling answer. "There is to be no fake about
+this. But really there is little danger. I am so used to horses."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and I marvel at you," put in Ruth. "Where did you learn it all?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. It seems to come natural to me."</p>
+
+<p>"You must have lived on a ranch a long time," ventured Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Did I? Well, perhaps I did. Say, lace this up the back for me, that's a
+dear," and she turned around so that Alice or Ruth could fasten a
+corset-like pad that covered a large part of her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> body. It would not
+show under her dress, but would be a protection in case of a fall.</p>
+
+<p>Alice and Ruth were so greatly interested in the coming perilous leap of
+Estelle's that they did not pursue their inquiries about her life on a
+ranch, though Alice casually remarked that it was strange she did not
+speak more about it.</p>
+
+<p>The two DeVere girls had no part in this one scene, and they went to
+watch it, safely out of range of the cameras. For there were to be two
+snapping this jump, to avoid the necessity of a retake in case one film
+failed.</p>
+
+<p>"All ready now!" called Mr. Pertell, when there had been several
+rehearsals up to the actual point of making the jump. Estelle had raced
+out of the woods bearing the message. The Confederate guerrillas had
+pursued her, and she had found the bridge burned&mdash;one built for the
+purpose and set fire to.</p>
+
+<p>"All ready for the jump?" asked the director.</p>
+
+<p>"All ready," Estelle answered, looking to saddle girths and stirrups.</p>
+
+<p>"Then come on!" yelled the director through his megaphone.</p>
+
+<p>Estelle urged her horse forward. With shouts and yells, which, of
+course, had no part in the picture, yet which served to aid them in
+their acting, the players who were portraying the Con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>federates came
+after her, spurring their horses and firing wildly. On and on rushed the
+steed bearing the daring girl rider.</p>
+
+<p>She reached the place of the burned bridge, halted a moment, made a
+gesture of despair, and then raced for the bank, down which she would
+leap her horse to the ford.</p>
+
+<p>"Come on! Come on!" yelled Mr. Pertell. "That's fine! Come on! You men
+there put a little more pep in your riding. Turn and fire at them, Miss
+Brown! Fire one shot, and one of you men reel in his saddle. That's the
+idea!"</p>
+
+<p>Estelle had quickly turned and fired, and one man had most realistically
+showed that he was hit, afterward slumping from his seat.</p>
+
+<p>Now the girl was at the edge of the bank. She was to make a flying jump
+over its edge and come down in the soft sand, sliding to the bottom&mdash;in
+the saddle if she could keep her seat, rolling over and over if,
+perchance, she left it.</p>
+
+<p>"That's the idea! Get every bit of that, Russ! That's fine!" yelled Mr.
+Pertell.</p>
+
+<p>"There she goes!" cried Alice, grasping her sister's arm, and as she
+spoke Estelle spurred her horse and it leaped full and fair over the
+edge of the embankment. Estelle had made her big jump. Would she come
+safely out of it?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>A MASSED ATTACK</h3>
+
+
+<p>While Russ Dalwood and his helper were grinding their cameras, reeling
+away at the film on which was being impressed the shifting vision of
+Estelle Brown taking her hazardous leap, Alice, Ruth, and the others
+were watching to see how the daring young horsewoman would come out of
+it.</p>
+
+<p>"She's going to land in a minute!" exclaimed Miss Dixon.</p>
+
+<p>"In a minute? In a half second!" cried Alice. "But don't talk!"</p>
+
+<p>"There&mdash;she's fallen!" gasped Miss Pennington.</p>
+
+<p>With his feet gathered under him, Petro had come down straight on the
+sliding, shifting sand of the embankment. For a moment it looked as
+though he had stumbled and that Estelle would be thrown.</p>
+
+<p>But she held a firm rein, and leaned far back in the saddle. The horse
+stiffened and then, keep<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>ing upright with his forelegs straight out in
+front of him and his hind ones bunched under him, he began to slide.</p>
+
+<p>Down the embankment he slid, as the Italian cavalrymen sometimes ride
+their horses, with Estelle firm in the saddle. And, as a matter of fact,
+the girl said afterward it was from having seen some moving pictures of
+these Italian army riders that she got the idea of doing as she did.</p>
+
+<p>"She won't fall!" murmured Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'm so glad! The picture will be a success, won't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should think so," Paul said. "It certainly was a daring ride."</p>
+
+<p>"I wouldn't mind doing it if I had her horse," put in Maurice Whitlow,
+smirking at the girls. "I think you could do that, Miss DeVere," and he
+looked at Alice.</p>
+
+<p>She turned away with only a murmured reply, but, nothing daunted, the
+"pest" went on:</p>
+
+<p>"Estelle is certainly a fine rider. I think she must have been a cowgirl
+on a ranch at one time, though she won't admit it."</p>
+
+<p>"She wouldn't to you, at any rate," said Paul, significantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, if you don't know it's of no use to tell you. Look! Now she goes
+into the water!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The action called for the halting at the top of the embankment of the
+Confederate riders, who dared not make the jump. They fired some futile
+shots at Estelle, then rode around to a less dangerous descent to try to
+catch her. But Estelle was to ford the stream and continue on to the
+Union lines with her message.</p>
+
+<p>Reaching the bottom of the slope, her horse gathered himself together
+for another bit of moving picture work. At the edge of the stream
+another camera man was stationed, for Estelle and her horse were by this
+time too far away from Russ and his helper to make good views possible.</p>
+
+<p>Into the water splashed the girl, urging on her spirited horse, that was
+none the worse for his jump and his long slide.</p>
+
+<p>"Good work! Good work!" cried an assistant director, who was stationed
+near the stream to see that all went according to the scenario. "Keep
+on, Miss Brown!"</p>
+
+<p>Estelle bent low over her horse's neck, to escape possible bullets from
+the Confederate guns, and on and on she raced until she pulled up at the
+tent of "General" DeVere. Here her mission ended, after the father of
+Alice and Ruth, in a dusty uniform of a Union officer, had come out in
+response to the summons from his orderly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Estelle slipped from her saddle, registered exhaustion, saluted and held
+out the paper she had brought through the Confederate lines at such
+risk. Nor was the risk wholly one of the play, for she might have been
+seriously hurt in her perilous leap.</p>
+
+<p>But, fortunately, everything came out properly and a fine series of
+pictures resulted.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm so glad!" Estelle exclaimed, when it was all over, and, divested of
+her padding, she sat in her room with Ruth and Alice. "I want to 'make
+good' in this business, and riding seems to be my forte."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you like it better than anything else?" asked Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I do. And I just love moving pictures, don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed we do," put in Ruth. "But we were never cut out for riders."</p>
+
+<p>"I'd like it!" exclaimed Alice. "I'd like to know how to ride a horse as
+well as you do."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll show you," offered Estelle. "I'll be very glad to, and it's easy.
+It's like swimming&mdash;all you need is confidence, and to learn not to be
+afraid of your horse but to trust him. Let me show you some day."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe I will!" decided Alice, with flashing eyes. "It will be
+great."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Better ask father," suggested Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, he'll let me, I know. We've ridden some, you know; but I would like
+to ride as well as Estelle," and Alice and Estelle began to talk over
+their plans for taking and giving riding lessons. In the midst of the
+talk the return of the boy who went daily to the village for mail was
+announced.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I hope my new waist has come!" Alice exclaimed, for she had written
+to her dressmaker to send one by parcel post. There was a package for
+her&mdash;the one she expected&mdash;and also some letters, as well as one for
+Ruth. Estelle showed no interest when the distribution of the mail was
+going on.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you expect anything?" asked Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"Any what?"</p>
+
+<p>"Letters."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, no, I don't believe I do," was the slowly given answer. "I don't
+write any, so I don't get any, I suppose," and both girls noticed that
+there was a far-away look in Estelle's eyes. Perhaps it was a wistful
+look, for surely all girls like to get letters from some one.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe she is estranged from her family," decided Alice to her
+sister afterward. "Did you see how pathetic she looked when we got
+letters and she didn't?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well, I didn't notice anything special," Ruth replied. "But there is
+something queer about her, I must admit. She is so absent-minded at
+times. This morning I asked her if she wanted to go for a walk, and she
+said she had no ticket."</p>
+
+<p>"No ticket?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that's what she said. And when I laughed and told her one didn't
+need a ticket to walk around Oak Farm, she sort of 'came to' and said
+she was thinking about a boat."</p>
+
+<p>"A boat&mdash;what boat?"</p>
+
+<p>"That was all she said. Then she began to talk about something else."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know what I think?" asked Alice, suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>"No. But then you think so many things it isn't any wonder I can't keep
+track of them."</p>
+
+<p>"I think, as I believe I've said before, that she has run away from some
+ranch to be in moving pictures. That's why she doesn't write or receive
+letters. She doesn't want her folks to know where she is."</p>
+
+<p>"I can hardly believe that," declared Ruth. "She is too nice and refined
+a girl to have done anything like that. No, I just think she is a bit
+queer, that is all. But certainly she doesn't tell much about herself."</p>
+
+<p>However, further speculation regarding Estelle<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> Brown was cut short, as
+orders came for the appearance of nearly the entire company in one of
+the plays.</p>
+
+<p>The first scene was to take place in a Southern town, and for the
+purpose a street had been constructed by Pop Snooks and his helpers.
+There was a stately mansion, smaller houses, a store or two and some
+other buildings. True, the buildings were but shells, and, in some
+cases, only fronts, but they showed well in the picture.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth, Alice, and a number of the girls and women and men were to be the
+inhabitants of this village, and were to take part in an alarm and flee
+the place when it was known that the Confederate forces were being
+driven back and through the place by the Unionists.</p>
+
+<p>"Come on&mdash;get dressed!" cried Alice, and soon she, her sister, Estelle
+and the other women were donning their Southern costumes, wide skirts,
+with hoops to puff them out, and broad-brimmed hats, under which curls
+showed.</p>
+
+<p>There was to be a massed attack by the Unionists on the town, through
+which the Confederates were to flee, and it was the part of Ruth and
+Alice to rush from their father's "mansion" bearing a few of their
+choice possessions.</p>
+
+<p>All was in readiness. The Southern defenders were on the outskirts of
+the town, drawn up to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> receive the Unionists. Toward these Confederates,
+their enemies came riding. This was filmed separately, while other
+camera men, in the made street, took pictures of the activities there.
+Men, women and children went in and out of the houses. Though, as Mr.
+Belix Apgar said, "If you call them houses you might as well call the
+smell of an onion a dinner. There ain't nothin' to 'em!"</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly an excited rider dashed into the midst of the peaceful
+activities of the Southern town.</p>
+
+<p>"They're coming! They're coming!" he cried, waving his hat. "The Yankees
+are coming!" This would be flashed on the screen.</p>
+
+<p>Then ensued a wild scene. Colored mammies rushed here and there seeking
+their charges. Men began to look to their arms. Then came the advance
+guard of the retreating Confederates, turning back to fire at their
+enemies.</p>
+
+<p>"Come on now, Ruth&mdash;Alice! This is where we make our rush&mdash;just as the
+first of the Union soldiers appear!" called Paul, who was acting the
+part of a Southern youth. "Grab up your stuff and come on!"</p>
+
+<p>Ruth was to carry a bandbox and a case supposed to contain the family
+jewels. Alice, who played the part this time of a frivolous young woman,
+was to save her pet cat.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Here they come!" yelled Paul, as the first of the Unionists came into
+view at the head of the street. "Hurry, girls!"</p>
+
+<p>Out they rushed, down the steps of the mansion, fleeing before the
+mounted Union soldiers, who laughed and jeered, firing at the
+Confederates, who were retreating.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth and Estelle, with some of the other women, were in the lead. Alice
+had lingered behind, for the cat showed a disposition to wiggle out of
+her arms, and she wanted to keep it to make an effective picture.</p>
+
+<p>Finally the creature did make its escape, but Alice was not going to
+give up so easily. She started in pursuit, and then one of the Union
+soldiers, Maurice Whitlow, spurred his horse forward. He wanted to get
+in the foreground of the picture and took this chance.</p>
+
+<p>"Get back where you belong!" yelled the director angrily. "Who told you
+to get in the spotlight? Get back!"</p>
+
+<p>But it was too late. Alice, in pursuit of the cat, was running straight
+toward Whitlow's horse, and the next moment she slipped and went down,
+almost under the feet of the prancing animal.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<h3>MISS DIXON'S LOSS</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Look out!" shouted Paul, and, dropping what he was carrying, he made a
+leap toward the animal Whitlow was riding.</p>
+
+<p>"Roll out of the way of his feet!" cried the director.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I keep on with the film?" asked the camera man, for his duty was
+to turn until told to stop, no matter what happened.</p>
+
+<p>"Let it run!" Alice cried. "I can get out of the way. Don't stop on my
+account!"</p>
+
+<p>She had been in motion pictures long enough to know what it meant to
+spoil a hundred feet or more of film in a spirited picture,
+necessitating a retake. She had seen her danger, and had done her best
+to get out of harm's way.</p>
+
+<p>The cat had leaped into some bushes and was out of sight.</p>
+
+<p>Whitlow, his face showing his fear and his inability to act in this
+emergency, had instinctively drawn back on the reins. But it was to the
+intel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>ligent horse itself, rather than to the rider, that Alice owed her
+immunity from harm. For the horse reared, and came down with feet well
+to one side of the crouching girl, who had partly risen to her knees.</p>
+
+<p>At the same moment Paul sprang for the steed's bridle and swerved him to
+one side. Then, seeing that Alice was practically out of danger, Paul's
+rage at the carelessness of Whitlow rose, and he reached up and fairly
+dragged that young man out of the saddle.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't know enough to lead a horse to water, let alone ride one in a
+movie battle scene!" he cried, as he pushed the player to one side. "Why
+don't you look where you're going?"</p>
+
+<p>Whitlow was too shaken and startled to reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Go on. Help her up and keep on with the retreat!" cried the director.
+"That's one of the best scenes of the picture. Couldn't have been better
+if we had rehearsed it. Never mind the cat, Miss DeVere. Run on. Paul,
+you land a couple of blows on Whitlow and then follow Alice. Hold back,
+there&mdash;you Union men&mdash;until we get this bit of by-play."</p>
+
+<p>Paul, nothing loath, gave Whitlow two hard blows, and the latter dared
+not return them for fear of spoiling the picture, but he muttered in
+rage.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Then Paul, shaking his fist at the Unionists, hurried on after Alice,
+and the retreat continued. What had threatened to be a disaster, or at
+least a spoiling of the scene, had turned out well. It is often so in
+moving pictures.</p>
+
+<p>In the remainder of the scene the girls had little part. They had been
+driven from their home, and, presumably, were taken in by friends. The
+rest of the scenes showed the Union soldiers making merry in the
+Southern town they had captured.</p>
+
+<p>"My! That was a narrow escape you had!" exclaimed Ruth, when she and her
+sister were at liberty to return to the farmhouse. "Were you hurt?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; I strained one arm just a little. But it will make a good scene, so
+Russ said."</p>
+
+<p>"Too good&mdash;too realistic!" declared Paul. "When I get a chance at that
+Whitlow&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Please don't do anything!" begged Alice. "It wasn't really his fault.
+If I hadn't had the cat&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"It was his fault for pushing himself to the front the way he did," said
+the young actor. "Only the best riders were picked to lead the charge.
+He might have known he couldn't control his horse in an emergency.
+That's where he was at fault."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"He is a poor rider," commented Estelle. "But you showed rare good
+sense, Alice, in acting as you did. A horse will not step on a person if
+he can possibly avoid it. Mr. Whitlow's horse was better than he was."</p>
+
+<p>"Just the same, I got in two good punches!" chuckled Paul, "and he
+didn't dare hit back."</p>
+
+<p>"He may make trouble for you later," Alice said.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'm not worrying about that. I'm satisfied."</p>
+
+<p>There was a spirited battle scene later in the day between the Union and
+Confederate forces; the latter endeavoring to retake the village.</p>
+
+<p>A Confederate battery in a distant town was sent for, and the Union
+position was shelled. But as by this time the Union cannon had come up
+and were entrenched in the town, an artillery duel ensued.</p>
+
+<p>Views were shown of the Union guns being manned by the men, who wore
+bloody cloths around their foreheads and who worked hard serving the
+cannon. Real powder was used, but no balls, of course, and now and then
+a man would fall dead at his gun.</p>
+
+<p>Similar views with another camera were taken of the Confederate guns and
+the scenes alternated on the screen afterward, creating a big
+sensation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Then came an attack of the Confederate infantry under cover of the
+Southern battery. This was spirited, detachments of men rushing forward,
+firing and then seeking what cover they could. At times a man would roll
+over, his gun dropping, sometimes several would drop at the same time.
+These were those who were detailed to be shot.</p>
+
+<p>The Unionists replied with a counter charge, and for a time the battle
+waged fiercely on both sides. Then came a lull in the fighting, with the
+Confederates ready to make a last charge in a desperate attempt to
+recapture the town.</p>
+
+<p>"I know what would make a good scene," said Maurice Whitlow, during the
+lull when fresh films were being loaded into the cameras. "If we had an
+airship now some of us Union fellows could go for reinforcements in
+that. It would make a dandy scene."</p>
+
+<p>"An airship!" cried Russ. "Say! remember that these scenes are supposed
+to have taken place in 1863. The only airships then were those the
+inventors were dreaming about or making in their laboratories. No
+airships in Civil War plays! I guess not! Balloons, maybe, but no
+airships."</p>
+
+<p>"More fighting! Camera!" called Mr. Pertell, and again the spirited
+action was under way. Cannon boomed; rifles spat fire and smoke; men<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>
+fought hand to hand, often rolling over dead; riderless horses dashed
+here and there. Now and then a man would narrowly escape being run down.
+As it was, several were burned from being too near the cannon or the
+guns, and one man's leg was broken in a fall from his horse.</p>
+
+<p>But it was part of the game, and no one seemed to mind. A real hospital
+was set up at Oak Farm, not a mere shell of a building, and here the
+injured, as well as those who simulated injury, were attended.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth and some of the women made up as nurses, though this was not the
+big scene in which Ruth and Alice were to take part.</p>
+
+<p>"Confederates retreat!" directed Mr. Pertell, and the Southern forces,
+having been defeated, were forced to withdraw. Their attempt to
+recapture their town had failed.</p>
+
+<p>"Whew! that was hot work!" cried Paul, as he came back to the farmhouse,
+having played his part as a Confederate soldier.</p>
+
+<p>"It certainly was," agreed Mr. DeVere, who had been the directing Union
+General. Now that the "war" was over Northerners and Southerners mingled
+together in friendly converse, their differences forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>"I just can't bear the smell of powder!" complained Miss Dixon. "I wish
+I had my salts."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I'll get them for you, dear," offered Miss Pennington. "I'm going up to
+our rooms." The former vaudeville actresses, with Ruth, Alice, and some
+of the others, were resting on the farmhouse porch.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Dixon smelled the salts and declared she felt much better.</p>
+
+<p>"There's to be a dance in the village to-night," Paul remarked at the
+supper table.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's go!" proposed Alice. "Will you take me, Paul?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I will."</p>
+
+<p>"May I have the pleasure?" asked Russ, of Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes, if the rest go."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll all go!" chimed in Miss Dixon. "Some of the extra men are good
+dancers. They proved it in the ballroom scene the other day. We can get
+a man, Pearl."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, my dear, just as you say."</p>
+
+<p>The little party was soon arranged.</p>
+
+<p>"Estelle might like to go," suggested Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll go to ask her," offered Ruth, for Miss Brown had quit the supper
+table early and gone to her room.</p>
+
+<p>As Ruth mounted the stairs she heard Miss Dixon and Miss Pennington
+talking in the hall outside their rooms.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I can't see where it can be," Miss Dixon was saying.</p>
+
+<p>"It was on your dresser when I went up for the salts," said her chum.
+"Are you sure you didn't take it after that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Positive! It's gone&mdash;that's all there is to it."</p>
+
+<p>"What's gone?" asked Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"One of my rings," was Miss Dixon's answer. "I left it on my dresser and
+my door was open. It was there when I went down to supper, and we were
+all at the table together&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Except Estelle Brown!" said Miss Pennington quickly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<h3>LIEUTENANT VARLEY</h3>
+
+
+<p>For a moment Ruth stood looking with wide-open eyes at the two former
+vaudeville actresses. On their part they stared boldly at Ruth, and then
+Miss Dixon turned and slightly winked at Miss Pennington.</p>
+
+<p>"That was one of your valuable rings, wasn't it, dear?" asked Miss
+Pennington, in deliberate tones.</p>
+
+<p>"It certainly was&mdash;the best diamond I had. I simply won't let it be
+lost&mdash;or taken. I'm going to have it back!"</p>
+
+<p>She spoke in a loud tone, and the door of Estelle's room, farther down
+the hall, opened. Estelle looked out. She was in neglig&eacute;e, and she
+seemed to be suffering.</p>
+
+<p>"Has anything happened?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," answered Miss Dixon. "Something has happened. Some one has stolen
+my diamond ring!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" gasped Ruth, "you shouldn't say that!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Say what?"</p>
+
+<p>"Stolen. It's such a&mdash;such a harsh word."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I feel harsh just now. I'm not going to lose that ring. It was on
+my dresser when I went down to supper, and now it's gone. It was
+stolen&mdash;or taken, if you like that word better. Perhaps you want me to
+say it was&mdash;borrowed?" and she looked scornfully at Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"It may have slipped down behind your dresser."</p>
+
+<p>"I've looked," said Miss Pennington. "You came up here from the table
+before we did," she went on, addressing Estelle. "Did you see anything
+of any one in Miss Dixon's room?"</p>
+
+<p>"I? No, I saw no one." Estelle was plainly taken by surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you go in yourself," asked Miss Dixon <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'bruskly'">brusquely</ins>. "Come, I don't
+mind a joke&mdash;if it was a joke&mdash;but give me back my ring. I'm going into
+town, and I want to wear it."</p>
+
+<p>"A joke! Give you back your ring! Why, what do you mean?" and Estelle,
+her face flashing her indignation, stepped out into the hall.</p>
+
+<p>"I mean you might have borrowed it," went on Miss Dixon, not a whit
+daunted. "Oh, it isn't anything. I've often done the same thing myself
+when we've been playing on circuit. It's all right&mdash;if you give things
+back."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But I haven't taken anything of yours!" cried Estelle. "I never went
+into your room!"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps you have forgotten about it," suggested Miss Pennington coldly.
+"You seem to have a headache, and sometimes those headache remedies are
+so strong&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I am tired, but I have no headache," said Estelle simply, "nor have I
+taken any strong headache remedies, as you seem to suggest. I haven't
+been walking in my sleep, either. And I certainly was not in your room,
+Miss Dixon, nor do I know anything about your ring," and with that she
+turned and entered her room, whence, presently, came the sound of
+sobbing.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Ruth stood still, looking at the two rather flashy
+actresses, and wondering if they really meant what they had insinuated.
+Then Alice's voice was heard calling:</p>
+
+<p>"I say, Ruth, are you and Estelle coming? The boys have the auto and
+they'll take us in. Come on."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth did not answer, and Alice came running up the stairs. She came to a
+halt as she saw the trio standing in the hall.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, for the love of trading stamps! what's it all about?" she asked.
+"Are you posing for Faith, Hope and Charity?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly not Charity," murmured Ruth.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And I certainly have lost what little faith I had, though I hope I do
+get my ring back," sneered Miss Dixon.</p>
+
+<p>"Your ring? What's the matter?" asked Alice. "Have you lost something?"</p>
+
+<p>"My diamond ring was taken off my dresser," said the actress.</p>
+
+<p>"And that Estelle Brown was up here ahead of us, and all alone," said
+Miss Pennington. "She may have borrowed it and forgotten to return it."</p>
+
+<p>"That's what one gets for leaving one's valuable diamond rings around
+where these extra players are allowed to have free access," sneered Miss
+Dixon.</p>
+
+<p>"You mean that little chip diamond ring of yours with the red garnets
+around it?" asked Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't a chip diamond at all!" fired back Miss Dixon. "It was a
+valuable ring."</p>
+
+<p>"Comparatively, perhaps, yes," and Alice's voice was coolly sneering,
+though she rarely allowed herself this privilege. "I'm sorry it is
+lost&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you say taken?" asked Miss Pennington.</p>
+
+<p>"Because I don't believe it was," snapped Alice. "Either you forgot
+where you laid it or it has dropped behind something. As for thinking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>
+Estelle Brown even borrowed it, that's all nonsense! I don't believe a
+word of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor I!" exclaimed Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you speak to her about it?" asked Alice, and then as the sound of
+sobbing came from Estelle's room she burst out with:</p>
+
+<p>"You horrid things! I believe you did! Shame on you!" and she hurried to
+the closed door.</p>
+
+<p>"It is I&mdash;Alice," she whispered. "Let me in. It's all a terrible
+mistake. Don't let it affect you so, Estelle dear!"</p>
+
+<p>Then Alice opened the unlocked door and went in. Ruth paused for a
+moment to say:</p>
+
+<p>"I think you have made a terrible mistake, Miss Dixon," and then she
+followed her sister to comfort the crying girl.</p>
+
+<p>"Humph! Mistake!" sneered Miss Dixon.</p>
+
+<p>"That's what we get for mixing in with amateurs," added her chum. "Come
+on, we'll speak to Mr. Pertell about it."</p>
+
+<p>But, for some reason or other, the director was not told directly of the
+loss of the ring, nor was Estelle openly accused. She felt as badly,
+though, as if she had been, even when Ruth and Alice tried to comfort
+her.</p>
+
+<p>Estelle had left the table early, but though she had passed Miss Dixon's
+room, she said she had seen no one about.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Don't mind about the old ring!" said Alice. "It wasn't worth five
+dollars."</p>
+
+<p>"But that I should be accused of taking even five dollars!"</p>
+
+<p>"You're not!" said Ruth, quickly. "They don't dare make an open
+accusation. I wouldn't be surprised if Miss Dixon found she had lost her
+ring and she's ashamed to acknowledge it."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but it is dreadful to be suspected!" sighed Estelle.</p>
+
+<p>"You're not&mdash;no one in his senses would think of even dreaming you took
+so much as a pin!" cried Alice. "It's positively silly! I wouldn't make
+such a fuss over such a cheap ring."</p>
+
+<p>But Miss Dixon did make a "fuss," inasmuch as she talked often about her
+loss, though she still made no direct accusation against Estelle. But
+Miss Dixon and her chum made life miserable for the daring horsewoman.
+They often spoke in her presence of extra players who did not know their
+places, and made sneering references to locking up their valuables.</p>
+
+<p>At times Estelle was so miserable that she threatened to leave, but Ruth
+and Alice would not hear of it and offered to lay the whole matter
+before Mr. Pertell and have him settle it by demanding that the loser of
+the ring either make a direct accusation or else keep quiet about her
+loss.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Mr. DeVere, who was appealed to by his daughters, voted against this,
+however.</p>
+
+<p>"It is best not to pay any attention to those young ladies," he advised.
+"The friends of Estelle know she would not do such a thing, and no one
+takes either Miss Dixon or Miss Pennington very seriously&mdash;not half as
+seriously as they take themselves. It will all blow over."</p>
+
+<p>There were big times ahead for the moving picture girls and their
+friends. Some of the most important battle scenes were soon to be
+filmed, those that had already been taken having been skirmishes.</p>
+
+<p>"I have succeeded in getting two regiments of the state militia to take
+part in a sham battle for our big play," said Mr. Pertell one day. "They
+are to come to this part of the country for their annual manoeuvers
+under the supervision of the regular army officers, and by paying their
+expenses I can have them here for a couple of days.</p>
+
+<p>"They will come with their horses, tents, and everything, so we shall
+have some real war scenes&mdash;that is, as real as can be had with blank
+cartridges. It will be a great thing for my film."</p>
+
+<p>"And will they work in with our players?" asked Mr. DeVere.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, indeed! I intend to use your daughters in the spy and hospital
+scenes, and you as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> one of the generals. In fact, Mr. <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Devere'">DeVere</ins>, I depend
+on you to coach the militia men. For though they know a lot about
+military matters, they do not know how best to pose for the camera. So
+I'll be glad if you will act as a sort of stage manager."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be pleased to," answered the old player. And he was greatly
+delighted at the opportunity.</p>
+
+<p>About a week after Mr. Pertell had mentioned that two regiments of
+militia were coming to Oak Farm, Ruth and Alice awakened one morning to
+see the fields about them dotted with tents and soldiers moving about
+here and there.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, it does look just like a real war camp!" exclaimed Alice, who, in
+a very becoming dressing gown, was at the window. "Oh, isn't it
+thrilling! How dare you?" she exclaimed, drawing hastily back.</p>
+
+<p>"What was it?" asked Ruth from her room.</p>
+
+<p>"One of the officers had the audacity to wave his hand at me."</p>
+
+<p>"You shouldn't have looked out."</p>
+
+<p>"Ha! A pity I can't look out of my own window," and to prove that she
+was well within her rights Alice looked out again, and pretended not to
+see a young man who was standing in the yard below.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There was a bustle of excitement at the breakfast table. All the players
+were eager to know what parts they would have, for this was the biggest
+thing any of them had yet been in&mdash;with two regiments taking the field
+one against the other, with many more cannon and guns than Mr. Pertell
+had hitherto used.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll be able to throw on the screen a real battle scene," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"The only trouble," declared Pop Snooks, "is that their uniforms aren't
+like those of the days of sixty-three." Pop was a stickler for dramatic
+correctness.</p>
+
+<p>"It won't matter," said Mr. Pertell. "The views of the battle will be
+distant ones, and no one will be able to see the kind of uniforms the
+men wear. Those who are close to the camera will wear the <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'property'">proper</ins> Civil
+War uniforms we have on hand. The officers of the Guard have agreed to
+that."</p>
+
+<p>Considerable preparation was necessary before the big film of the battle
+could be taken, and to this end it was necessary to have several
+conferences among the officers and Mr. Pertell and his camera men and
+assistants, including Mr. DeVere. A number of the Guard officers were
+constantly about the farmhouse, arranging the plans.</p>
+
+<p>One afternoon Alice was sitting on the porch<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> with Estelle, waiting
+until it was time for them to take their parts in a side scene of the
+production. A nattily attired young officer came up the walk, doffing
+his cap.</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon," he said. "I am Lieutenant Varley, and I was sent
+here to ask for Mr. Pertell. Perhaps you can tell me where I can find
+him?"</p>
+
+<p>Alice looked and blushed. He was the one who had audaciously waved to
+her beneath her window, but now he showed no sign of recognition. As his
+gaze rested on the face of Estelle Brown, however, he started.</p>
+
+<p>"Excuse me!" he began, "but did you reach your destination safely?"</p>
+
+<p>"My destination!" exclaimed Estelle. "What do you mean? I don't know
+you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps not by name. But are you not the young lady whom I met some
+years ago in Portland, Oregon, inquiring how to get to New York?"</p>
+
+<p>"You are mistaken," said Estelle, and her voice was frigid in tone. "I
+have never been in Portland in my life," and she turned aside.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+<h3>WONDERINGS</h3>
+
+
+<p>For a moment Lieutenant Varley seemed to hesitate, and Alice felt sorry
+for him. He was distinctly not of the type that would try to make an
+acquaintance in this way just because Estelle was a pretty girl. He
+seemed embarrassed and ill at ease. But he was not the sort of young man
+to give up, once he thought he was right, as he obviously did in this
+case. To do so, Alice felt sure he reasoned, would have been to
+acknowledge that he was just the sort he seemingly was not.</p>
+
+<p>"I really beg your pardon," he went on, in a firm but respectful tone.
+"I am sure I have met you before. I do not wonder that you do not
+remember me, but I cannot forget you. Yours isn't a face one easily
+forgets," and he smiled genially, and in a manner to disarm criticism.</p>
+
+<p>"But I never was in Portland," insisted Estelle, and it was plain that
+she was puzzled by his persistence but not offended by it. "And I don't
+remember ever having seen you before."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps if I recall some of the circumstances to you it may bring back
+the memory," suggested the lieutenant. "Believe me, I do not do it out
+of mere idle curiosity, but you seemed in such distress at the time, and
+so uncertain of where you wanted to go, that I really wished after I had
+directed you that I had placed you in charge of the conductor of your
+train."</p>
+
+<p>"But I never was in Portland," said Estelle again, "and though I have
+been in New York, I went there from Boston. Surely you have confused me
+with some one else."</p>
+
+<p>The young officer shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"I couldn't do that," he said with a smile that showed his white, even
+teeth. "It was just about this time three&mdash;no, four years ago. I was in
+Portland on business, and as I entered the railroad station you were
+standing there&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Estelle shook her head, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, for the sake of argument," admitted the lieutenant, "say it was
+some one who looked like you."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," agreed Miss Brown, and she and Alice drew near the porch
+railing, on the other side of which stood the officer with doffed hat.</p>
+
+<p>"A young lady was standing there, and she seemed quite bewildered," went
+on Lieutenant Varley. "I saw that she was in some confusion,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> and asked
+if I could be of any service to her. She said she wanted to get to New
+York, but did not know which train to take. I asked her if she had her
+ticket, and she replied in the negative. I asked her if she wanted to
+buy one, and she said she did, showing a purse well filled with
+bills&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Then surely it could not have been I!" exclaimed Estelle with a merry
+laugh. "I never had a purse well-filled with bills. We moving picture
+players&mdash;at least in my class&mdash;don't go about like millionaires.
+Gracious! I only wish I did have a well-filled purse, don't you, Alice?"</p>
+
+<p>"Surely. But what else happened? I'm interested in the story."</p>
+
+<p>"And I was interested in the young lady," went on the officer. "I bought
+her ticket for her with the money she handed me, and put her on the
+train. She was quite young&mdash;about as old as you"&mdash;and he smiled at
+Estelle, "and I asked her if some one was going to meet her. She said
+she thought so, but was not sure, at any rate she felt that she could
+look after herself. I left her, and meant to speak to the conductor
+about her, but did not have time.</p>
+
+<p>"I have often wondered since whether she arrived safely, and when I saw
+you sitting here I felt that I could ascertain. For I certainly took you
+for that young lady."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry to spoil your romance," said Estelle, "but I am not the one.
+I never was farther West than Chicago, and then only for a little while,
+filling a short engagement in the movies."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I won't insist on your identity," said the lieutenant, "but I'm
+sure I'm not mistaken. However, I won't trouble you further&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it has been no trouble," interrupted Estelle. "I'm sure I hope you
+will find that young lady some day."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so, too," and the lieutenant bowed. But, judging from his face,
+Alice thought, it was plain that he was sure he had already found the
+young lady in question.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment Mr. Pertell came out on the porch and saw the lieutenant.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, I'm glad you are here," observed the manager. "I want to ask you a
+great many things. This staging of sham battles is not as easy as I
+thought it would be."</p>
+
+<p>"We can have the sham battles all right," answered the officer, with a
+smile. "But I can imagine it is not easy to get good moving pictures of
+them. We have to operate over a large area, and we can't always tell
+what the next move will be. Though, of course, for the purpose of making
+views we can ignore military regulations and strain a point or two."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"That's just what I want to talk about," remarked Mr. Pertell. "In the
+attack, for instance, the way the plans have been made the sun is wrong
+for getting good views. Can't we switch the two armies around?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I suppose we can. I'll speak to the colonel about it," and then
+the two went inside, where Mr. Pertell had his office in the parlor of
+the farmhouse.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think of him, Estelle?" asked Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I think he's very nice, but he's altogether wrong about me."</p>
+
+<p>"And yet he seemed so positive."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that is what makes it strange. But I never saw him before&mdash;that
+is, as far as I know; and I'm certain I was never in Portland. He must
+be mistaken, but it was nice of him to admit it. I thought at first he
+was using the old method to get acquainted."</p>
+
+<p>"So did I. But he isn't that kind."</p>
+
+<p>"He doesn't seem to be."</p>
+
+<p>Russ Dalwood came around the corner of the porch with Paul Ardite and
+Hal Watson, a young man lately engaged to play juvenile roles. Hal had
+become very friendly with the little group that circled around Ruth and
+Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"You girls have an hour yet before you go<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> on," Russ informed them. "We
+haven't anything to do until then, either. Want to take a run in to
+town? I've got to call at the express office for some extra film, and
+the auto is ready. Where's Ruth?"</p>
+
+<p>"Up in her room. I'll go for her," offered Alice. "Shall we have time?"</p>
+
+<p>"Plenty. You can even buy yourself some candy&mdash;or let us do it for you,"
+laughed Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll let you do it!" said Estelle, as Alice hastened to summon her
+sister.</p>
+
+<p>"Ruth! Ruth! where are you?" called Alice, as she ran upstairs&mdash;Alice
+seldom walked.</p>
+
+<p>"Here, just reading over my new part. What's the matter?"</p>
+
+<p>"We're going for an auto ride with the boys. Come along. You can study
+in the car."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, a lot of studying I could do under those circumstances. But I'll
+come&mdash;I want a bit of diversion. Who else is going?"</p>
+
+<p>Alice told her, and then spoke about the young lieutenant.</p>
+
+<p>"Wasn't it queer he should be mistaken?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth did not reply for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"Wasn't it?" repeated her sister.</p>
+
+<p>"I was just wondering," said Ruth, slowly. "Was it?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+<h3>AN INTERRUPTION</h3>
+
+
+<p>While Alice was putting on her hat Ruth looked at her in some surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Was it?" she repeated.</p>
+
+<p>"Was what?" asked her sister.</p>
+
+<p>"Was it a mistake?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course it was, Ruth! Didn't I tell you Estelle said he must have
+taken her for some one else, as she had never been in Portland in her
+life? Of course, it was a mistake. What makes you think it wasn't?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because, Alice, I am beginning to have doubts regarding Estelle."</p>
+
+<p>"Doubts! You don't mean about the ring?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not! But I am beginning to think she is not altogether what
+she seems to be."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, nothing serious, of course. And if she has done what I think she
+has it isn't any worse than many girls have done, and have gained by it,
+rather than lost, though it was risky."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"I mean that I believe she isn't telling us all she knows. She is hiding
+something about her past. And I believe it is that she has run away from
+home because her family would not let her go into moving pictures. You
+know we sort of suspected that before. Now, in that case, she would have
+every reason to deny that she had seen that young lieutenant in
+Portland."</p>
+
+<p>"Why should she, providing I grant that you are right?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because he might know her friends and would tell them where she was.
+And she doesn't want that known until she has made a reputation. I don't
+blame her. If ever I ran away&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Ruth! <i>you</i> are not thinking of it, are you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Silly! Of course not. But if I should I wouldn't want to run back home
+until I had something to show for my efforts. It may be that way in
+Estelle's case. She doesn't want to return like the prodigal son."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe you're entirely wrong," declared Alice. "What I think is that
+she perhaps comes of good people. When I say that I don't mean that they
+were any better than we are, but that they so regarded themselves, and
+would look askance at motion picture players. Well, Estelle doesn't want
+to bring any annoyance on her fam<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>ily, and that may be the reason she
+doesn't tell much about herself. But as for that young officer's having
+seen her, I believe Estelle when she says he is mistaken. Don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what to believe," returned Ruth. "But I'm not going to
+worry over it."</p>
+
+<p>"And you won't tell her you don't believe she is what she seems to be?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not, you little goose! But I'm going to keep my eyes open.
+You know we may be able to give her some good advice. You and I, Alice,
+don't meet with near the temptations that assail other girls in this
+business, and it's because father is with us all the while. Now Estelle
+isn't so fortunate; so I propose that we sort of look after her."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'm very willing to do that."</p>
+
+<p>"And if we see anything that is likely to cause her trouble, we must
+shield her from it. That is what I mean by sort of keeping watch over
+her. At the same time, I believe that she is not altogether what she
+seems. She is hiding something from us&mdash;even though we are trying to be
+so kind to her. But she doesn't really mean to do it. She is just
+afraid, I think."</p>
+
+<p>"And you really believe that lieutenant knows her?"</p>
+
+<p>"He may. At least I think, from what you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> said, that he is honest in his
+belief. But we will watch and wait. We must try to help Estelle in the
+hour of trial."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course we will. Now hurry, for they are waiting for us."</p>
+
+<p>"Such a funny thing just happened to me!" cried Estelle to the party of
+young folks when they were in the automobile and on the way to the
+village. "I was mistaken for some one else."</p>
+
+<p>"What&mdash;again?" asked Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"No, the same incident that you witnessed," and she related the episode
+of the lieutenant as Alice had detailed it to Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"That was queer," commented Hal Watson.</p>
+
+<p>"I should say so!" exclaimed Russ.</p>
+
+<p>"Was he at all fresh?" Paul asked, and his air was truculent.</p>
+
+<p>"Not in the least!" Estelle hastened to assure him. "He was honestly
+mistaken about it, that was all," and she enlarged on the incident, and
+seemed so genuinely amused by it that Alice nudged her sister as much as
+to say:</p>
+
+<p>"See how much in error you are."</p>
+
+<p>But Ruth only smiled, and Alice noticed that she regarded Estelle more
+closely than ever.</p>
+
+<p>The party made merry in the town, going into the "Emporium," for
+ice-cream sodas; and even the presence of Maurice Whitlow at the other
+end<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> of the counter, where he was imbibing something through a straw,
+could not daunt Alice's high spirits. Whitlow smiled and smirked in the
+direction of his acquaintances, but he received no invitation to join
+them.</p>
+
+<p>As Estelle was going out in the rear of the party, the extra player slid
+up to her and asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Mayn't I have the pleasure of buying you some more cream?"</p>
+
+<p>"You may not!" exclaimed Estelle, not turning her head, and there were
+snickers from the other patrons in the place. Maurice turned the shade
+of his scarlet tie, and slid out a side door.</p>
+
+<p>"You're getting too popular," chided Alice to her friend. "First it's
+the young lieutenant, and now it's your former admirer."</p>
+
+<p>"I can dispense with the admiration of both!"</p>
+
+<p>"Even the lieutenant?" asked Ruth, meaningly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, he wasn't so bad," and Estelle either was really indifferent, or
+she assumed indifference in a most finished manner that would have done
+credit to a more experienced actress than she was.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter&mdash;are we late?" asked Paul, as, on the way back to Oak
+Farm, he saw Russ look at his watch and then speed up the car a bit.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, a little. Mr. Pertell said he wanted to begin that skirmish scene
+at eleven exactly, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> it's ten minutes to that now. We can just about
+make it. The sun will be in just the right position for making the film.
+It's in a thicket you know, and the light isn't any too good. That's the
+scene you girls are in," he went on.</p>
+
+<p>"Speed along," urged Paul. "I've got to get into my uniform and make up
+a bit."</p>
+
+<p>There is very little "make up" done for moving pictures taken in the
+open, and not as much done for studio work as there is on the regular
+stage. The camera is sharper than any eye, and make-up shows very
+plainly on the screen. Of course, eyes are often darkened and lips
+rouged a bit to make them appear to better advantage. Even the men make
+up a little but not much. For close-up views, though, where the faces
+are more than life size, artistic make-up is very essential. The camera,
+in this case, is a magnifying glass, and the most peach-blow complexion
+would look coarse unless slightly powdered.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll be all right if we don't get a puncture," said Hal.</p>
+
+<p>No sooner were these words out of his mouth than there came a hiss of
+escaping air.</p>
+
+<p>"There she goes!" cried Paul. "Stop, Russ!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, we haven't time. I'm going to keep on. It's better to get in on the
+rims and cut a shoe to ribbons than to spoil the film."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>They sped along in spite of the flat tire. And it was well they did, for
+Mr. Pertell was anxiously waiting for his players when they arrived at
+Oak Farm.</p>
+
+<p>"You cut it pretty fine," was his only comment. "Don't do it again. Now
+get ready for that skirmish scene."</p>
+
+<p>This was one little incident in the big war play. In it Ruth and Alice
+were to be shown driving along a country road. There was to be an alarm,
+and a body of Confederate cavalry was to encounter one of the outposts
+of the Union army. There was to be a skirmish and a fight, and the Union
+men were to be driven off, leaving some dead and wounded. The girls,
+though shocked, were to look after the wounded.</p>
+
+<p>All was in readiness. The soldiers, some drawn from the newly-arrived
+National Guards, were posted in their respective places. Lieutenant
+Varley was to play the part of one of the wounded Unionists.</p>
+
+<p>"All ready&mdash;come on with the carriage!" called Mr. Pertell to Ruth and
+Alice, who were waiting out of range of the camera. They had rehearsed
+the direction they were to take. "Go on!" called the director to Russ.
+"Camera!"</p>
+
+<p>The grinding of the film began, and Ruth and Alice acted their parts as
+they drove along in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> old-fashioned equipage. Suddenly, in front of
+them the bushes crackled.</p>
+
+<p>"There they come!" cried Ruth, pulling back the horses as called for in
+the play. "The soldiers!"</p>
+
+<p>But instead of a band of men in blue breaking out on the road, there
+came a herd of cows, that rushed at the carriage, while the horses
+reared up and began to back.</p>
+
+<p>"Stop the camera! Stop that! Cut that out!" frantically cried Mr.
+Pertell through his megaphone. "Hold back those men!" he added to his
+assistant who had signaled for the Confederates to rush up.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+
+<h3>FORGETFULNESS</h3>
+
+
+<p>Ruth and Alice for the moment were not quite certain whether or not this
+was a part of the scene. Very often the director would spring some
+unexpected effect for the sake of causing a natural surprise that would
+register in the camera better than any simulated one.</p>
+
+<p>But these were real cows, and they did not seem to have rehearsed their
+parts very well, for they rushed here and there and surrounded the
+carriage, to the no small terror of the horses, which Ruth had all she
+could do to hold in.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, what shall we do?" cried Alice. "I'm going to jump out!"</p>
+
+<p>"You'll do nothing of the sort!" exclaimed her sister. "Sit where you
+are! Do you want to be trampled on or pierced with those sharp horns,
+Alice?"</p>
+
+<p>"I certainly do not!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then sit still! This must be a mistake."</p>
+
+<p>It did not take much effort on Ruth's part to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> make Alice remain in the
+carriage with all those cows about. For she had learned on Rocky Ranch
+that while a crowd of steers will pay no attention to a person on a
+horse, once let the same person dismount, and he may be trampled down.</p>
+
+<p>These, of course, were not wild steers&mdash;Alice could see that. But she
+thought the same rule, in a measure, might hold good.</p>
+
+<p>More cows crashed through the bushes until the road was fairly blocked,
+and then came another rush of many feet and the Union skirmish party
+came galloping along. They had received no orders to hold back, and so
+dashed up.</p>
+
+<p>At the same moment a ragged boy with a long whip came rushing up.
+Evidently, he was in charge of the cows, but when he saw the soldiers in
+their uniforms, a look of fear spread over his face.</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't do nothin', Mister Captain! Honest I didn't!" he yelled.
+"These is pap's cows, an' I'm drivin' 'em over to the man he sold 'em
+to. I didn't do nothin'."</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody said you did!" laughed Lieutenant Varley with a bow to Ruth and
+Alice in the carriage. "But why did you drive them in here to spoil the
+picture?"</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't know nothin' about no picture&mdash;honest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> I didn't! I took this
+road because it was shorter. Don't shoot pap's cow-critters. I'll take
+'em away."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that's all we want you to do," said Mr. Pertell, coming up with a
+grim smile. "You nearly got yourself and your cow-critters in trouble,
+my boy. Drive 'em back now, and we'll go on with the film. Did any of
+'em get in, Russ?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Just a few, on the last inch or so of the reel. I can cut that out and
+go on from there. Hold the carriage where it is, Ruth," he called.</p>
+
+<p>"All right," she answered, for she had now quieted the restive horses.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be afraid, boy," said Alice to the lad. "You won't be hurt."</p>
+
+<p>"And won't they hurt pap's cow-critters, neither?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed. It was all a mistake."</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I didn't know there was no war goin' on," remarked the lad, as he
+sent an intelligent dog he had with him after the straying animals. "Me
+an' pap we lives away over yonder on t'other side of the mountain. An'
+we don't never hear no news. I was plum skeered when I seen all them
+ossifers. Thought sure I was ketched, same as I've heard my grandpap
+tell about bein' ketched in the army. He was a soldier with Sherman,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span>
+and I've heard him tell about capturin' cow-critters when they was on
+the march."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, this would be like old times to him, I suppose," said Mr.
+Pertell. "But this is only in fun, my boy&mdash;to make motion pictures. So
+take your cows away and we'll go on with the work. Drive 'em on," and
+the boy did so with a curious, backward look at the girls in the
+carriage, and at the Union soldiers, who were going back to their places
+to get ready anew for the skirmish charge.</p>
+
+<p>"And this time we'll have it without cows," said Mr. Pertell. "They
+might go all right in a film of Sherman's march, but not in this
+skirmish fight. All ready now. Take your places again."</p>
+
+<p>The preliminary advance of the carriage, containing Ruth and Alice had
+been filmed all right. Very little need be cut out. Once the cows were
+beyond the camera range, Russ again began grinding away at the film.</p>
+
+<p>"Now come on&mdash;Union soldiers!" cried the director.</p>
+
+<p>From their waiting place Lieutenant Varley led his men; and as they
+swept on past the carriage, Alice and Ruth registering fear, the
+Confederates rushed out to meet them.</p>
+
+<p>Then began the skirmish. Guns popped. Horses reared, some throwing their
+riders unexpectedly, but this made it all the more realistic.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> Men
+fought hand to hand with swords, using only the flats, of course. Horses
+collided one with another, and the animals seemed to enter into the
+spirit of the conflict fully as much as did the men. There was a rattle
+of rifles, but no cannon were used in this scene.</p>
+
+<p>Russ and his helpers filmed it, and, standing behind them watching the
+mimic fight, was the director, shouting orders through his megaphone
+and, when he could not make himself heard in this way, using a field
+telephone, calling his instructions to helpers stationed out of sight in
+the bushes, where they could relay the commands to those taking part in
+the skirmish.</p>
+
+<p>"A little livelier now!" yelled Mr. Pertell. "Give way, you Union
+fellows, as though you were beaten, and then drive them back to the
+fight, Mr. Varley. That's the way!"</p>
+
+<p>The conflict raged and the cameras clicked away. It was all one to the
+camera men&mdash;a parlor drama or a sanguinary conflict. So long as the
+shutter worked perfectly, as long as the focus was correct and the film
+ran freely, the camera men were satisfied.</p>
+
+<p>"Now you Confederates pretend to be overwhelmed, and then rally with a
+rush and sweep the Unionists out of the thicket!" ordered the director.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>This was done, and, all the while, at one side of the picture crouched
+Ruth and Alice, as two Southern girls. They had leaped from their
+carriage and were waiting the outcome of the conflict, stooping down out
+of the way of flying bullets.</p>
+
+<p>This was a side scene in the war play, and did not involve the main
+story. Ruth and Alice, as did the other main characters, assumed various
+roles at times.</p>
+
+<p>"Come on now! You Unionists are beaten. Retreat!" called the director,
+and Lieutenant Varley's men rode off, leaving him and some others
+injured on the field of the conflict.</p>
+
+<p>It was here that Alice and Ruth took an active part again. Ruth rushed
+up to the fallen lieutenant and felt his pulse. No sooner had she done
+so than the director cried:</p>
+
+<p>"Stop the camera! That won't do, Miss DeVere!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Because you felt his pulse with your thumb. No nurse would do that. The
+pulse in the thumb itself is too strong to allow any one to feel the
+pulse in another's wrist. Use the tips of your first and second fingers.
+Now try again. Ready, Russ!"</p>
+
+<p>This time Ruth did it right. It was character<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>istic of Mr. Pertell to
+notice a little detail like that.</p>
+
+<p>"Not one person in a hundred would object to the pulse being felt with
+the thumb," he explained afterward; "but the hundredth person in the
+audience would be a doctor, and he'd know right away that the director
+was at fault. It is the little things that count."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth and Alice busied themselves ministering to the wounded who were
+made prisoners by the Confederates. The lieutenant was put in their
+carriage and driven away. That ended the scene at the place of the
+skirmish.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well done!" Mr. Pertell told the girls, as they prepared for the
+next act, which was in a room of a Southern house, whither the wounded
+had been carried.</p>
+
+<p>These were busy days at Oak Farm. With the arrival of the two regiments
+of the National Guard, pictures were taken every day, leading up to the
+big battle scene, which had been postponed. When they were not posing
+for the cameras, the guardsmen were drilling in accordance with the
+regulations of the annual state encampment under the direction of the
+regular army officers.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, have you quite recovered from your wounds?" asked Alice of
+Lieutenant Varley one day, as she met him outside the farmhouse.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, thanks to the care of your sister and yourself. By the way, I
+hope your friend Miss Brown is not angry with me."</p>
+
+<p>"Why should she be?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, because I thought I had seen her before."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe she is. I haven't heard her say. But here she comes
+now. You can ask her," and Estelle came around the turn of the path.
+Seeing Alice talking with the lieutenant, she hesitated, but Alice
+called:</p>
+
+<p>"Come on&mdash;we were just speaking about you."</p>
+
+<p>"I wondered why my ears burned," laughed Estelle.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps you two are going somewhere," said the officer, preparing to
+take his leave.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, to no place where you are not welcome," answered Alice, graciously,
+with a side look at her companion to see if Estelle objected. But the
+latter gave no sign, one way or the other.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you!" exclaimed the guardsman. "I have to take part in a little
+scene in about an hour, but I would enjoy a walk in the meanwhile. You
+are both made up, I see?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, we are Southern belles to-day," laughed Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"Belles every day," returned the lieutenant with a bow.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Nicely said!" laughed Estelle. "You are improving!"</p>
+
+<p>She and Alice wore the costumes of generations ago, big bonnets and
+hoopskirts.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's go over and see what they're filming there," suggested Alice,
+pointing to where a crossroads store had been put up.</p>
+
+<p>The scene at the store was one to represent a dispute among some
+Southerners and some Northern sympathizers. It was to end in a fight in
+which one man was to draw his revolver.</p>
+
+<p>All went well up to the quarrel, and then it became too realistic, for,
+by some chance, there was a bullet in the revolver instead of a blank
+cartridge, and it entered the leg of one of the disputants. He fell and
+bled profusely.</p>
+
+<p>"Get Dr. Wherry!" yelled Mr. Pertell.</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Wherry went into the village this morning to get some stuff," Russ
+said, "and he hasn't come back yet."</p>
+
+<p>"Then somebody will have to go after him!" cried the director.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll go!" offered Alice. "I can take this horse and carriage!" for a
+rig was hitched outside the "store."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll go with you!" cried Estelle, and then, in costume and made up for
+the pictures as they were, they got into the vehicle and drove off.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+
+<h3>IN THE SMOKE</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Do you think he'll die?" asked Estelle, as she took the reins and
+flicked the horse lightly with the whip.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope not," answered Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"Did it make you faint to see the blood?"</p>
+
+<p>"A little. Did it you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I can't bear it! It makes me&mdash;&mdash; Oh, it makes me&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Estelle closed her eyes, and Alice was surprised to see her turn pale,
+even under her rouge, and shudder.</p>
+
+<p>"That's queer," Alice said. "I should have thought, being on a ranch as
+you were, you might have become used to accidents and scenes of
+violence."</p>
+
+<p>"Who said I was on a ranch?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you did!"</p>
+
+<p>"I did?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; don't you remember? That day when we were talking about branding
+cows&mdash;&mdash;"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, maybe I did. I'd forgotten. Oh, dear! here comes an auto, and I'm
+not sure about this horse. I'm afraid he'll start to rear."</p>
+
+<p>At this intimation that there might be trouble, Alice's face took on a
+worried look, and she fore-bore to press the questions she had been
+asking Estelle.</p>
+
+<p>The horse showed some signs of fear as he passed the automobile in the
+road, but the man driving the car was considerate enough to stop his
+machine and motion to the girls to pass. They did so, the horse getting
+as far to one side of the road as he could, his nostrils distended and
+his ears pricked forward.</p>
+
+<p>"There! Thank goodness that's over!" sighed Estelle. "Now to make speed
+and get that doctor. I hope the man doesn't die."</p>
+
+<p>"I do too," acquiesced Alice. "Did you see how sharply the man looked at
+us?"</p>
+
+<p>"Who, the man that was shot?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, the one in the auto. He stared and stared!"</p>
+
+<p>"Probably he wondered where in the world we got a horse in these days
+that was afraid of an auto. I wonder myself where this steed has been in
+hiding. There are so many cars now that it is a wonder horses aren't
+using gasoline as perfume."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No, he wasn't looking at the horse," persisted Alice. "He was looking
+at us. Perhaps he knew you, Estelle."</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you say that? I'm sure I never saw him before. Maybe it was you
+he was staring at."</p>
+
+<p>"No, it was you he was staring at, but I don't blame him. You are very
+striking looking to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"It's this dress. Isn't it quaint?"</p>
+
+<p>"And pretty! Oh, but we mustn't talk so frivolously when that poor man
+may be dying. We must drive faster."</p>
+
+<p>"Talking isn't going to make the horse go any slower. In fact, I think
+maybe he'll go quicker to get the trip over with sooner so he can be rid
+of our chatter. But I don't think the poor man is badly hurt. He may
+bleed a lot, but they can hold that in check until we get the doctor."</p>
+
+<p>They drove on, and were presently in the village. They had been told
+where Dr. Wherry had gone&mdash;to a drugstore to get some medical
+supplies&mdash;and thither they made their way.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you notice how every one is staring at us?" asked Alice, as they
+drove along the streets.</p>
+
+<p>"They do seem to be," admitted Estelle, looking for the drugstore. "I
+guess it's the horse; he is so bony he has many fine points about him,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span>
+as Russ said. And we're queer looking in these costumes ourselves."</p>
+
+<p>When they alighted at the pharmacy and started in, they became aware of
+the growing sensation they were creating. For a little throng had
+gathered in front of the store, and more men and boys came running up,
+to form in two lines&mdash;a living lane&mdash;through which Alice and Estelle had
+to pass.</p>
+
+<p>"We certainly are creating a sensation," gasped Alice, growing
+embarrassed.</p>
+
+<p>"Look! a regular bridal crowd," said Estelle in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>Though they undeniably presented a pretty picture in their paint,
+powder, curls and hoopskirts, they were also an unusual one for that
+little country village.</p>
+
+<p>"Look at the society swells!" cried one boy.</p>
+
+<p>"Dat's de new fashion&mdash;makin' your nose look like a flour barrel!" added
+another.</p>
+
+<p>"Aren't those dresses sweet?" sighed a girl.</p>
+
+<p>"They must be the latest New York style," added a companion. "I heard
+that full skirts were coming in again."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, ours are certainly full enough," murmured Alice, looking down at
+her swaying hoops.</p>
+
+<p>And then some one guessed the truth.</p>
+
+<p>"They're actresses&mdash;the movie actresses!" came<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> the cry, and this
+attracted more attention than ever, for if there is one person about
+whom the American public is curious, it is the actor.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh my!" exclaimed Estelle, "now we are in for it. Hurry inside the
+store!"</p>
+
+<p>The girls fairly ran into the friendly shelter, and some of the crowd
+attempted to follow, but the drug clerks barred the way, guessing what
+the excitement was about.</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Wherry!" gasped Alice. "Is he here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Right back there&mdash;in the prescription department," a clerk said. "Which
+of you is ill?"</p>
+
+<p>"Neither one!" cried Estelle. "We want him for a man out at Oak Farm.
+He's been shot&mdash;an accident in the play. Tell him to hurry, please, and
+then show us some way of getting out through a side door. I can't face
+that crowd&mdash;this way," and she looked down at her elaborate hoop-skirted
+costume, which might have been all right in the days of sixty-three, but
+which was unique at the present time.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the trouble?" asked Dr. Wherry, coming from behind the
+ground-glass partition. "Oh, Miss DeVere and Miss Brown!" he went on as
+he recognized the moving picture girls. "Is some one hurt?"</p>
+
+<p>They told him quickly what the trouble was, and he cried:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I'll go at once. You'd better come back with me in the auto if you
+don't want to run the gauntlet of the staring crowd. I'll bring my
+machine around to the side door."</p>
+
+<p>"What about the horse we drove over?" asked Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll have Mr. Pertell send a man for that."</p>
+
+<p>The girls, in their curiosity-exciting costumes, managed to slip out the
+side door and into the doctor's automobile without attracting the
+attention of the crowd. Then they made the trip back in good time and
+comfort.</p>
+
+<p>"And to think we never for a moment thought of changing our things!"
+cried Alice, when they were at Oak Farm again.</p>
+
+<p>"Or even of rubbing off some of the make-up," added Estelle. "But we
+were so excited&mdash;at least I was&mdash;when I saw the poor fellow hurt. I hope
+it is not serious."</p>
+
+<p>"No, he's lost a little blood, that's all," said Dr. Wherry. "But I
+thought you were used to such scenes, Miss Brown, coming from the West,
+as you did."</p>
+
+<p>"I from the West? Oh, yes, I have been there. Come on, Alice, let's see
+if they still want us for anything, and, if they don't, we'll change our
+clothes," and Estelle seemed glad of a chance to hurry away.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I wonder," said Alice to her sister afterward, "whether she is really
+so squeamish as she pretends, or if she doesn't want it known that she
+is from the West?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's hard to say. Estelle is acting more and more queerly every day, I
+think."</p>
+
+<p>"So do I. Though I am quite in love with her. She has such a sweet
+disposition."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, she is a lovely girl. I only wish there wasn't that bit of mystery
+about her."</p>
+
+<p>"And it is a mystery," went on Alice. "Every once in a while I catch
+Lieutenant Varley looking at her, when he thinks he isn't observed, and
+he shakes his head as though he could not understand it at all."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you think he still feels sure she is the girl he met in Portland?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm positive he does, and he isn't doing it to further his own ends and
+force an acquaintance with her, either. He honestly believes he has met
+her before."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it is very strange. But she doesn't seem to want to talk about
+anything connected with her past."</p>
+
+<p>"No, and I suppose we should not try to force matters."</p>
+
+<p>The man who was shot was soon out of danger, and, meanwhile, the taking
+of the war scenes went<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> on with some one else in his place. A number of
+sham engagements had been fought, all working up to the big final
+battle, in which Ruth would play her part as an army nurse, and Alice
+would act as the spy. Estelle, too, had been given a rather important
+part, much to the annoyance of Miss Dixon, who had been expecting it.</p>
+
+<p>The vaudeville actress made sneering and cutting remarks about "extra
+players butting in," and there were veiled insinuations concerning the
+missing ring, but Estelle took no notice, and Alice, Ruth and her other
+friends stood loyally by her.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll film that burning barn scene to-day," said Mr. Pertell one
+morning at the breakfast table, when he had ascertained that the
+atmospheric conditions were right. "That's the one where you two DeVere
+girls are surprised on your little farm by the visit of some Union
+soldiers. You have been caring for a wounded cousin, who has escaped
+through the Union lines, and at the news that the Yankees are coming you
+hide him in the barn. Then the Unionists set fire to it, and you girls
+have to drag him out.</p>
+
+<p>"There'll be no danger, of course, for the fire won't be near you&mdash;in
+fact, the barn won't burn at all&mdash;only a shack nailed to it. And the
+smoke will be from the regular bomb. You have plenty of them, haven't
+you, Pop Snooks?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes, plenty of smoke bombs, Mr. Pertell."</p>
+
+<p>All was soon in readiness for the burning-barn scene. Ruth and Alice
+received the wounded cousin (an inside scene this) and then, when an old
+colored mammie (Mrs. Maguire) came panting with the news that the
+Yankees were coming, the wounded Confederate was carried out to the
+barn. Then came the visit of the Yankees, who, suspecting the presence
+of the escaped prisoner, made diligent search, but without success.</p>
+
+<p>"Fire the barn, anyhow!" cried the captain.</p>
+
+<p>Then came the spirited scene where Ruth and Alice got their wounded
+relative out. He was a slim young man, and they could easily carry him,
+for he was supposed to be overcome by the smoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Ready, Alice?" asked Ruth, as they went through the action called for
+in the script.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, ready. You take his head and I'll take his heels. Don't be too
+stiff," Alice admonished the young man. "We can carry you better if
+you're limp."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll be limp enough if I swallow any more of that smoke," choked the
+actor. "It's fierce!"</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, Pop Snooks had been very liberal in the matter of smoke bombs.
+Great clouds of the black vapor swirled here and there, and Ruth and
+Alice had to get free breaths whenever they could.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Come on!" yelled the director through his megaphone. "Lively!"</p>
+
+<p>Alice and Ruth, half carrying, half dragging, the wounded soldier,
+staggered out, Russ clicking away at the camera.</p>
+
+<p>"Good! That's good! It's fine!" exclaimed the enthusiastic director.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth was conscious that she was suddenly dragging more of the weight of
+the man's body than at first. But she thought one of Alice's hands had
+possibly slipped off, and she did not want to call a halt to get a
+better hold.</p>
+
+<p>"My! But this is choking!" gasped Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, she staggered out into the open, dragging the soldier by his
+shoulders. She slumped down on the ground, in a place free from smoke,
+and registered exhaustion.</p>
+
+<p>"Where's Alice?" cried Paul, who was holding back in readiness for his
+appearance in the scene. "Where's Alice?"</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't she there?" gasped Ruth, rising on her elbow.</p>
+
+<p>"No, she isn't. She must be&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Hold that pose, Ruth! Don't stir or you'll spoil the scene!" yelled the
+director. "We'll get your sister!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE HOSPITAL TENT</h3>
+
+
+<p>"The show must go on!" This is the motto of circus and theatrical
+performers the world over. No matter what happens, under what strain or
+pain the player labors, no matter what occurs short of death itself, the
+public must not be allowed to guess that anything is wrong. And
+sometimes even death itself has been no barrier&mdash;for players have gone
+through with their parts on the stage when, but the act previous, they
+have learned that some loved one had passed away.</p>
+
+<p>And more than one clown has bounded into the sawdust ring with merry
+quip and jest, with a smile on his painted face, while his heart was
+breaking with grief.</p>
+
+<p>And so it was with Ruth DeVere. As she staggered out of the smoke clouds
+and saw that Alice had not followed, at once the dreadful thought came
+to her that her sister had been overcome by the fumes. And, although the
+smoke bombs were harmless as regards fire, the breathing of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>
+chemical fumes for any length of time might mean death.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, as Ruth was about to stagger to her feet to go back into the murky
+cloud to look for Alice, there came the director's orders to "hold that
+pose!"</p>
+
+<p>The show must go on! That meant it would not do to spoil the scene, ruin
+the film, and necessitate a retake if, by any possibility, it could be
+avoided.</p>
+
+<p>"Stay where you are, Ruth! Stop the camera, Russ! Hold the pose&mdash;both of
+you. We'll go on from there when we get Alice out!"</p>
+
+<p>And Ruth, her heart torn with anguish, must remain. She was glad her
+father was not present.</p>
+
+<p>"Get in there and get the girl!" cried Pop Snooks who was busy lighting
+more smoke bombs. "Get that girl, some of you fellows!" For he had
+guessed in an instant what had happened. It was not the first time one
+of the players had been overcome by the heavy fumes.</p>
+
+<p>Into the cloud dashed some of the head property man's helpers. Russ and
+Paul, who could leave their posts while the camera was not in motion,
+also penetrated the murkiness.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately, Alice had been overcome when within a few feet of the clear
+atmosphere, and it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> was the work of but an instant for Paul to carry her
+outside, where she could breathe pure air.</p>
+
+<p>"The poor dear!" cried Mrs. Maguire. "Here, give her this ammonia and
+water."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't come too close to her, Mrs. Maguire!" warned the director. "Your
+black make-up will come off on her face, and it will show in the film."</p>
+
+<p>The director had to think of all those things, though it might seem a
+bit heartless.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll be careful," promised the motherly old woman. "I'll be careful."</p>
+
+<p>Alice sipped the aromatic spirits of ammonia, and felt better.</p>
+
+<p>"Did I faint?" she asked. "How silly of me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Are you all right?" asked Ruth, still in her place by the side of the
+soldier, who was supposed to be unconscious.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Ruth dear. I'm all right now. Oh, and did I leave you to carry him
+all alone? I'm so sorry!"</p>
+
+<p>"It was all right. I dragged him."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, the scene is all right," said Mr. Pertell. "Now, Alice, I don't
+want to be heartless, but will you be ready to go on in this, or shall
+we abandon it and make a retake?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'll go on. Just a moment, and I'll be all right."</p>
+
+<p>After a minute or two the plucky girl recovered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> from the effects of the
+smoke, and, though she was weak and wan, managed to go through her part.
+She and Ruth carried their "cousin" out of the burning barn which was
+then allowed to fall to ruins. Or rather, the extra part, built on for
+the purpose, was, Pop Snook's smoke bombs effectually concealing from
+the audience the fact that the real barn was not in the least harmed.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'm glad that's over," said Alice with a sigh, as a little later
+she washed off her make-up and donned her ordinary clothes.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you feel bad?" her sister asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sort of choked."</p>
+
+<p>"Then let's take a walk up on the hill where there is always a breeze."</p>
+
+<p>On the grassy eminence with the fresh breezes blowing about them, Alice
+soon felt much better. But Mr. Pertell called off some of the scenes set
+down for next day, so that she might have a rest.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll soon be ready for the big hospital scene, Ruth, and also for the
+one where you try to get away with the papers, Alice," said Mr. Pertell
+to the two girls one day. "And, in order that everything may run
+smoothly I've made a little change in the scenario. I'm going to have a
+preliminary hospital scene. In that you will be a sort of orderly, or
+assistant nurse, Ruth. And there comes an emergency in which you do so
+well that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> you are sent for to be a nurse in one of the big hospitals
+maintained near the front. That will make the story more logical.</p>
+
+<p>"So we'll have one of those hospital scenes to-day. I'll stage a small
+engagement, and have a number of men wounded. They'll be brought in, and
+there will be a night scene. The doctors and other nurses go off duty,
+and you are in charge. An emergency occurs&mdash;maybe a bandage slips from
+an artery and you sit and hold the wound until a doctor can come and tie
+the artery again. We'll work it out as we go along."</p>
+
+<p>"Is there anything for me?" asked Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"No, your part will stand all right as it is until you get to the big
+hospital scene. Come on now, Ruth; we'll have a rehearsal."</p>
+
+<p>The rehearsal went off well, and the little change promised to
+strengthen the story of the war play. The hospital was set up near Mr.
+Apgar's corn-crib.</p>
+
+<p>"And maybe that'll be a good thing," he said. "If you folks use enough
+of them there disinfectants and carbolic acid, you may scare away all
+the rats and mice that eat my corn in the winter."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! will there be rats and mice?" asked Ruth, apprehensively.</p>
+
+<p>"Not in the hospital," said Mr. Pertell with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> laugh. "It will be
+strictly sanitary&mdash;as much so as things were in the days of
+sixty-three."</p>
+
+<p>The fight between the two forces was staged some distance away from the
+hospital, and the guns soon began to rattle and to roar again. The girls
+did not mind them by this time, however.</p>
+
+<p>This skirmish had no particular part in the general story, but it was
+filmed just the same, as it could be spliced in with the other fighting
+scenes.</p>
+
+<p>"And you can't get too much of that," Mr. Pertell said.</p>
+
+<p>Russ, with some helpers, was taking the fighting pictures preliminary to
+the hospital act. He was nearing the end of the reel in his machine
+when, to his dismay, he found he had forgotten to bring a spare one.</p>
+
+<p>"Here, you!" he called to one of the extra soldiers lying lazily on the
+grass near the camera, "hop over and ask Pop Snooks to give you an extra
+reel for me."</p>
+
+<p>The man did not answer.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you hear me?" yelled Russ, grinding away at the film which was
+being quickly used up. "Go and get me that reel!"</p>
+
+<p>Still no response.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you deaf?" shouted Russ, and then he thought perhaps the discharge
+of so many cannon had made the man unable to hear.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Go over and punch that fellow!" cried Russ to Paul. "Wake him up, and
+tell him to get me that extra reel."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," Paul assented. "I'd go myself only I have to carry a
+message to headquarters in a minute or two."</p>
+
+<p>He ran over and kicked the soldier, who seemed to be asleep.</p>
+
+<p>"Hi! What's the idea?" demanded the rudely awakened one.</p>
+
+<p>"The camera man wants you to go to get him some film."</p>
+
+<p>"Who&mdash;me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;you! Skip!"</p>
+
+<p>"I can't go get no film!"</p>
+
+<p>"You can't? Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"'Cause I'm dead, that's why! I was told to be killed, and I was. I fell
+off my hoss dead, an' I'm deader'n a door nail. I dassn't git up to git
+no film for nobody. I'm dead!"</p>
+
+<p>And the man rolled over and closed his eyes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+
+<h3>A RETAKE</h3>
+
+
+<p>"What's the matter over there?" called Russ to Paul. "Is he going to get
+my film?"</p>
+
+<p>"He says he can't."</p>
+
+<p>"Can't? Why not? Has he lost his legs?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. But he's dead. This is carrying realism to the extreme."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, good-night!" cried Russ. "I haven't but a few feet left. Make him
+go."</p>
+
+<p>"I won't go I tell you," the man cried. "I was told to play dead, and
+I'm goin' to," and he stuck to the instructions he had received.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately, one of Russ' helpers was free a moment later, and he went
+for the extra roll of film, while the dead man enjoyed his part to his
+satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, he did just right," said Mr. Pertell, when told of the incident
+afterward. "I wish more performers would do exactly as they are told. Of
+course, I don't mean to say a player must slavishly do just as I tell
+him. But in some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> cases a dead man's coming to life might spoil a big
+scene."</p>
+
+<p>Matters were now in readiness for the preliminary hospital scene. A ward
+had been fitted up in a shed where electric lights could be used to get
+the necessary illumination, the current being brought from town. In the
+shed were ranged white beds, in which a number of wounded men were
+reposing. Other men were in wheeled chairs, while still others sat up as
+if recovering from a long and dangerous siege from wounds. All were
+picturesquely bandaged.</p>
+
+<p>The preliminary scenes had been taken. The doctor had made his rounds of
+the wounded on the cots. He had taken their temperature and had felt
+their pulses, while the other women of the company, as nurses,
+accompanied the surgeon on his journey. Other wounded were brought in.</p>
+
+<p>Night settled down in the hospital. The big, hissing electric lights
+were turned off, and from outside a window "moonlight" streamed in. The
+moonlight, of course was made by another electric light, properly
+shaded.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, I think we're ready for you, Ruth," said the director. "You are on
+duty alone in the ward when the emergency occurs."</p>
+
+<p>In the glow of the beams of light from the window Ruth, on duty alone,
+took her place.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"All ready now!" called Mr. Pertell, from where he was standing behind
+Russ, who was grinding away at the camera. "You start from your
+half-doze, Ruth, and listen. Then you approach one of the cots and
+discover that the bandage has slipped and that the man is bleeding to
+death. You press on the artery, and finally rouse another of the
+hospital patients&mdash;one not badly wounded&mdash;and send him for the surgeon."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth carried out the instructions perfectly. Her acting was so very
+natural that afterward, when the film was shown, more than one person
+found himself holding his breath lest Ruth should remove her thumb from
+the severed artery.</p>
+
+<p>The slightly wounded man limped out to get the surgeon, who came rushing
+in, and the artery was tied. Then followed words of praise for Ruth.
+This laid the foundation for her summons to a larger hospital when the
+proper time came.</p>
+
+<p>The next day more battle views were the order of the day. In one of
+these Estelle had to do some fast riding, to leap her horse across a
+ditch and speed away from pursuing troopers.</p>
+
+<p>"Aren't you nervous for fear you'll fall?" asked Ruth, as the young
+horsewoman was making ready.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, no. I don't think about that part. All I am afraid of is that I
+may get out of range of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> the camera. You see I'm not very old at this
+business."</p>
+
+<p>"Just how did you come to get into it?" asked Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, it was a sort of accident. I was on a boat one day, leaning over
+the rail looking at the water, when a gentleman came up, begged my
+pardon for speaking without being introduced, and asked me if I had ever
+been in the movies.</p>
+
+<p>"I hadn't, though I had often thought I would like to be, and I told him
+so. He asked me to call at his studio, and I did. They gave me a 'try
+out,' found I photographed well, and they cast me for small parts. Then
+they found out I could ride and they let me do some outdoor stuff. From
+then on I did very well, and when I heard your company was going to make
+a big war play, I applied to Mr. Pertell. He took me, I'm glad to say."</p>
+
+<p>"And we're glad you're here," ejaculated Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll go out and watch you jump; it fascinates me, though it makes me
+afraid," Ruth declared. "My sister and I did some riding while we were
+at Rocky Ranch, but it was nothing to what you do."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it takes practice, that's all," answered Estelle.</p>
+
+<p>There were some animated scenes previous to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> the one in which Estelle
+took part. There was a fight over the possession of a bridge, and the
+Confederates, having driven off their enemies, prepared to blow it up to
+prevent the Union army from using it.</p>
+
+<p>Estelle was to try to reach the bridge before it was destroyed, but,
+failing in that, she was to ride her horse to a narrow part of the
+stream and leap over.</p>
+
+<p>All went well, and the time came for her to take her swift ride to try
+to reach the bridge. On and on she galloped, until she was met by a
+colored man who warned her of the fact that in another moment the bridge
+would be destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>"She's going pretty close!" murmured Mr. Pertell, as he stood near Russ,
+who was filming the scene. "Some of those timbers may fall pretty near
+her."</p>
+
+<p>But Estelle seemed to know no fear. She rode straight for the bridge,
+and she was only a short distance away when it blew up, the planks and
+rails flying high into the air.</p>
+
+<p>Then she turned her horse to reach, ahead of her pursuers, the place she
+was to jump the stream. So near was she to the bridge that she had to
+swerve her horse quickly to avoid being struck by a fragment of the
+falling wood.</p>
+
+<p>"Plucky girl, that!" murmured Mr. DeVere.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>While Estelle was being filmed down by the stream, one of the assistant
+camera men, a new hand, prepared to take a scene where a Southern farmer
+rides up to warn the Confederate cavalry of Estelle's escape, so they
+may take after her. Maurice Whitlow was the farmer.</p>
+
+<p>"Here, you!" cried Mr. Pertell to Whitlow, "ride down there and deliver
+the message&mdash;that's your part in this scene."</p>
+
+<p>There was a small automobile which Mr. Pertell had been using standing
+near, and Maurice leaped into this and started across the field toward a
+detachment of the Southern cavalry.</p>
+
+<p>Away rattled Maurice in the car, and the camera man ground away, showing
+the farmer on his way to give the warning. Suddenly Mr. Pertell turned
+and saw what was going on.</p>
+
+<p>"For the love of gasoline, stop!" he cried. "The whole scene is spoiled.
+There'll have to be a retake! Of all the stupid pieces of work this is
+the worst! Stop that camera!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+
+<h3>ESTELLE'S STORY</h3>
+
+
+<p>"What's the matter?" cried Russ Dalwood, running back from the stream
+where he had been to see that an assistant was successfully getting the
+scene after Estelle had leaped to the other bank.</p>
+
+<p>"Matter! Look!" cried the director, and he pointed to Maurice, speeding
+to carry his message in the small runabout.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-night!" gasped Russ, who understood at once.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, what's wrong with it?" asked Paul. "Isn't he running the machine
+all right?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, he's running it all right," said Mr. Pertell in tones of disgust.
+"And that's just the trouble! I told him to jump on a horse with that
+dispatch, and he goes in the auto!"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose he thought it was quicker," commented Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"Quicker! Yes, I should say it was! But I'll get him out of there
+quicker than he can shake<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> a stick at a dead mule. The idea of riding in
+an auto to carry a message in Civil War days. Why, there wasn't a real
+auto in the whole world then. How would it look in a film to see an
+up-to-date runabout butting in on a scene of sixty-three. Get him back
+here and make him start over again on a horse as he ought to," went on
+the director. "An auto in sixty-three! Next he'll be sending wireless
+telephone messages about fifty years before they were ever dreamed of!"</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately, not much of the film had been reeled off, and the scene was
+one that could easily be made over. Estelle's leap was not spoiled, nor
+was the blowing up of the bridge.</p>
+
+<p>"Huh! I didn't think anything about there not being autos in those
+days," said Maurice, when he had been brought back and mounted on a
+horse.</p>
+
+<p>"That's just it," commented Mr. Pertell. "You've got to think in these
+days of moving pictures. The audiences are more critical than you would
+suppose. Even the children now laugh at fake scenes and incongruities.
+And as for using a dummy in danger scenes, it's getting harder and
+harder every day to get by with it. You stick to horses or to Shank's
+mules, young man, when it comes to transportation in this war film. No
+autos where they are going to show in the film."</p>
+
+<p>That was only one of the many details the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> director and his assistants
+had to look after. If eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, it is
+much more so the price of good films. The camera sees everything in a
+pitiless light. It exaggerates faults and it refuses to shut its eye to
+anything at which it is pointed. The absolute truth is told every time.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, there are trick films, but even then the camera tells the
+truth fearlessly. It is only the on-lookers' eyes that are deceived. The
+camera can not be fooled. And though a man may be seen to be shaking
+hands with himself or cutting off his own head, it is done by double
+exposure, and could not be accomplished were it not for the fact that
+the camera and the film are so fearlessly honest and truth-telling.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter, Estelle?" asked Alice of the rider that afternoon,
+when they were in Ruth's room resting after the work of the day. "You
+seem to be in pain."</p>
+
+<p>"I am. I strained my side a little in that water jump. Petro slipped a
+bit on the muddy bank."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you do much jumping out West?" asked Ruth, while Alice was getting
+a bottle of liniment.</p>
+
+<p>"In the West? I don't know that I ever jumped there. I can't
+remember&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Estelle paused, and passed her hand across her eyes as though to shut
+out some vision.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Are you faint?" asked Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;no, it isn't that. It&mdash;it is just that I&mdash;that I&mdash;&mdash; Oh, I wonder
+if I can tell you?" and Estelle seemed in such distress that the two
+sisters hastened to her.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it? Tell me, are you badly hurt?" asked Ruth. For she had known
+of performers who concealed injuries that they might not be laid off,
+and so lose a day's work. "What is the matter, Estelle?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is my&mdash;my head."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you fall? I didn't hear them say anything about it!" exclaimed
+Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"No, it isn't that," and the girl looked from one sister to the other.
+"Oh, I wonder if I dare tell you?"</p>
+
+<p>"If there is anything in which we can help you, tell us, by all means!"
+answered Ruth, warmly&mdash;sympathetically. "But we don't want to force
+ourselves&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no! It isn't that. I'm only wondering what you will think of me
+afterward."</p>
+
+<p>"We shall love you just the same!" cried impulsive Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be too sure. But I feel that I must tell some one. I have borne
+all I can alone. It is getting to the point where I fear I shall scream
+my secret to the cameras&mdash;or some one!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Then Estelle had a secret!</p>
+
+<p>"Do tell us. Perhaps we can help you&mdash;or perhaps my father can,"
+suggested Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe any one can help me," said Estelle. "But at least it
+will be a relief to tell it. I&mdash;I am living under false pretenses!" she
+blurted out desperately.</p>
+
+<p>"False pretenses!" repeated Alice. At once her mind flashed back to Miss
+Dixon's ring. Was it the taking of this that Estelle was hinting at? The
+girl must have guessed what was in the mind of her hearers, for she
+hastened to add:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it isn't anything disgraceful. It's just a misfortune. You remember
+you have been asking me where I learned to ride&mdash;whether I didn't use to
+live on a ranch&mdash;questions like that. Well, you must have noticed that I
+didn't answer."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, we did notice, and we spoke about it," said truthful Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"We thought you didn't wish to tell," added Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"Wish to tell! Oh, my dears, I would have been only too glad to tell if
+I could."</p>
+
+<p>"Why can't you?" asked Ruth. "Are you bound by some vow of secrecy? Is
+it dangerous for you to reveal the past?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, it is simply impossible!"</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible!" the two sisters exclaimed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I can no more tell you what life I lived, where I lived, who I
+was, or what I was doing, up to a time of about three or four years ago,
+than I can fly."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?" asked Alice, puzzled.</p>
+
+<p>"Because the past&mdash;up to the time I named&mdash;is a perfect blank to me. My
+mind refuses absolutely to tell me who I was or where I lived&mdash;who my
+people were&mdash;anything of the past. My mind is like a blank sheet of
+paper. I can remember nothing. Oh, isn't it awful!" and she burst into
+tears.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>"WHAT CAN WE DO?"</h3>
+
+
+<p>"You poor dear!" cried Alice, and she knelt down on the floor beside
+Estelle and put her arms about the weeping girl. Ruth, too, with an
+expression of sympathy, stroked the bowed head.</p>
+
+<p>"We want so much to help you," Ruth murmured.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me get you something," begged Alice. "Some smelling salts&mdash;some
+ammonia&mdash;shall I call any one&mdash;the doctor&mdash;&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I&mdash;I'll be all right presently," said Estelle in a broken voice.
+"Just let me alone a little while&mdash;I mean stay with me&mdash;talk to me&mdash;tell
+me something. I want to get control of my nerves."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth did not seem to know what to say, but Alice pulled a small bottle
+from her pocket, and held it under Estelle's nose.</p>
+
+<p>"It's the loveliest new scent," she said. "I bought a sample in town."</p>
+
+<p>Estelle burst into a laugh, rather a hysterical laugh, it is true, but a
+laugh nevertheless. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> showed that the strain and tension were relaxing
+to some extent.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it sweet?" Alice asked.</p>
+
+<p>"It is, dear. Let me smell it again. It makes me feel better," and
+Estelle breathed in deep of the odorous scent.</p>
+
+<p>"How silly I was to give way like that," she went on. "But I simply
+couldn't help it. This has been going on for so long, and it got so I
+couldn't stand it another minute. How would you like it not to know who
+you are?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not very much, I'm afraid," said Ruth, softly.</p>
+
+<p>"That, in a way, is why it has been such a relief to be in the moving
+pictures," Estelle went on. "I could be so many different characters,
+and, at times, I thought perhaps, by chance, I might be cast for the
+very part I have lost&mdash;cast for my real self, as it were."</p>
+
+<p>"You must have had a hard time," said Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't told you half the story yet," Estelle went on. "Would you
+like to hear the rest?"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed we would!" exclaimed Ruth. "Not from any idle curiosity, but
+because we want to help you."</p>
+
+<p>"And I do need some one to help me," murmured Estelle. "I am all alone
+in the world."</p>
+
+<p>"You must have relatives somewhere!" insisted Alice.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"None that I ever heard of. But then, who knows what might have happened
+in the life that is a blank to me&mdash;in the life that lies beyond that
+impenetrable wall of the past?</p>
+
+<p>"But I mustn't get hysterical again. Just let me think for a moment, so
+I may tell you my story clearly. I shall be all right in a moment or
+two."</p>
+
+<p>"Let me make you a cup of tea," proposed Ruth. "I'll make some for all
+of us," and presently the little kettle was steaming over the spirit
+lamp, and the girls were sipping the fragrant beverage.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you. That was good!" murmured Estelle. "I feel better now. I'll
+tell the rest of my miserable story to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't make it too miserable," and Alice tried to make her laugh a gay
+one.</p>
+
+<p>"I won't&mdash;not any more so than I can help. I think it will do me good to
+let you share the mystery with me."</p>
+
+<p>"Then it is a mystery?" asked Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Somewhat, yes. You may think it strange, but I can not think back more
+than three years&mdash;four at the most. I am not at all certain of the time.
+But go back as far as I can, all I remember is that I was on a large
+steamer."</p>
+
+<p>"On the ocean?" asked Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"No, on the Great Lakes. I was going to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> Cleveland, which I learned when
+I asked one of the officers."</p>
+
+<p>"And didn't you know where you were going before you asked?" Ruth
+questioned.</p>
+
+<p>"I hadn't the least idea, my dear. I might just as well have been going
+to Europe. In fact, when I first looked out and saw the water, I thought
+I was on the ocean."</p>
+
+<p>"But where did you come from, what were you doing there, where were your
+people?" cried Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"That's it, my dear. Where were they? I didn't know. No one knew. All I
+could grasp was the fact that I was there on the boat."</p>
+
+<p>"Alone?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, all alone."</p>
+
+<p>"But who bought your ticket&mdash;who engaged your stateroom?" questioned
+Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"That is the queer part of it. I did it myself. When I first became
+conscious that I was in a strange place I was so shocked that I wanted
+to scream&mdash;to cry out&mdash;to ask all sorts of questions. Then I realized if
+I did that I might be taken for an insane person and be locked up. So I
+just shut myself in my stateroom and did some thinking.</p>
+
+<p>"The first thing I wanted to know was how I got on the steamer, but how
+to find that out with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>out asking questions that the steamship people
+would think peculiar, was a puzzle to me. Finally, I decided to pretend
+to want to change my room, and when I went to the purser I asked him if
+that was the only room to be had.</p>
+
+<p>"'Why no, Miss,' he said, 'but when you came on board and I told you
+what rooms I had, you insisted on taking that one.' That was enough for
+me. I realized then that I had come on board alone, and of my own
+volition, though I had not any recollection of having done so, and I
+knew no more of where I came from than you do now."</p>
+
+<p>"How very strange!" murmured Alice. "And what did you do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I pretended that I had been tired and had not made a wise choice
+of a room, and asked the purser to give me another.</p>
+
+<p>"'I thought, when you picked it out, you wouldn't like that one,' he
+said to me, 'but you looked like a young lady who was used to having her
+own way, so I did not interfere.'</p>
+
+<p>"That was another bit of information. Evidently, I looked prosperous, a
+fact that was borne out when I examined my purse. I had a considerable
+sum in it, and the large valise I found in my room was filled with
+expensive clothes and fittings. Yet where I had obtained it or my money
+or my clothes I could not tell for the life of me.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> All I knew was that
+I was there on board the ship."</p>
+
+<p>"And did you change your stateroom?" asked Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; the purser gave me another one. And then I sat down and tried to
+puzzle it out. Why was I going to Cleveland? I knew no one there, and
+yet I had bought a ticket to that port&mdash;or some one had bought it for
+me."</p>
+
+<p>"Did that occur to you?" asked Alice. "That some one might have had an
+object in getting you out of the way."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if they had, they took a very public and expensive method of
+doing it," Estelle said. "I was on one of the best boats on Lake Erie,
+and I had plenty of money."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you find in what name your room was taken?" asked Ruth. "That might
+have given you a clue."</p>
+
+<p>"The name given was Estelle Brown," was the answer. "I gave that name
+myself, for I recognized my handwriting on the envelope in which I
+sealed some of my jewelry before handing it to the purser to put in his
+safe. Estelle Brown was the name I gave."</p>
+
+<p>"And was it yours?" asked Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't any reason to believe that it was not. In fact, as I looked
+back then, and as I look<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> back now, the name Estelle Brown seems to be
+my very own&mdash;it is associated closely with me. So I'm sure I'm Estelle
+Brown&mdash;that is the only part I am sure about."</p>
+
+<p>"But what did you do?" asked Ruth. "Didn't you make some inquiries?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did; as soon as I reached Cleveland. At first I hoped that my memory
+would come back to me when I reached that place. I thought I might
+recognize some of the buildings. In fact, I hoped it would prove to be
+my home, from which I had, perhaps, wandered in a fit of illness.</p>
+
+<p>"But it was of no help to me. I might just as well have been in San
+Francisco or New York for all that the place was familiar to me. So I
+gave that up. Then I began to look over the papers to see if any Estelle
+Brown was missing. But there was nothing to that effect in the news
+columns. All the while I was getting more and more worried.</p>
+
+<p>"I went to a good hotel in Cleveland and stayed two or three days. Then
+I happened to think that perhaps my clothes might offer some clue. I
+examined them all carefully, and the only thing I found was the name of
+a Boston firm on a toilet set. At once it flashed on me that I belonged
+in Boston. I seemed to have a dim recollection of a big monument in the
+midst of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> green park, of narrow, crooked streets and historical
+buildings.</p>
+
+<p>"Then, in a flash it came to me&mdash;I did belong in Boston. How I had come
+from there I could not guess, but I was sure I lived there. So I bought
+a ticket for there and went as fast as the train could take me.</p>
+
+<p>"But my hopes were dashed. Even the sight of Bunker Hill monument did
+not bring the elusive memory, nor did viewing the other places of
+historic interest. Yet, somewhere in the back of my brain, I was sure I
+had been in that city before. I went to the place where my toilet set
+was bought, but the man had sold out and the new owner could give me no
+information.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not know what to do. My money was running low, and I had not a
+friend to whom to turn. I happened to go in to see some moving pictures,
+and the idea came to me that perhaps I could act. I had rather a good
+face, so some one had hinted."</p>
+
+<p>"You do photograph beautifully," said Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"That's what one of the managers in Boston told me when I applied to
+him," said Estelle. "He gave me a small part, and then I learned that
+New York was really the place to go to get in the movies, so I came on,
+with a letter to a manager from the Boston firm.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It must have been my face that got me my first engagement, for now I
+know I couldn't act. But, somehow or other, I made good, and then I got
+this engagement with Mr. Pertell.</p>
+
+<p>"And that is my story. You can see what a strange one it is&mdash;for me not
+to know who I am. I'm almost ashamed to admit it, and that is why I have
+been avoiding all references to my past. But now I have told you, what
+do you think?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think it's just terrible!" cried Alice. "The idea! Not to know who
+you are."</p>
+
+<p>"The question is," said Ruth, "what can we do to help you? This must not
+be allowed to go any further. Valuable time is being lost. We want to
+help you, Estelle. What can we do? We must try to find out who you are."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but how can you?" asked the strange girl.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+
+<h3>A BIG GUN</h3>
+
+
+<p>Ruth did not answer for several seconds. She seemed to be thinking
+deeply, and Alice, who was fairly bursting with numberless questions she
+wanted to ask, respected her sister's efforts to bring some logical
+queries to the fore.</p>
+
+<p>"Then your hopes that Boston would prove to be your home were not borne
+out?" asked Ruth, after a bit.</p>
+
+<p>"No, but even yet I feel sure that I have lived at least part of my life
+in Boston, or near there. One doesn't have even shadowy memories of big
+monuments and historic places without some basis; and it was not the
+memory of having seen pictures of them. It was a real vision."</p>
+
+<p>"And the name Estelle Brown?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'm sure that belongs to me. It seems a very part of myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you tell any of this to Mr. Pertell or to the other moving picture
+managers?" asked Alice.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No. You are the first persons to whom I have told my secret," Estelle
+said. "I was afraid if I mentioned it they might make it public for
+advertising purposes, you know. They might make public the fact that a
+young actress was looking for herself and her parents. I never could
+bear that!"</p>
+
+<p>"But you want to find your folks, don't you?" asked Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"That's the queer part of it," Estelle replied. "I seem never to have
+had any relatives. The way I feel about it now, I would never know that
+I had had a father or a mother. I seem to have just 'growed,' the way
+poor Topsy did in Uncle Tom's Cabin. That is another strange part of my
+present existence. I seem to be in a world by myself, and, as far as I
+can tell, I have always been there."</p>
+
+<p>"What about Lieutenant Varley?" inquired Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"Lieutenant Varley?" and Estelle's voice showed that she was puzzled.</p>
+
+<p>"The young officer who said he met you in Portland."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes. I had forgotten. Well, I have absolutely no recollection of
+that, and I'm sure I would remember if I had been in the West. I'm
+certain I never was there."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And yet if you weren't in the West how did you learn to ride so well?"
+Ruth queried.</p>
+
+<p>"That's another part of the puzzle, my dear. Riding seems to come as
+natural to me as breathing. I don't seem ever to have learned it any
+more than I learned how to dance. I seem always to have known how."</p>
+
+<p>"There's only one way to account for that," Alice said.</p>
+
+<p>"How?"</p>
+
+<p>"From the fact that you must have started to learn to ride and to dance
+when you were very young&mdash;a mere child."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose that would account for it. And yet, I can't remember ever
+being a child. I don't recall having played with dolls or having made
+mud pies. For me my existence begins about three or four years back, and
+goes on from there, mostly in moving pictures."</p>
+
+<p>"It is a queer case," commented Ruth. "I don't know what to do to help
+you. Perhaps it would be a good thing to speak to Mr. Pertell about it.
+Often when children have been kidnapped, you know, their pictures are
+flashed on the screen in hundreds of cities, and sometimes persons in
+the audiences recognize them. That might be done with you, Estelle."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I wouldn't dream of doing that. Per<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span>haps something may turn up some
+day that will tell me who I really am. And perhaps I shall be sorry for
+having learned."</p>
+
+<p>"No, you will not!" declared Alice. "You come of good people&mdash;one can
+easily tell that."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, dear. And now I have inflicted enough of my troubles on you.
+Let's talk about something pleasant."</p>
+
+<p>"You haven't burdened us with your troubles, Estelle dear," insisted
+Ruth. "It is a strange story, and we are interested in the outcome."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed we are," said Alice. "We want very much to help you."</p>
+
+<p>"That's good of you. But I don't see what you can do. I'm just a sort of
+Topsy, and Topsy I'll remain. Now please don't say anything about what I
+have told you to any one&mdash;not even to your father&mdash;unless I give you
+permission. I don't want to be the object of curiosity, as well as of
+suspicion."</p>
+
+<p>"Suspicion!" cried Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, about Miss Dixon's ring."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! no one in the world believes you took that&mdash;not even Miss Dixon
+herself. I believe she has found the old paste diamond, and is too mean
+to admit it!" cried impulsive Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"You mustn't say such things!" objected her sister.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well, neither must she, then. Oh, Estelle! Wouldn't it be great if you
+should prove to be the daughter of a millionaire!"</p>
+
+<p>"Too great, my dear. Don't let's think about it. But I feel better for
+having unburdened some of my troubles on you. And if you will still be
+as nice to me as you always have been&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Why shouldn't we be?" asked Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't know, but I thought&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Silly!" cried Alice, as she threw her arms about the strange girl and
+kissed her.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly, from a distant hill, came a dull, booming sound, that, low as
+it was, seemed to make the very ground tremble.</p>
+
+<p>"What's that?" cried Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"Thunder," suggested Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"It sounded more like an explosion," asserted Estelle.</p>
+
+<p>"There it goes again!" exclaimed Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"Look!" cried her sister.</p>
+
+<p>She pointed through the open window, and as the girls peered out they
+saw the top of the hill fly upward in a shower of dirt and stones.</p>
+
+<p>Once more the deep boom sounded.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a big gun!" cried Alice. "I remember, now. Mr. Pertell said he
+wanted pictures of a siege of a fort, and he sent for a big gun to get
+explosive effects. Come on over!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And be blown to pieces?" objected Ruth. "Don't dare go, Alice DeVere!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, come on! There's no danger. Russ is going to make the films. I
+guess they're just trying it now. It's too late to make good pictures.
+Come on."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll go," offered Estelle. "I don't mind the noise."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth declined to go, so the other two girls set off. On the porch they
+met Russ and Paul, who confirmed their guess that it was a big siege gun
+which Mr. Pertell had sent to New York to get, so he might show the
+effect of explosive shells.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going to film some to-morrow," Russ said.</p>
+
+<p>"Be careful," urged Alice. "Don't get blown up!"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm no more anxious for that than any one," laughed Russ, and together
+they set off toward the place where the big gun was being tried out.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+
+<h3>A WRONG SHOT</h3>
+
+
+<p>The big gun which Mr. Pertell had secured to make more realistic the war
+play he was preparing for the films, was an old fashioned siege rifle,
+made toward the close of the Civil conflict. It had not been used more
+than a few times, and then it had been stored away in some arsenal. The
+director, hearing of it, had secured it to fire at a certain hill on Oak
+Farm.</p>
+
+<p>This hill would, in the motion pictures, form a stronghold of the
+Southern forces and it would be demolished by shells from the large
+cannon, and then would follow a charge on the part of the Union
+soldiers.</p>
+
+<p>Real shells, with large explosive charges in them, would be used, but it
+is needless to say that when the shots were fired at the hill the
+players taking the parts of the Southerners would be at a safe distance.</p>
+
+<p>"They're just trying it out now," observed Russ, who with Paul, was
+walking over the fields<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> with Alice and Estelle. "Mr. Pertell wants to
+get the range, and decide on the best places from which to make the
+pictures. I think we'll film some to-morrow if it's a good day."</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter with your eyes, Estelle?" asked Paul, as he looked at
+her. "Were you working in the studio to-day? I know those lights always
+affect my sight."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, no, I wasn't in the studio," and then Estelle realized why her
+eyes were so inflamed&mdash;it was from crying. She gave Alice a meaning
+glance, as though to enjoin silence, but she need have had no fears.
+Alice would not betray the secret.</p>
+
+<p>The big gun had been mounted on a level piece of land, not far from the
+hill, and on this plain had been thrown up earthworks behind which the
+Union forces would take their stand in an effort to reduce the
+Confederate stronghold.</p>
+
+<p>"They're going to fire!" cried Estelle as they came within sight of the
+gun, and saw, by the activities of the men about it, that a shot was
+about to be delivered.</p>
+
+<p>Alice covered her ears with her hands, and Russ and Paul stood on their
+tiptoes and opened their mouths wide.</p>
+
+<p>"What in the world are they doing that for?" asked Estelle.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I can't hear a word you say!" called Alice, making her voice loud, to
+overcome her own hearing handicap.</p>
+
+<p>"There she goes!" cried Russ.</p>
+
+<p>The earth trembled as flames and smoke belched from the muzzle of the
+cannon, and the girls screamed.</p>
+
+<p>Something black was seen for an instant in the air amid the swirl of
+smoke, and then another portion of the hill was seen to lift itself up
+into the air and dirt and stones were scattered about.</p>
+
+<p>"A good shot!" observed Russ, letting himself down off his tiptoes.
+"That would make a dandy scene for the film."</p>
+
+<p>"That's right," agreed Paul, also letting himself down and closing his
+opened mouth.</p>
+
+<p>"Why did you do that?" asked Estelle, when the echoes of the firing had
+died away. "Why did you stand on your toes, and open your mouths?"</p>
+
+<p>"To lessen the shock to our ear drums," answered Paul. "It is the
+concussion, that is, the rushing back of air into the vacuum caused by
+the shot, that does the damage. By opening your mouth you equalize the
+air pressure on the inside and the outside of your ear drums, just as
+you do when you go through a river tunnel. When there is a partial
+vacuum outside your ear, the air inside you presses the drum outward,
+and by open<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span>ing your mouth&mdash;or by swallowing you make the pressure
+equal. Sometimes the pressure outside is greater than the pressure
+inside, and you must also equalize that before you can be comfortable."</p>
+
+<p>"But that wasn't why you stood on your toes," Alice said.</p>
+
+<p>"No; we did that to have less surface of our bodies on the ground so the
+vibration would be less. If one could leap up off the earth at the exact
+moment a shot was fired it would be much better, but it is hard to jump
+at the right instant, and standing on one's toes is nearly as good. Then
+you present only a comparatively small point which the vibrations of the
+earth, caused by the explosion of the gun, can act upon."</p>
+
+<p>"That's a good thing to remember," Estelle said. "Are they going to fire
+again?"</p>
+
+<p>"It looks so," observed Russ. "But if they knock away too much of the
+hill there won't be any left for the pictures to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe they want to make the top of the hill flat," said Paul. "They
+are going to have some sort of hand-to-hand fight on it after the
+Unionists capture it," he went on. "I heard Mr. Pertell speaking of it."</p>
+
+<p>"There goes another!" cried Alice, as she saw the same preparations as
+before and one man standing near the gun to pull the lanyard, which,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> by
+means of a friction tube, exploded the charge.</p>
+
+<p>Once more the projectile shot out and, burying itself in the soft dirt
+of the hill, threw it up in a shower.</p>
+
+<p>"That'll save me a lot of work!" exclaimed a voice behind the young
+people, and, turning, they saw Sandy Apgar smiling at them. "That's a
+new way of plowing," he went on. "It sure does stir up the soil."</p>
+
+<p>"Won't it spoil your hill?" asked Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"Not so's you could notice it. That hill isn't wuth much as it stands.
+It's too steep to plow, and only a goat could find a foothold on it to
+graze. So if you moving picture folks level it for me I may be able to
+raise some crops on it. Shoot as much as you like. You can't hurt that
+hill!"</p>
+
+<p>The men at the gun signaled that they were going to fire no more that
+day, and then, as it was safe, the young folks made a trip to see the
+extent of damage caused by the shells.</p>
+
+<p>Great furrows were torn in the earth and the stones, and the top of the
+hill, that had been rounding, was now quite flat, though far from being
+smooth.</p>
+
+<p>The next day had been set for filming the scenes with the big gun in
+them. Contrary to expectations, no pictures could be taken, as the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span>
+throwing up of the earthworks had not been finished. But a number of men
+from both "armies" were set to work, and as it afforded good practice
+for the militia they were called on to dig trenches, throw up ridges of
+earth, and go through other needful military tactics.</p>
+
+<p>The girls had no part in the scenes with the big gun, except that, later
+on, they were to act as nurses in the hospital tent.</p>
+
+<p>On top of the hill a force of Confederates would be stationed, and they
+were to reply to the fire of the big gun. Of course, when the
+projectiles struck the hill the soldiers would be a safe distance away,
+but by means of trick photography scenes would be shown just as if they
+were sustaining a severe bombardment.</p>
+
+<p>"Is everything ready?" asked Mr. Pertell, a few days after the setting
+up of the big gun, during which interval a sort of fort had been
+constructed on the hill and a redoubt thrown up.</p>
+
+<p>"I think so," answered Russ. "We couldn't have a better day, as far as
+sunshine is concerned. I'm ready to film whenever you are."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll give the word in a minute. Paul, you're in charge of a detachment
+of Union soldiers that storms the hill as soon as the big gun has
+silenced the battery there."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, sir."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The big gun rattled out its booming challenge and was replied to by
+volleys from the rifles of the Confederates on the hill and by their
+field artillery, which they hurriedly brought up.</p>
+
+<p>Shot after shot was fired, and one after another the Confederate cannon
+were disabled. They were blown up by small charges of powder put under
+them, set off by fuses lighted by the Confederates themselves, but this
+did not show in the picture, and it looked as though the Southern
+battery was blown up by shots from the big gun.</p>
+
+<p>"All ready now, Paul! Lead your men!" yelled the director, who was
+standing near Russ and his camera. "Rush right up the hill. Stop firing
+here!" he called to those in charge of the big gun.</p>
+
+<p>But something went wrong, or some one misunderstood. As Paul was
+charging up the hill at the head of his little band, Russ, turning his
+head for an instant, saw a man about to pull the lanyard of the big gun.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't shoot! Don't shoot!" he yelled. "It's aimed right at Paul and his
+fellows!"</p>
+
+<p>But Russ was too late. The man pulled the cord. There was a deafening
+roar, a cloud of smoke, a sheet of fire, and a black projectile was sent
+hurtling on its way against the hill, up the side of which Paul was
+climbing with his soldiers.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE BIG SCENE</h3>
+
+
+<p>Nothing could be done! No power on earth could stop that projectile now
+until it had spent itself, or until it had struck something and
+exploded.</p>
+
+<p>Horror-stricken, those near the big gun looked across the intervening
+space. How many would survive what was to follow?</p>
+
+<p>The man who had pulled the lanyard sank to the ground, covering his face
+with his hands.</p>
+
+<p>For a brief instant Paul, leading his men, looked back at the sound of
+the unexpected shot. He had been told that no more were to be fired.
+Doubtless, this was an extra one to make the pictures more realistic.
+But when he saw, in a flash, something black and menacing leaping
+through the air toward him and his men, instinctively he cried:</p>
+
+<p>"Duck, everybody! Duck!"</p>
+
+<p>He fell forward on his face and those of his men who heard and
+understood did likewise.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Ruth, Alice and Estelle, who were watching the scene from a distant
+knoll, hardly understood what it was all about. They had thought no more
+shots would be fired when Paul began his charge, but one had boomed out,
+and surely that was a projectile winging its way toward the partly
+demolished hill.</p>
+
+<p>"That is carrying realism a little too far," said Ruth. "I hope&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Paul has fallen!" cried Alice. "Oh&mdash;something has happened!"</p>
+
+<p>One must realize that all this took place at the same time. The firing
+of the shot, the realization that it was a mistake, Paul's flash of the
+oncoming projectile, his command to his men and the vision had by the
+girls. All in an instant, for a shot from a big gun does not leave much
+margin of time between starting and arriving even when fired with only a
+small charge of powder for moving picture purposes.</p>
+
+<p>And, so quickly had it happened that Russ had not stopped turning the
+crank of his camera, nor had an assistant on the hillside, where he had
+been stationed to film Paul and his soldiers.</p>
+
+<p>And then the projectile struck. Into the soft dirt of the hillside it
+buried its head, and then, as the explosion came, up went a shower of
+earth and stones. And ever afterward the gunner who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> inserted that
+charge blessed himself and an ever-watchful Providence that he had put
+in but half a charge, the last of the powder.</p>
+
+<p>For it was this half-charge that saved Paul and his men. The projectile
+struck in the hill a hundred feet below where Paul was leading his force
+up the slope, and though they were well-nigh buried beneath a rain of
+sand and gravel, they were not otherwise hurt&mdash;scratches and bruises
+being their portion.</p>
+
+<p>"What are they trying to do, kill us?" cried a man, staggering to his
+feet, blood streaming from a cut on his cheek.</p>
+
+<p>"This is too much like real war for me!" yelled another throwing down
+his gun. "I'm going to quit!"</p>
+
+<p>"No you don't!" shouted Paul. "Come on. It was a mistake. They won't
+fire any more. It will make a great scene on the film. Come on!"</p>
+
+<p>He gave one look back toward the Union battery and saw Mr. Pertell
+fluttering a white flag which meant safety. Waving his sword above his
+head, Paul yelled again:</p>
+
+<p>"Come on! Come on! It's all right! Up the hill with you! That shot was
+only to put a little pep in you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Pep! More like sand! I got a mouthful!" muttered a sergeant.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Get every inch of that. It's the best scene we've had yet, though it
+was a close call!" telephoned Mr. Pertell to the operator on the side of
+the hill. "Film every inch of it!"</p>
+
+<p>"All right! I'm getting it," answered the camera man and he went on
+grinding away at his crank.</p>
+
+<p>The explosion of the shell had, for the moment, stopped the advance of
+Paul and his men up the hill, but this momentary halt only made it look
+more realistic&mdash;as though they really feared they were in danger, as
+indeed they had been. Now the director called:</p>
+
+<p>"It's all right, Paul! Go ahead! Keep on just as if that was part of the
+show."</p>
+
+<p>"It was a lively part all right!" and Paul laughed grimly. "Come on,
+boys!"</p>
+
+<p>And the charge was resumed.</p>
+
+<p>Back of the dismantled battery, whence they had presumably been driven
+by the fire from the big gun, the Confederates were massed. They were
+waiting for Paul's charge, and they, too, had been a little surprised by
+the unexpected firing of the shell.</p>
+
+<p>But now, in response to a signal on the field telephone, they prepared
+to resist the assault.</p>
+
+<p>"Come on, boys! Beat the Yankees back!" was the battle cry that would be
+flashed on the screen.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Then came the fierce struggle, and it was nearly as fierce as it was
+indicated in the pictures. Real blows were given, and more than one man
+went down harder than he had expected to. There were duels with clubbed
+rifles, and fencing combats with swords, though, of course, the
+participants took care not to cut one another.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of this, several received minor hurts. But this result only
+added to the effectiveness of the scene, though it was painful. But in
+providing realism for motion pictures more than one conscientious player
+has been injured, and not a few have lost their lives. It is devotion of
+no small sort to their profession.</p>
+
+<p>Back and forth surged the fight, sometimes Paul's men giving way, and
+again driving the Confederates back from the crest of the hill. Small
+detachments here and there fired volleys of blank cartridges from their
+rifles, but there was not as much of this for the close-up pictures as
+there had been for the larger battle scenes. For while smoke blowing
+over a big field on which hundreds of men and horses are massed makes a
+picture effective, if seen at too close range it hides the details of
+the fighting.</p>
+
+<p>And Mr. Pertell wanted the details to come out in this close-up scene.</p>
+
+<p>Back and forth surged the fight until it had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> run through a certain
+length of film. Then the orders came that the Confederates were to give
+up and retreat. Before this, however, a number of them had been killed,
+as had almost as many Union soldiers.</p>
+
+<p>Then came a spirited scene. Paul, leading his men, leaped up on the
+earthworks of the Confederate battery, cut down the Southern flag&mdash;the
+stars and bars. In its place he hoisted the stars and stripes, and with
+a wild yell that made the fight seem almost real, he and his men
+occupied the heights.</p>
+
+<p>"Well done!" cried Mr. Pertell, enthusiastically, when he came over from
+the ramparts of the big gun. "Are you sure none of you was hurt when
+that shell exploded?"</p>
+
+<p>"None of us," answered Paul. "It fell short, luckily, and the dirt was
+soft. No big rocks were tossed up, fortunately, and we came out of it
+very nicely."</p>
+
+<p>"Glad to hear it. I've discharged the man who fired the gun."</p>
+
+<p>"That's too bad!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I hired him over again&mdash;but to do something else less dangerous.
+I can't afford to take chances with big cannon. But I think the scene
+went off very well. That stopping and the bursting of the shell made it
+look very real."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"That's good," Paul said, wiping some of the dirt and blood off his
+face, for he had been scratched by the point of some one's bayonet.</p>
+
+<p>That ended this particular scene for the day, and the players could take
+a much-needed rest. Plenty of powder had been burned, and the air was
+rank and heavy with the fumes.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure you're all right, Paul?" asked Alice, when he came up to
+the farmhouse later in the day.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I think I'd be better if you would feel my pulse," he said,
+winking at Russ. "And you don't need to be in a hurry to let go my hand.
+I sha'n't need it right away."</p>
+
+<p>"Silly!" exclaimed Alice, as she turned, blushing, away.</p>
+
+<p>"It must have been a shock to you," said Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"It was. But it was over so quickly I didn't have time to be shocked
+long. Now, let's talk about something nice. Come on in to the town, and
+I'll buy you all ice-cream."</p>
+
+<p>"That will be nice!" laughed Estelle.</p>
+
+<p>It was several days later that Mr. Pertell, coming to where the moving
+picture girls and their friends were seated on the porch, said:</p>
+
+<p>"The big scene is for to-morrow. In the hospital. This is where you are
+looking after the wounded officer, Ruth, and Alice, on pretense of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span>
+being a nurse seeking to give aid, comes in to get the papers. I want
+this very carefully done, as it is one of the climaxes of the whole
+play. So we'll have some rehearsals in the morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Am I to do that riding act?" asked Estelle.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you'll do the horse stunt as usual. There's to be a cavalry
+charge, Miss Brown, so don't get in their way and be run down."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll try not to," she answered.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+
+<h3>ALICE DOES WELL</h3>
+
+
+<p>Long rows of wounded men lay stretched out on white cots in the
+hospital. Some wore bandages over their heads all but concealing their
+eyes. Others were so entwined with white wrappings that it was hard to
+say whether they were men or oriental women. Still others raised
+themselves on their elbows, spasms of pain corrugating their brows,
+while red cross nurses held to their lips cooling drinks.</p>
+
+<p>Here at the bedside of one stood a grave surgeon, slowly shaking his
+head as he came to the melancholy conclusion that a further operation
+was useless. Over there they were carrying out a motionless form on a
+stretcher, a sheet mercifully draped over what was left. At the entrance
+to the hospital other bearers were carrying in those who came from the
+scene of the distant firing.</p>
+
+<p>The boom of big guns shook the frail shack that had been turned into a
+hospital. Now and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> then, as the wind blew in fitful gusts, there was
+borne on it the acrid smell of powder. And again, in some dark corner of
+that building of suffering, there could be seen through the cracks, left
+by hasty builders, the flash of fire that preceded the booming crash of
+the cannon.</p>
+
+<p>A sad-faced woman in black moved slowly down the line of cots led by a
+sympathetic nurse. She came to one bed, stopped as though in doubt,
+passed her hand over her face as if she did not want to admit that what
+she saw she did see, and then she fell on her knees in a passion of
+weeping, while the surgeons turned away their heads. She had found what
+she had sought.</p>
+
+<p>From the farther door there entered a man, limping on crutches
+improvised from the limbs of a tree. Stained bandages were about one arm
+and another leg. His head, too, was wrapped so that only half his face
+showed. A hurrying orderly met him.</p>
+
+<p>"You can't come in here!" he cried.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not, I'd like to know. Ain't this the horspital?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course it is."</p>
+
+<p>"Then why can't I come in here. I'm hurt, and hurt bad, pardner. Shot
+through leg and arm, and part of my jaw gone. Why can't I come in?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"'Cause you can't. Didn't we just carry you out for dead? What'll the
+audience think if they see you walking again? Git on out of here!"</p>
+
+<p>"I will not! I've wrapped this bandage around my head on purpose so they
+won't know me. Let me come in, will you? That's real lemonade them
+pretty nurses is givin' out to drink, and I'm as dry as a fish. I've
+been firin' one of them guns until I've swallowed enough smoke to play
+an animated cannon ball. Let me in the horspital."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, let him in!" called Mr. Pertell through his megaphone. He was at
+the far end of the shack that had been hastily erected on Oak Farm as a
+hospital, for the last big scenes of the war play, "A Girl in Blue and A
+Girl in Gray."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, just as you say," answered the orderly. "Come on in, Bill.
+Are you going to die this time?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am not! I'm going to be one of them converts, and get chicken
+sandwiches and jelly."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean convalescent."</p>
+
+<p>"Um. That's it! Lead me to me bed, will you, for I'm a sadly wounded old
+soldier&mdash;that's what I am."</p>
+
+<p>Amid laughter he was led to a cot, where a smiling nurse tucked him in
+between the yellow sheets. For, as has been said, yellow takes the place
+of white in inside scenes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And this was an inside scene, powerful electric lights dispelling all
+shadows so the cameras could film every motion and expression.</p>
+
+<p>"Now remember!" called Mr. Pertell when the "wounded man," one of the
+extra players, had been comfortably put to bed, "remember no smiling or
+laughing when we begin to make the picture. This is supposed to be
+serious."</p>
+
+<p>The rehearsal went on and finally the director announced that he was
+satisfied. Then the scenes were enacted over again, but with more
+tenseness and with a knowledge that every motion was being filmed with
+startling exactness.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Ruth, you come on!" called Mr. Pertell. "We've made a little
+change from the original scenario. You're to relieve Miss Dixon, who has
+been on this case. He's one of the Northern officers, you remember, and
+he has with him papers that the Confederacy would do much to get.</p>
+
+<p>"They are under the officer's pillow, you know. He is afraid to let them
+out of his possession. You must humor him, though you know that the
+papers will soon have to be taken away as he is to be operated on. It is
+here that Alice, as the spy, gets her chance. She pretends to be one of
+the nurses of this hospital, dons the uniform, and comes in here to get
+the papers. Are you ready?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," answered Ruth.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Then the big hospital scene began.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth, in her garb of a nurse, took her place at the side of the injured
+officer's cot. She felt his pulse, took his temperature and administered
+some medicine. Then the injured man, who was Mr. DeVere himself, sank
+back on his pillows. His hand went under the mass of feathers and
+brought out a packet of papers. At this point a close-up view was taken,
+showing on the screen the papers in magnified shape, so that the
+audience could note that they were Civil War documents. It was these
+that the officer was afraid would fall into the hands of the
+Confederates, so he kept them ever near him.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth made as if to remove them when he had placed them under the pillow
+again, but he awoke with a start and prevented her. This was to show
+that it was necessary for some one to take them while the operation was
+being performed.</p>
+
+<p>Then the scene changed to show Alice preparing for her work as a spy.
+The camera was taken to another part of the hospital, Ruth and her
+father having a respite, though they maintained their positions.</p>
+
+<p>"Did I do all right, Daddy?" asked Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, indeed. You are getting to be a good actress. I wish you
+were on the speaking stage."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I like this ever so much better. I never could speak before a whole
+crowd."</p>
+
+<p>Alice was shown making her way into the hospital, a previous scene
+having depicted her as promising the Confederate officer in whose employ
+as a spy she was, that she would get the papers. She entered the
+hospital, pretending to be in search of a missing relative. Then,
+watching her chance, she prepared a sleeping powder for a tired and
+half-sleeping nurse off duty and prepared to take her uniform.</p>
+
+<p>Alice played her part well. The sleeping nurse aroused, took the drugged
+drink, and went more soundly to sleep than ever. Then Alice was shown in
+the act of taking off the uniform. Another scene showed her walking
+boldly into the ward room to relieve Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>There was a little scene between the two sisters, and Ruth registered
+that Alice must be very careful not to alarm or shock the wounded man
+who was soon to undergo the operation.</p>
+
+<p>Alice acquiesced, and then sat down beside the cot. Slowly and
+carefully, like some pickpocket, she inserted her fingers under the
+pillow. Amid a tenseness that affected even the actors working with her,
+Alice took out the papers, inch by inch, and began to move away with
+them.</p>
+
+<p>It was at this point that she was to be discov<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span>ered by Paul, in the next
+bed. He had, in a previous scene, supposed to have taken place several
+months before, saved Alice's life, and they had fallen in love, Alice
+promising to wed him after the war. He supposed her to be a true
+Northern girl, and now he discovered that she was a Southern spy.</p>
+
+<p>There was a strong scene here. Paul leaped from his bed, and tried to
+get the papers away from Alice. She, horror-stricken at being discovered
+as a spy by her lover, is torn between affection for him and duty to the
+South. She throws him from her, as he is weakened by illness, and is
+about to escape with the papers, when she fears Paul is dying and she is
+stricken with remorse. She decides to give up her task for the sake of
+her lover.</p>
+
+<p>Slowly and softly, without awakening the old officer, she puts the
+papers back under his pillow and then, stooping over Paul, who has
+fainted from loss of blood, she kisses his forehead and goes out in a
+"fadeaway."</p>
+
+<p>"Good! Great! Couldn't be better!" cried Mr. Pertell, as Alice came out
+of range of the camera. "That was better than I dared to hope. This will
+make a big hit!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIII</h2>
+
+<h3>A BAD FALL</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Have you made up your mind yet, Estelle?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Ruth! I haven't. I don't know what to do."</p>
+
+<p>The two girls were in Estelle's room. Miss Brown was putting some
+protective padding under her outer garments, for in a little while she
+was to take part in a desperate ride&mdash;one of the last scenes in the big
+war play&mdash;a ride that had a part in a cavalry charge that was to be made
+by the desperate Confederates on the hosts of Unionists, who were
+closing in on their enemies. It was to be the last battle&mdash;a final stand
+of the Southern States, and they were to lose.</p>
+
+<p>But Estelle was to make a desperate ride to try to save the day. This
+time she was to pose as a daughter of the South. The ride would
+necessarily be a reckless one, and Estelle felt that she might fall; so
+she was preparing for it.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what to do," she went on to Ruth, who was helping her.
+"Sometimes I feel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span> like doing as you and your sister suggest, and let
+your father into the secret&mdash;and Mr. Pertell too&mdash;and have them try what
+they can do to discover who I am.</p>
+
+<p>"Then again, as I think it over, I'm afraid. Suppose I should turn out
+to be some one altogether horrid?"</p>
+
+<p>"You couldn't, my dear, not if you tried. But if you don't want my
+father to know, and would rather work out this mystery yourself, why, I
+won't say another word."</p>
+
+<p>"I want to think about it a little more," Estelle said.</p>
+
+<p>They had been talking about her strange case, and the possible outcome
+of it. Alice had suggested that a motion picture story be written around
+it.</p>
+
+<p>"It could be called 'Who is Estelle Brown?'" Alice said, "and it could
+be a serial. You could pose in it, Estelle, and make a lot of money.
+And, not only that, but you'd find out who your relatives were, I'm
+sure."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I couldn't do it!" Estelle had cried. "I'd like the money, of
+course. I never was so happy as when I found I had a purse full when I
+was on that Cleveland boat! But I could not capitalize my misfortune
+that way."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I was only joking," said Alice. And so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> the matter had gone on. Now
+Ruth had broached the subject again, and Estelle was still undecided.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait until after this big ride of mine," she said. "Then I'll make up
+my mind. I really do want to know who I am, and I think, after this
+engagement, if I don't find out before, I'll go to Boston again. I'm
+sure my people are from that vicinity."</p>
+
+<p>So it was left.</p>
+
+<p>From outside came the stirring notes of a bugle. At the sound of it Ruth
+and Estelle started.</p>
+
+<p>"That's the signal," said the latter. "I must hurry."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll help you," offered Ruth, and she assisted in the tying of the last
+strings, and the snapping of the final fastenings of the suit of
+protective padding the rider wore.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't take part in the actual charge, do you?" asked Alice, who
+came in at this point.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I have to ride ahead of the Union forces for a way," Estelle
+answered. "But I'm not afraid. Petro will carry me safely, as he has
+done before."</p>
+
+<p>The girls went down and out into the yard. Off on the distant meadow of
+Oak Farm, which had been turned into a battlefield for the time being,
+were two hostile armies. The two regiments of cavalry were to meet in a
+final clash that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span> was to end the war. There was to be the firing of many
+rifles and cannon. There were to be charges and countercharges. Men
+would fall from their horses shot dead. Certain horses, trained for the
+work, would stumble and fall, going down with those who rode them, the
+men having learned how to roll out of the way without getting a broken
+arm or leg. In spite of their training and practice, nearly all expected
+to be scratched and bruised. However, it was all part of the game and in
+the day's work.</p>
+
+<p>"All ready now!" called Mr. Pertell. "We're going to have the first
+skirmish, and, after that, Miss Brown, you are to do your ride. Are you
+ready?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," Estelle told the director.</p>
+
+<p>The signal was given through the field telephone and then, with his
+ever-present megaphone, the director began to issue his orders.</p>
+
+<p>The rifles cracked, the big guns rumbled and roared, smoke blew across
+the battlefield and horses snorted and pawed at the ground impatient to
+be off and in the charge. To them it was real, even though their masters
+knew it was only for the movies.</p>
+
+<p>Bugles tooted their inspiring calls, and the officers, who knew the
+significance of the cadence of notes, issued their orders accordingly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Deploy to the left!" came the command to a squad of Union cavalry, and
+the men trotted off, to try a flank movement. Then came the firing of a
+Confederate battery in a desperate attempt to scatter the Union forces.</p>
+
+<p>All the camera men in the employ of the Comet Film Company were engaged
+this day, and Russ was at his wits' end to keep each machine loaded with
+film, and to see that his own was working properly.</p>
+
+<p>Pop Snooks had never before been called on to provide so many "props" as
+he was for this occasion, but he thoroughly enjoyed the work, and when,
+at the last minute, he had to make a rustic bridge whereon two lovers
+had a farewell before the soldier rode off to battle, the veteran
+property man improvised one out of bean poles and fence rails that made
+a most artistic picture.</p>
+
+<p>"They'll have to get up the day before breakfast to beat Pop Snooks!"
+exclaimed Russ, admiringly.</p>
+
+<p>All was now ready for the big cavalry charge.</p>
+
+<p>"All ready!" came the order from Mr. Pertell. "Cameras!"</p>
+
+<p>And the cranks began to work, reeling off the sensitive film.</p>
+
+<p>The two bodies of cavalry rushed toward one another, hoofs thundering,
+carbines cracking,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> sabres flashing in the sun, white puffs of smoke
+showing where the cannon were firing.</p>
+
+<p>"Now Miss Brown!" yelled the director, above the riot of noise. "This is
+where you make the ride of your life!"</p>
+
+<p>"All right!" answered the brave girl, and, giving rein to her horse, she
+dashed off ahead of a detachment of cavalry that was to try to intercept
+her.</p>
+
+<p>On and on rode Estelle. Ruth and Alice, who had finished their part in
+this scene, stood on a little hill, watching her.</p>
+
+<p>On and on dashed Estelle, doing her part well, and foot after foot of
+the film registered her action. She was almost at the end now. She
+reached the Confederate ranks, gave over the message she had carried
+through such danger, and then, turning her horse, dashed away.</p>
+
+<p>How it happened no one could tell. But suddenly Petro stumbled, and
+though Estelle tried to keep him on his feet she could not.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh&mdash;oh!" gasped Ruth. "Look!" and then she turned her head away so as
+not to see.</p>
+
+<p>Alice had a flash of Estelle flying over the head of her falling horse,
+and then, unable to stop, the rushing soldiers on their horses rode over
+the very place where Estelle had fallen.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+
+<h3>A DENIAL OF IDENTITY</h3>
+
+
+<p>Confused shouts, cries, and orders echoed over the field, Mr. Pertell,
+dropping his megaphone, rushed toward the scene of the accident, calling
+on Russ to follow and yelling back an order to have the stretcher men
+and the doctor follow him.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Wherry was even then waiting in readiness, for it had been feared
+that this big scene might result painfully, if not dangerously, for more
+than one. Some men had also been detailed as stretcher bearers and were
+in waiting.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall we film this?" asked one of Russ's helpers, as the former dashed
+past on his way to help Estelle.</p>
+
+<p>"No. Don't take that accident. It won't fit in with the rest of the
+film. It's all right up to that point, though. We can make a retake of
+the last few feet if we have to."</p>
+
+<p>Even in this time of danger and suspense it was necessary to think of
+the play. That must go on, no matter what happened to the players.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Go on with the cavalry charge&mdash;farther over!" directed Mr. Pertell,
+when he arrived on the scene and found a group of men about the fallen
+girl. "You can't do any good here. We'll look after her. I can't delay
+any longer on this scene. Go on with the charge, and carry out the
+program as it was outlined to you. Russ, you look after the camera men."</p>
+
+<p>"What about Estelle?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Wherry and I will see to her."</p>
+
+<p>The girl's golden hair was tumbled about her head, having come loose and
+fallen from under her hat in her fall. She lay in a senseless heap at
+one side of her horse. The animal had not gotten up, and at first it was
+thought he had been killed. But it developed that Estelle had trained
+him to play "dead" after a fall of this kind, and the intelligent
+creature must have thought this was one of those occasions.</p>
+
+<p>"Easy with her, boys," cautioned the director, as the stretcher men
+tenderly picked up the limp form. "She may have some broken bones."</p>
+
+<p>They placed her carefully on the stretcher and bore her to the hospital.
+Mrs. Maguire was ready to assist the trained nurse, who was kept ready
+for just such emergencies.</p>
+
+<p>"The poor little dear!" exclaimed the motherly Irish woman. "Poor little
+dear!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, the cavalry charge went on. Estelle had done her part in
+this. Was it the last part she was to play?</p>
+
+<p>Ruth and Alice asked themselves this as they hurried toward the
+hospital.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, if she should be killed!" gasped Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Wouldn't it be dreadful? And no one to tell who she really is," added
+Alice. "We must go to her."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, as soon as they will let us see her," agreed Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Wherry and the trained nurse were busy over the injured girl. A
+quick examination disclosed no broken bones, but it could not yet be
+told whether or not there were internal injuries. They could only wait
+for her to recover consciousness and hope for the best. All that could
+be done was done.</p>
+
+<p>"Plucky little girl!" murmured Mr. Pertell, when told that Estelle was
+resting easily, but was still insensible. "She must have seen that she
+was going to have a bad fall, but she kept on and saved the film for us.
+We won't have to retake her scene at all&mdash;merely cut out the accident.
+Do your best for her, Dr. Wherry."</p>
+
+<p>"I will, you may be sure."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth and Alice were told that they could see Estelle as soon as she
+recovered consciousness, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> it was safe for visitors to be admitted.
+And several hours after the accident the nurse, Miss Lyon, came to
+summon them from their room, where they were waiting.</p>
+
+<p>"She has opened her eyes," Miss Lyon said.</p>
+
+<p>"Did she ask for us?" Alice asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't say that she did. She seems dazed yet. Sometimes in falls like
+this, where the head is injured, it is days before the patient realizes
+what has happened."</p>
+
+<p>"Is her head injured?" Ruth inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, she seems to have received a hard blow on it. Whether there is a
+fracture or a concussion Dr. Wherry had not yet determined. It will take
+a little time to decide. Meanwhile, you may see her, just for a moment."</p>
+
+<p>Alice and Ruth softly entered the room where Estelle lay on a white bed.
+Her face was pale, but her eyes were bright. There was a subtle odor of
+disinfectants, of opiates and of other drugs in the room&mdash;a veritable
+hospital atmosphere.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't startle her," cautioned the nurse, motioning for silence.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll be careful," promised Alice, in a whisper.</p>
+
+<p>The two sisters approached the bed. Estelle looked at them but, strange
+to say, there was no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span> look of recognition in her eyes. Ruth and Alice
+might have been two strangers for all the notice Estelle took of them.</p>
+
+<p>"She&mdash;she doesn't know us," whispered Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"She will, as soon as you speak," said Miss Lyon. "Just talk to her in a
+low voice, but naturally. She'll know you then, I'm sure."</p>
+
+<p>"How&mdash;how are you feeling?" asked Ruth, in a whisper.</p>
+
+<p>There was no response&mdash;no light of recognition in the eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"A little louder and call her by name," suggested the nurse.</p>
+
+<p>"You try, Alice," Ruth whispered.</p>
+
+<p>Her sister stepped to the bedside.</p>
+
+<p>"Estelle, don't you know me?" Alice asked.</p>
+
+<p>The eyes turned in the direction of the voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Were you speaking to me?" came the question, and both Ruth and Alice
+started at the changed tones of their friend.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, to you," Alice answered.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I <i>don't</i> know you," was the gentle response.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you know me&mdash;Alice DeVere? And this is my sister, Ruth. Don't you
+know us, Estelle?"</p>
+
+<p>"Is your name Estelle?" came the query.</p>
+
+<p>"No, that is <i>your</i> name," and Alice smiled,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span> though a cold hand seemed
+to be clutching at her heart. "That is your name&mdash;you are Estelle. Don't
+you remember?"</p>
+
+<p>"Estelle what? Who is Estelle?"</p>
+
+<p>"You are. You are Estelle Brown! Don't you know your own name?"</p>
+
+<p>The golden head on the white pillow was slowly moved from side to side.
+The bright eyes showed no sign of recognition. Then came the gentle
+voice:</p>
+
+<p>"I am not Estelle Brown. I don't know her. What do you mean? I don't
+know any of you. Why am I here? What has happened? I wish you would take
+me home at once. I live at the Palace."</p>
+
+<p>"What&mdash;what does she mean?" gasped Ruth, looking in alarm at the nurse.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. Perhaps she is delirious and imagines she is playing in
+the moving pictures. Was there a palace scene?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not since she joined the company. But why does she deny her identity?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can not say. Sometimes after an injury like this happens, people say
+queer things. We had better not disturb her further. I'll call Dr.
+Wherry."</p>
+
+<p>Alice made one more effort to bring recollection to Estelle.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Don't you know me, dear?" she asked softly. "I am Alice&mdash;your friend
+Alice. This is Ruth, and you are Estelle Brown, from Boston, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Boston? I was never in Boston. And I am not Estelle Brown. You must be
+mistaken."</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes roved around the hospital room, and a look of pain and fright
+dimmed them. Then, seeming to fear that she had been unkind, she said
+gently to Alice:</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry I do not know you, for you are trying to help me, I am sure.
+But I never heard the name Estelle Brown. I am not she&mdash;that is certain.
+If you would only take me home! My people will be worried. We live at
+the Palace and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She tried to raise herself up in bed. A look of pain came over her face,
+and she fell back with closed eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"She has fainted!" cried Miss Lyon. "I must get Dr. Wherry at once!
+Don't disturb her!"</p>
+
+<p>She hastened off, while Ruth and Alice, not knowing what to think, went
+softly from the room.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XXV</h2>
+
+<h3>REUNION</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Nothing but a passing fancy," said Dr. Wherry, later in the day, when
+Ruth and Alice questioned him about Estelle. "When a person has received
+a hard blow on the head, as Estelle has, the memory is often confused.
+She will be all right in a day or so. Rest and quiet are what she
+needs."</p>
+
+<p>"Then she is in no immediate danger?" asked Mr. Pertell.</p>
+
+<p>"None whatever, physically. She came out of that fall very well, indeed.
+The blow on her head stunned her, but the effects of that will pass
+away. She has no internal injuries that I can discover."</p>
+
+<p>The last scenes of the war play were taken. The Confederates, after
+their final desperate stand were driven back, surrounded and captured.
+The "war" ended.</p>
+
+<p>The regiments of cavalry took their departure. The extra players were
+paid off and left. A few simple scenes were yet to be taken about Oak<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span>
+Farm, but the big work was over, and every one was glad, for the task
+had been no easy one.</p>
+
+<p>"Does Estelle yet admit her identity?" asked Ruth of Dr. Wherry, two
+days after the accident.</p>
+
+<p>The physician scratched his head in perplexity.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I am sorry to say she doesn't," he answered. "She does not seem to
+recognize that name. I wish you and your sister would come in and speak
+to her again. It may be she will recognize you this time. A little shock
+may bring her to herself. I have seen it happen in cases like this."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth and Alice again went to the hospital. Estelle was still in bed, but
+she seemed to be better. But, as before, there was no sign of
+recognition in the bright eyes that gazed at the two moving picture
+girls.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you know me&mdash;us?" asked Alice, gently.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. You were here before, soon after I was brought here," was the
+answer.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Estelle! don't you know us!" cried Ruth, in horror.</p>
+
+<p>"Whom are you calling Estelle?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you. That is your name."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not she. You must be mistaken! Oh, I wish they would take me home.
+I want father&mdash;mother&mdash;I want Auntie Amma. Oh, why don't they come to
+me?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Ruth and Alice looked at one another. What did it mean? This babbling of
+strange names? Was it possible that they were on the track of
+discovering the identity of the girl who now denied the name she had
+given?</p>
+
+<p>"Who is your father?" asked Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"And who is Auntie Amma?" inquired Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, don't you know? They live with me at the Palace. And my doll. Why
+don't you bring my doll?"</p>
+
+<p>"She is delirious again," whispered the nurse. "You had better go.
+Evidently, she thinks she is a child again. Her doll!"</p>
+
+<p>"I want my doll! Why don't you bring me my doll?" persisted the stricken
+girl.</p>
+
+<p>"What doll do you want?" asked Alice.</p>
+
+<p>"My own doll," was the reply. "My dear doll that I always have in bed
+with me when I am ill; my doll Estelle Brown!"</p>
+
+<p>"Estelle Brown!" cried Ruth, in sudden excitement. "Is that the name of
+your doll?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes! Yes! Bring her to me, please!"</p>
+
+<p>"Who gave you that doll?" asked Ruth, and she waited anxiously for the
+answer.</p>
+
+<p>"My doll&mdash;my doll Estelle Brown. Why, my daddy gave her to me, of
+course. My father!"</p>
+
+<p>"And what was your father's name?" asked Ruth in a tense voice.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She and Alice and the nurse leaned forward in eager expectation. They
+all recognized that a crisis was at hand. Would the stricken girl give
+an answer that would be a clue to her identity&mdash;the identity she had
+denied? Or would her words trail off into the meaningless babble of the
+afflicted?</p>
+
+<p>"What is your father's name?" Ruth repeated.</p>
+
+<p>The girl in the bed raised herself to a sitting position. She looked at
+the DeVere sisters&mdash;at the trained nurse. In her eyes now there was not
+so much brightness as there was weariness and pain.</p>
+
+<p>And also there was more of the light of understanding. She looked from
+one to the other. Her lips moved, but no sound came from them. It was a
+tense moment. Would she be able to answer? Would the obviously injured
+brain be able to sift out the right reply from the mass of words that
+hitherto had been meaningless?</p>
+
+<p>"What is your father's name?" repeated Ruth in calm, even tones. "Your
+father who gave you the doll, Estelle Brown? Who is he?"</p>
+
+<p>Like a flash of lightning from the clear sky came the answer.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, he is Daddy Passamore, of course!"</p>
+
+<p>"Passamore!" gasped Alice. "Passamore?"</p>
+
+<p>"Is your name Passamore?" whispered Ruth.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I am Mildred Passamore. My father is Jared Passamore of San
+Francisco. I don't know why I am here, except that I was hurt in the
+railroad accident. If you will telegraph to my father, at the Palace
+Hotel, San Francisco, he will come and get me. And please tell him to
+bring my doll, Estelle Brown.</p>
+
+<p>"I know it seems silly for a big girl like me to have a doll," went on
+the injured one. "But ever since I was a child I have had Estelle with
+me when I was ill. I am ill now, but I feel better than I did. So
+telegraph to Daddy Passamore to bring Estelle Brown with him when he
+comes for me. And tell him I was not badly hurt in the wreck."</p>
+
+<p>And with that, before the wondering eyes of the nurse, of Alice and of
+Ruth, Estelle Brown&mdash;no&mdash;Mildred Passamore, turned over and calmly went
+to sleep!</p>
+
+<p>For an instant those in the hospital room neither moved nor spoke. Then
+Alice cried:</p>
+
+<p>"That solves it! That ends the mystery! I'll go and get the paper."</p>
+
+<p>"What paper?" asked Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you remember? The old paper that I wrapped my scout shoes in when
+we were packing to come to Oak Farm. The one that father saved because
+it had a theatrical notice of him in it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It was that four-year-old paper which contained an account of the
+strange disappearance of the wealthy San Francisco girl, Mildred
+Passamore. Don't you remember? There was a reward of ten thousand
+dollars offered for her discovery."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I do remember!" gasped Ruth. "And this is she!"</p>
+
+<p>"Must be!" declared Alice. "She says that's her name. And from what she
+told us she can, as Estelle Brown, think back only about four years. She
+must have received some injury that took away her memory. Now she is
+herself again.</p>
+
+<p>"Ruth, I believe we have found the missing Mildred Passamore! We must
+tell daddy at once, and Mr. Pertell. Then we must telegraph Mr.
+Passamore. I'll get his address from the old paper. But the Palace
+Hotel, San Francisco, will reach him, I presume. Oh, isn't it all
+wonderful!"</p>
+
+<p>"It certainly is," agreed Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>They gave one glance at the sleeping girl&mdash;Mildred or Estelle&mdash;and then
+went out, while Miss Lyon summoned Dr. Wherry to acquaint him with the
+strange turn of the case.</p>
+
+<p>"Mildred Passamore found! How wonderful!" exclaimed Mr. DeVere, when his
+daughters told him what had happened. "But we must make sure. It would
+be a sad affair if we sent word to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> the father, and it turned out that
+this girl was not his daughter. We must make sure."</p>
+
+<p>Alice got out the old paper. It contained a description of the missing
+Mildred Passamore, and in another newspaper dated a few days before the
+one Alice had used as a wrapper for her shoes (another paper which Mr.
+DeVere had saved because of a notice in it) was a picture of the girl.</p>
+
+<p>"It is she! Our girl&mdash;the one we knew as Estelle Brown&mdash;is Mildred
+Passamore!" cried Alice as she looked at the picture in the paper.</p>
+
+<p>"There is no doubt of it," agreed Ruth, and Mr. DeVere affirmed his
+daughters' opinions.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Pertell was told of the occurrence, and, being a good judge of
+pictures and persons, he decided there was no doubt as to the identity.</p>
+
+<p>"We will telegraph to Mr. Passamore at once," decided the director.</p>
+
+<p>The crisis&mdash;for such it was in the case of the injured girl&mdash;seemed to
+mark a turn for the better. She slept nearly forty-eight hours,
+awakening only to take a little nourishment. Then she slept again. She
+did not again mention any names, nor, in fact, anything else. Her
+friends could only wait for the arrival of Mr. Passamore to have him
+make sure of the identity.</p>
+
+<p>He had sent a message in answer to the one from Mr. Pertell saying that
+he and his wife were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span> hastening across the continent in a special train.</p>
+
+<p>"That means he hasn't found his daughter up to this time," said the
+manager, "and there is every chance that this girl is she."</p>
+
+<p>Three days after her startling announcement Estelle or Mildred, as she
+was variously called, was much better. She sat up and seemed to be in
+her right mind.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't in the least know what it is all about, nor how I came here,"
+she said, smiling. "The last I remember is being in a railroad train on
+my way from San Francisco to visit relatives in Seattle. There was a
+crash, and the next I knew I found myself in bed here. I presume you
+brought me here from the train wreck."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you were brought here after the&mdash;the&mdash;ah, accident," said Mr.
+Pertell, lamely.</p>
+
+<p>"The nurse tells me you are a moving picture company," went on Mildred.
+"I shall be interested to see how you act. I always had a half-formed
+desire to be a moving picture actress, but I know Daddy Passamore would
+never consent to it."</p>
+
+<p>"And she's been in the films for three years or more, and doesn't
+remember a thing about it!" murmured Alice. "Good-night!"</p>
+
+<p>"Alice!" rebuked her sister. But Alice, for once, did not care for
+Ruth's rebuke. Her aston<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span>ishment was too great. And it was a queer case.</p>
+
+<p>"We must be very careful!" said Dr. Wherry when, after a swift ride
+across the continent, Mr. Passamore and his wife reached Oak Farm. "We
+must not startle the patient."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but I want to see my little girl!" cried the mother, with tears in
+her eyes. "My little girl whom I thought gone for ever!"</p>
+
+<p>"I hope this will prove to be she," said Mr. DeVere.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure it will!" cried the father. "No one but Mildred would remember
+her old doll&mdash;Estelle Brown!" and he held up a battered toy.</p>
+
+<p>Softly, the parents entered the room. The girl on the bed heard some one
+come in, and sat up. There was a look of joy and happiness on her face;
+and yet it was not such as would come after a separation of four years.
+It was as if she had only separated from her loved ones a few hours
+before.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Daddy! Momsey!" she cried. "I did so want you! And did you bring
+Estelle Brown?"</p>
+
+<p>"My little girl! My own little lost girl!" cried Mrs. Passamore. "Oh,
+after all these years&mdash;when we had given you up for dead!"</p>
+
+<p>"After all these years? Why, Momsey, I left you only two days ago to go
+to Seattle. There must have been a wreck or something; for I heard<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span> a
+dreadful crash, and then I awakened here with these nice moving picture
+folk. They were on the same train, I guess."</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Wherry made the parents a signal not to tell the secret just yet.</p>
+
+<p>"And did you bring Estelle?" asked Mildred.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, here is your doll!" and as Mr. Passamore handed it to his daughter
+he and his wife exchanged tearful glances of joy. The lost had been
+found.</p>
+
+<p>It was a scene of rejoicing at Oak Farm, and the moving picture girls
+came in for a big share of praise. For had it not been for the fact that
+Alice had seen the paper containing the account of the missing girl and
+saved it, the identity of Mildred might not have been disclosed for some
+time.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, she was told what had happened; that for four years she had
+been another person&mdash;Estelle Brown&mdash;a name she had taken after the
+awakening following the railroad accident because of some kink in the
+brain that retained the memory of the doll.</p>
+
+<p>"Then Lieutenant Varley was right, he must have seen you in Portland,"
+said Alice, when explanations were being made.</p>
+
+<p>"He must have," admitted Mildred. "But I don't understand how it
+happened."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Later on it was all made clear.</p>
+
+<p>Mildred Passamore, the daughter of a wealthy family, living temporarily
+at the Palace Hotel, in San Francisco, had started on a trip to visit
+relatives in Seattle. She was well supplied with money.</p>
+
+<p>The train Mildred was on was wrecked near Portland, Oregon, and the girl
+received a blow on her head that caused her to lose her sense of
+identity completely. She did not seem to be hurt, and she was not in
+need of medical aid. Without assistance, she got on the relief train
+that took the injured in to Portland, and there it was that Lieutenant
+Varley saw her in the station.</p>
+
+<p>Through some vagary of her brain, Mildred imagined she wanted to go to
+New York, and, as she had plenty of money, she bought a ticket for that
+city, the one to Seattle having been lost. Lieutenant Varley had helped
+her and, though he suspected something was wrong with the young lady the
+impression with him was not very strong until it was too late to be of
+assistance to her.</p>
+
+<p>So, her identity completely lost, Mildred started on her trip across the
+continent. What happened on that journey she never could recollect
+clearly. That she got on the Great Lakes and then went to Boston was
+established. The reason for that was that, as a child, she had lived
+there. This ac<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span>counted for the toilet set her mother had given her, and
+for the recollection of the monument and the historic places.</p>
+
+<p>Why she was attracted to moving pictures could only be guessed at, but
+she "broke in," and "made good." Her ability to ride was easily
+explained. Her father owned a big stock farm, and Mildred had ridden
+since a child. But all this, as well as other remembrances of her
+younger days, was lost after the injury to her head in the railroad
+accident. She retained but one strongly marked memory&mdash;the name of her
+doll, the name which she took for her own.</p>
+
+<p>So, as a new personage, she came to Oak Farm, unable to think back more
+than four years, and totally without suspicion that she was the missing
+Mildred Passamore. That she was not recognized as the missing girl was
+not strange, since the search in the East had not been prosecuted as
+vigorously as it had been in the West.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. and Mrs. Passamore, hearing that the train on which their daughter
+was traveling had been wrecked, hastened to Portland, but there they
+could find no trace of Mildred. Lieutenant Varley, who might have given
+a clue, had sailed for Europe the day after his meeting with Mildred.
+Then began the search which lasted four years, and had now come to an
+end at Oak Farm.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And to think that I have been two persons all this while!" exclaimed
+Mildred, when explanations had been made, and she was on the road to
+recovery. "But what made my memory come back?"</p>
+
+<p>"The same thing that took it from you," explained Dr. Wherry. "It was
+the blow you received on the head when you fell from your horse. There
+had been a pressure on your brain, from the railroad crash, and the fall
+from your horse relieved it, so you came to yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I wonder if I could have taken Miss Dixon's ring in my second
+personality?" asked Mildred one day, when various happenings were being
+explained to her.</p>
+
+<p>"No, you didn't!" exclaimed Alice. "It was found down under the carpet,
+back of her bureau. A maid discovered it there when cleaning. And that
+snip of a Miss Dixon left without apologizing to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it doesn't matter, since I am not Estelle Brown, and my doll
+doesn't care what they say about her!" laughed Mildred. Miss Dixon and
+her friend had left Oak Farm to go back to New York, for their part in
+the pictures was finished for the time being.</p>
+
+<p>"And to think that I really became a movie actress, after all!" laughed
+Estelle. "I think I shall<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span> continue in it, Daddy! It must be fun, though
+I don't recollect anything about it."</p>
+
+<p>"No you sha'n't!" laughed Mr. Passamore. "Your mother and I want you at
+home for a while."</p>
+
+<p>There is little more to tell.</p>
+
+<p>Mildred Passamore rapidly recovered her health and strength. Her part in
+the pictures was finished and though he did not exactly relish the
+appearance on the screen of his daughter in battle scenes, the
+millionaire, realizing what his refusal would mean to Mr. Pertell, made
+no objections. Besides, it was Estelle Brown who was filmed, not Miss
+Passamore.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what is next on the program?" asked Alice of the director one
+day, after several other war plays had been made and when they were
+about to leave Oak Farm, to go back to New York.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I think I'm going to get out a big film entitled 'Life in the
+Slums.' You and Ruth will play the star parts."</p>
+
+<p>"No!" laughed Alice. "Not since we became millionaires. You will have to
+cast us for rich girls. Mr. Passamore gave us the ten thousand dollars
+reward, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"All right!" laughed the director, "then I'll bill you as the rich-poor
+girls."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Before going back to San Francisco with Mildred, Mr. Passamore had
+insisted that Ruth and Alice take the reward, as it was through their
+agency that he received word of his daughter's whereabouts. But Ruth and
+Alice insisted on sharing their good fortune with their friends in the
+company, so all benefited from it.</p>
+
+<p>The day came for the moving picture players to leave Oak Farm.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye, Sandy!" called Alice to the young farmer. "I suppose you're
+glad to see the last of us!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, not exactly, no'm! Still, I'll be glad not to see houses and
+barns that have only fronts to 'em, and there won't be no more mistakes
+made trying to haul up water from a well that's only made of painted
+muslin. I'll try an' get back to real life for a change!"</p>
+
+<p>The big war play was over. It was a big success when shown on the
+screen, and the pictures of Ruth, Alice and Mildred&mdash;or Estelle Brown,
+as she was billed&mdash;came out well. The fight where Paul and his men were
+nearly blown up was most realistic.</p>
+
+<p>"You girls are not going to retire, just because you have a little
+money, are you?" asked Russ of Ruth, one day, when they were back in New
+York.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, we're not!" cried Alice. "And I wouldn't be surprised if
+Mildred joined us. I had a letter from her the other day, and, after
+seeing herself on the screen, she says she is crazy to do it all over
+again. Give up the movies? Never!"</p>
+
+<p>And it remains for time to show what further fame the Moving Picture
+Girls won in the silent drama. For the present, we will say farewell.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class='tnote'><h3>Transcriber's Notes</h3>
+<p>Obvious punctuation errors corrected.</p>
+
+<p>The remaining corrections made are indicated by dotted lines under the corrections.
+Scroll the mouse over the word and the original text will <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'apprear'">appear</ins>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS IN WAR PLAYS***</p>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Moving Picture Girls in War Plays, by
+Laura Lee Hope
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Moving Picture Girls in War Plays
+       Or, The Sham Battles at Oak Farm
+
+
+Author: Laura Lee Hope
+
+
+
+Release Date: January 12, 2007  [eBook #20348]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS IN WAR
+PLAYS***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, J. P. W. Fraser, Emmy, and
+the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+(https://www.pgdp.net/c/)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustration.
+      See 20348-h.htm or 20348-h.zip:
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+      or
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+
+
+
+
+
+THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS IN WAR PLAYS
+
+Or
+
+The Sham Battles at Oak Farm
+
+by
+
+LAURA LEE HOPE
+
+Author of "The Moving Picture Girls," "The Moving Picture
+Girls at Sea," "The Outdoor Girls Series,"
+"The Bobbsey Twins Series," "The Bunny
+Brown Series," Etc.
+
+Illustrated
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+The Saalfield Publishing Co.
+Akron, Ohio        New York
+Made in U.S.A.
+
+Copyright, 1916, by
+Grosset & Dunlap
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "HERE THEY COME!" YELLED PAUL, AS THE FIRST OF THE
+SOLDIERS CAME INTO VIEW--_Page 78._
+
+_The Moving Picture Girls in War Plays._]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+          CHAPTER                                PAGE
+
+              I THE OLD NEWSPAPER                  1
+
+             II OFF FOR OAK FARM                  11
+
+            III HARD AT WORK                      21
+
+             IV A REHEARSAL                       30
+
+              V A DARING RIDER                    40
+
+             VI A NEEDED LESSON                   48
+
+            VII ESTELLE'S LEAP                    61
+
+           VIII A MASSED ATTACK                   70
+
+             IX MISS DIXON'S LOSS                 79
+
+              X LIEUTENANT VARLEY                 87
+
+             XI WONDERINGS                        97
+
+            XII AN INTERRUPTION                  103
+
+           XIII FORGETFULNESS                    111
+
+            XIV IN THE SMOKE                     120
+
+             XV THE HOSPITAL TENT                130
+
+            XVI A RETAKE                         137
+
+           XVII ESTELLE'S STORY                  143
+
+          XVIII "WHAT CAN WE DO?"                149
+
+            XIX A BIG GUN                        158
+
+             XX A WRONG SHOT                     164
+
+            XXI THE BIG SCENE                    171
+
+           XXII ALICE DOES WELL                  179
+
+          XXIII A BAD FALL                       186
+
+           XXIV A DENIAL OF IDENTITY             192
+
+            XXV REUNION                          199
+
+
+
+
+THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS
+IN WAR PLAYS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE OLD NEWSPAPER
+
+
+"There, I think I have everything in that I'll need at Oak Farm."
+
+"Everything! Good gracious, Ruth, how quickly you pack! Why, I've oceans
+and oceans of things yet to go into my trunk! Oh, there are my scout
+shoes. I've been looking everywhere for them. I'll need them if I do any
+hiking in those war scenes," and Alice DeVere dived under a pile of
+clothing, bringing to light a muddy, but comfortable, pair of walking
+shoes. "I don't know what I'd do without them," she murmured.
+
+"Alice!" cried Ruth, her sister, and the shocked tone of her voice made
+the younger girl look up quickly from the contemplation of the shoes.
+
+"Why, what have I done now?" came in rather injured accents. "I'm sure I
+didn't use any slang; and as for not having all my things packed as
+quickly as you, why, Ruth, my dear, you must remember that you are an
+exception--the one that proves the rule."
+
+"I didn't say you used any slang, Alice dear. Nor did I intimate that
+you were behind in your packing. I'll gladly help you. But it---- Those
+shoes!" and she pointed a finger dramatically at the "brogans," as Alice
+sometimes called them.
+
+"Those shoes? What's the matter with them? They're a perfectly good
+pair, as far as I can see; and they're mighty comfortable."
+
+"Oh, Alice--mighty?"
+
+"Well, I can't get over using such words, especially since we heard so
+many strong expressions from the sailors when we were in those sea
+films. Mine sound weak now. But what's the matter with the shoes, Ruth?"
+
+"They're so muddy, dear. They will soil all your pretty things if you
+put them in your trunk in that condition. You don't want that, do you?"
+
+"I should say not--most decidedly! Especially since pretty things with
+me last about one day. I don't see how it is you keep yours so nice and
+fresh, Ruth."
+
+"It's because I'm careful, dear."
+
+"Careful! Bosh! Care killed a cat, they say. I'm sure I'm careful,
+too---- Oh, here's that lace collar I've been looking everywhere for!"
+
+She made a sudden reach for it, there was a ripping, tearing sound, and
+Alice was gazing ruefully at a rent in the sleeve of her dress.
+
+"Oh, for the love of trading stamps!" she ejaculated.
+
+"Alice!" gasped Ruth.
+
+"Well, I don't care! I had to say something. Look at that rip! And I
+wanted to wear this dress to-day. Oh----"
+
+"That's just it, Alice," interrupted Ruth, in a gentle, chiding voice.
+"You are too impulsive. If you had reached for that lace less hurriedly
+you wouldn't have torn your dress. And if you took care of your things
+and didn't let your laces and ribbons get strewn about so, they would
+last longer and look fresher. I don't want to lecture----"
+
+"I know you don't, you old dear!" and Alice leaned over--they were both
+sitting on the floor in front of trunks--and made a motion as though to
+embrace her sister. But a warning rip caused her to desist, and, looking
+over her shoulder, she found her skirt caught on a corner of the trunk.
+
+"There! Did you ever?" she cried. "I can't even give you a
+sisterly hug without pulling myself to pieces. I'm all
+upset--excited--unstrung--Wellington Bunn doing Hamlet isn't to be
+compared to me. I must get straightened out."
+
+"I guess that's it--you're all tangled up in your packing," said Ruth,
+with a laugh. "Truly, I don't mean to lecture, Alice, but you must go a
+bit slower."
+
+"Not with this packing--I can't, and be ready in time. Why! you are all
+prepared to go. I'll just throw the things into my trunk and----"
+
+"Now, don't do that. Don't throw things in. You can put in twice as much
+if you lay the things in neatly. I'll help you. But--oh, dear----!"
+
+Ruth made a gesture of despair.
+
+"What's the matter now? What are you registering?" and Alice used the
+moving picture term for depicting one of the standard emotions. The
+girls were both moving picture actresses.
+
+"I'm trying to register dismay at the muddy state of those scout shoes,
+as you call them, Alice. They may be nice and comfortable, as you say,
+and really they do look so. And I have no doubt you will find them
+useful if we have to do much tramping over the hills of Oak Farm.
+But----"
+
+"Oh, we'll have to do plenty of hiking, as Russ Dalwood warned us,"
+Alice put in. "You know, there are to be several Civil War plays filmed,
+and they didn't have automobiles or motor cycles to get about on in
+those days. So we'll have to walk. And it will be over rough ground, so
+I thought these shoes would be just the thing."
+
+"They will, Alice. I must get a pair myself, I think. But I was just
+wondering how you got them so terribly muddy. How did you?"
+
+"Oh, Paul Ardite and I were in that Central Park scene the other day.
+You know, 'A Daughter of the Woods,' and some of the scenes were filmed
+in the park. It was muddy, and I didn't get a chance to have the brogans
+cleaned, for I had to jump from the park into the ballroom scene of 'His
+Own Enemy,' and there was no time. We had to retake in that scene
+because one of the extras was wearing white canvas shoes instead of
+ballroom slippers, and the director didn't notice it until the film was
+run out in the projection room.
+
+"So that accounts for the mud on the shoes, Ruth. But I suppose I can
+'phone down to the janitor and have him send them out to the Italian at
+the corner. He'll take the mud off."
+
+"No, I don't know that you can do that, Alice. We haven't any too much
+time. If I had an old newspaper, I could wrap the shoes up in that for
+you, and pack them in the bottom of your trunk. Then the mud wouldn't
+soil your clothes."
+
+"An old newspaper? Here's a stack of them. Daddy just brought them from
+his room. Guess he's going to throw them away."
+
+Alice reached up to a table and lifted the top paper from a pile near
+the edge. She opened it with a flirt of her hand and was about to wrap
+the muddy shoes in it when some headlines on one page caught her
+attention. She leaned eagerly forward to read them, and spent more than
+a minute going over the article beneath.
+
+"Well," remarked Ruth finally, with a smile, "if you're going to do
+that, Alice, you'll never get packed. What is it that interests you?"
+
+"This, about a missing girl. Why, look here, Ruth, there's a reward of
+ten thousand dollars offered for news of her! Why, I don't remember
+seeing this before. Look, it's quite startling. A San Francisco
+girl--Mildred Passamore--mysteriously disappears while on a train bound
+for Seattle--can't find any trace of her--parents distracted--they've
+got detectives on the trail--going to flood the country with photographs
+of her--all sorts of things feared--but think of it!--ten thousand
+dollars reward!"
+
+"Let me see," and in spite of the necessity for haste in the packing,
+Ruth DeVere forgot it for the moment and came to look over her sister's
+shoulder to read the account of the missing California girl.
+
+"It is strange," murmured Ruth. "I don't remember about that. I wonder
+if she could be around here? The New York police are wonderful in
+working on mystery cases."
+
+"But the funny part of it is," said Alice, "that I haven't noticed
+anything about it in the New York papers. Have you? This is a San
+Francisco paper. Naturally they'd have more about it than would the
+journals here. But even the New York papers would have big accounts of
+such a case, especially where such a large reward is offered."
+
+"That's so," agreed Ruth. "I wonder why we haven't seen an account of it
+in our papers. I read them every day."
+
+"What's that? An account of what? Have the papers been missing
+anything?" asked a deep, vibrating voice, and an elderly man came into
+the girls' room and regarded them smilingly.
+
+"Oh, hello, Daddy!" cried Alice, blowing him a kiss. "I'm almost ready."
+
+"Hum, yes! You look it!" and he laughed.
+
+"It's this, Daddy," went on Ruth, holding out the paper. "We were going
+to wrap Alice's muddy shoes in this sheet, when we happened to notice an
+account of the mysterious disappearance of a Mildred Passamore, of San
+Francisco, for whom ten thousand dollars reward is offered. There has
+been nothing in the New York papers about it."
+
+Mr. DeVere, an old-time actor, and now employed, with his daughters, by
+a large motion picture concern, reached forth his hand for the paper.
+He gave one look at the article, and then his eyes went up to the
+date-line. He laughed.
+
+"No wonder there hasn't been anything in the New York papers of to-day
+about this case," he said. "This paper is four years old! But I remember
+the Passamore case very well. It created quite a sensation at the time."
+
+"Poor girl! Was she ever found?" asked Ruth.
+
+"Why, yes; I believe she was," said Mr. DeVere, in rather dreamy tones.
+He was looking over other articles in the paper.
+
+"Who got the reward?" asked Alice.
+
+"Eh? What's that?" Her father seemed to come back from a mental journey
+to the past.
+
+"I say, who got the reward?"
+
+"What reward?"
+
+"Why, Daddy! The one offered for the finding of Miss Passamore. The girl
+we just told you about--in the paper--ten thousand dollars. Don't you
+remember?"
+
+"Oh, yes. I was thinking of something else I just read here. Oh, the
+reward! Well, I suppose the police got it. I don't remember, to tell you
+the truth. I know that her disappearance at the time created quite a
+sensation."
+
+"And are you sure she was found?"
+
+"Oh, yes, quite sure. Look here!" and with a smile on his face he
+leaned forward, one rather fat finger pointing to the article he had
+just been reading. "I was wondering how you girls got hold of this old
+back-number paper, but I see it's one of several I saved because they
+had printed notices of my acting. This is a very good and fair criticism
+of my work when I was appearing in Shakespearian drama--a very fair
+notice, ahem!" and Mr. DeVere leaned back in his chair, a gratified
+smile on his face.
+
+"A fair notice! I should say it was!" laughed Alice. "It does nothing
+but praise you, and says the others offered you miserable support."
+
+"Well, it was fair to _me_," said Mr. DeVere. "Yes, I remember that tour
+very well. We were in California at the time of this Miss Passamore's
+disappearance. Helen Gordon was my leading lady then. Ah, yes, that was
+four years ago."
+
+"No wonder there wasn't anything in to-day's New York papers," said
+Alice. "Well, let me wrap up my shoes, and I'll try to have this packing
+done in time to get out to Oak Farm."
+
+"Yes, I just stopped in to see how you were coming on," put in her
+father. "Mr. Pertell wants to get started, and it won't do to disappoint
+him. There are to be several thousand men and horses in the production,
+and the bill for extras will be heavy."
+
+"I'll hustle along, Daddy!" cried Alice. "Do you want that paper?"
+
+"No, you may take it. I'll just tear out this page with the theatrical
+notice of myself."
+
+He handed the remainder of the paper to his daughter, who, with the help
+of her sister, wrapped up the muddy shoes.
+
+Then the girls proceeded with the putting in of other articles and
+garments that would be needed during their stay at Oak Farm.
+
+"I wonder----" began Alice, when there came a knock on their door, and a
+voice demanded:
+
+"I say, girls!--are you there?"
+
+"Yes, Russ. Come on in!" answered Alice.
+
+"Oh, and with the room looking the way it is!" remonstrated Ruth.
+
+"Can't be helped. Russ knows what packing is," Alice declared, as a
+tall, good-looking young man entered.
+
+"Come on!" he cried. "No time to lose."
+
+"What's the matter? Is the place on fire?" asked Ruth.
+
+"No. But there's got to be a retake in that last scene of 'Only a
+Flivver,' and Mr. Pertell sent me to get you. It won't take long, but
+they're in a hurry for it. Come on! Paul is waiting outside in the
+machine and I've got the camera. Hustle!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+OFF FOR OAK FARM
+
+
+"What's that, Russ? A retake?" asked Alice.
+
+"Yes, of that auto scene in the park."
+
+"Is that the one I'm in?" Ruth inquired.
+
+"Yes. You're both in it, and so is Paul. It's the scene where Mr. Bunn
+is struck by the auto mud-guard--not hurt, you know, and you, Ruth, jump
+out to give first aid."
+
+"What's the matter with the scene?" asked Alice. "I certainly struck him
+all right with the mud-guard."
+
+"Yes, that part was all right," Russ admitted. Alice had been running
+the automobile in the scene.
+
+"And didn't I do my first aid business well?" Ruth demanded.
+
+"Yes," Russ acknowledged. "Your part came out perfect. But just at the
+critical moment--you know, where Mr. Bunn was supposed to think he was
+dying and wanted to right the wrong he had done in cutting his daughter
+off in his will with only a dollar--some boys got in the way of the
+camera. They were outsiders, butting in, the way they always do when we
+film stuff in the park. It wouldn't have been so bad, only one of the
+youngsters began to pull off some funny stuff right in range of Mr.
+Bunn's agonized face. I didn't see him at the time, or I'd have stopped
+the running of the film. It was only when we got it in the projection
+room that we discovered it.
+
+"So Mr. Pertell ordered a retake of that one scene, and it's got to be
+done in a hurry. It won't take long. Mr. Bunn will meet us in the park.
+Be sure and wear the same things you had on that day. It won't do to
+have you get out of the auto in one dress, Ruth, and, a second later,
+kneel down beside Mr. Bunn in a gown entirely different."
+
+"All right, Russ, I'll be careful."
+
+"Oh, dear! But my packing!" sighed Alice. "I'll never get it done, and
+we must start for Oak Farm----"
+
+"Mr. Pertell will have to make allowances," said Russ, quickly. "Come
+on--move the boat! You won't be needed in the real war scenes for a
+couple of days, anyhow, though I suppose there'll be rehearsals. But it
+can't be helped. This retake is holding up the whole film, and it's to
+be released next week."
+
+Delaying only long enough to put on the proper dresses and to tell their
+father where they were going, Ruth and Alice DeVere were soon on their
+way to Central Park, where the scene was to be filmed, or photographed
+over again--a "retake," as it is called, the bane alike of camera men
+and directors.
+
+And while the girls--the moving picture girls--are on their way to do
+over a bit of work, I shall take the opportunity of telling my new
+readers something about Ruth and Alice DeVere.
+
+I have called them just what they are: "The Moving Picture Girls," and
+that is the title of the first volume of this series, which depicts them
+and their adventures.
+
+Their mother had died some years previously, leaving them to the care of
+their father, Hosmer DeVere, at one time a talented actor in the
+legitimate drama. But a throat affection forced him to give up his
+acting and, at the opening scene in the first volume, we find him and
+his daughters in rather straitened circumstances, living in a
+second-rate apartment house in New York.
+
+Across the hall dwelt Russ Dalwood, with his mother. Russ was a "camera
+man." That is, he took moving pictures in the big studios and out of
+doors for the Comet Film Company, of which Mr. Frank Pertell was manager
+and director.
+
+It was Russ who suggested to Mr. DeVere a way out of his troubles. He
+could not act in the "legitimate," as his voice was gone; but no voice
+is needed to appear on the films for the movies, since a mere motion of
+the lips suffices, when any speaking is to be done. The "silent drama"
+has been the salvation of many an actor who, if he had to declaim his
+lines, would be a failure.
+
+At first Mr. DeVere would not hear of acting before the camera, but he
+soon came to know that greater actors than he had fallen in line with
+the work, especially since the pay was so large, and finally he
+consented. An account of his success and of the entrance of his
+daughters into the field is given in the initial book.
+
+Ruth, the elder girl, was, like her father, of a romantic turn. Also she
+was rather tall and willowy, as Mr. DeVere had been before he had taken
+on flesh with the passing of the years; and she was cast for parts that
+suited her type. She was deliberate in her actions, and in "registry."
+
+Alice, like her late mother, was warm-hearted and impulsive, plump,
+vivacious and full of fun. Both girls were excellent movie actresses. In
+the company they had joined was Mr. Wellington Bunn, an old actor, who
+hoped, some day, to appear in Hamlet--Hamlet in the legitimate.
+
+Paul Ardite, who played light parts, had become very fond of Alice.
+Russ Dalwood had a liking for Ruth, and the four had many pleasant hours
+in each other's company.
+
+Pearl Pennington was the leading lady at times, and was rather disposed
+to domineer over our girls, as was her chum, Laura Dixon. Mrs. Maguire
+was the "mother" of the film company. She portrayed old lady parts, and
+her two grandchildren, Tommie and Nellie, the orphans, were cast for
+characters suitable to them.
+
+Carl Switzer, a German-American, did comedy parts and was a good fellow,
+though occasionally he would unconsciously say some very funny things.
+His opposite in character was Pepper Sneed, the grouch of the company.
+But Pepper could do valuable work, especially as a villain, and so he
+was kept on. As for Pop Snooks, the company could not have got along
+without him. It was Pop, the property man of the company, who made many
+of the devices used when the company went to "Oak Farm," as told in the
+second volume, where scenes for farm dramas were filmed. Pop could use a
+drawbridge in one scene, and, in the next, convert it into a perfectly
+good cow-barn. Pop was a valuable man.
+
+There were other members of the company, of more or less importance,
+whom you will meet as this story progresses.
+
+It was in the third volume of the series, "The Moving Picture Girls
+Snowbound," that Ruth and Alice succeeded in getting "the proof on the
+film" that saved Mr. DeVere from an unjust charge.
+
+From the cold and frostiness of Deerfield the girls went to Florida,
+where "Under the Palms," many stirring acts were filmed. It was here
+that Alice and Ruth helped find two girls who were lost in the wilds of
+the Everglades.
+
+"The Moving Picture Girls at Rocky Ranch" gave Ruth and Alice a taste of
+cowboy life, and though rivals tried to spoil some of the valuable
+films, they were not altogether successful, even though a prairie fire
+figured in their schemes.
+
+The girls, with their father, had recently returned from a perilous
+trip. This is told about in the volume immediately preceding the one you
+are reading--"The Moving Picture Girls at Sea." In that Alice and Ruth
+proved, not only their versatility as actresses, but also that they
+could be brave and resourceful in the face of danger. And they more than
+repaid the old sailor, Jack Jepson, who saved their lives, by doing him
+a good turn.
+
+"Well, life at Oak Farm will be vastly different from that on the _Mary
+Ellen_," remarked Alice, as she looked from the automobile as it swung
+along through the New York streets on the way to the park.
+
+"Yes," agreed her sister. "But I like it up there."
+
+"There are going to be some strenuous times," said Paul. "We've got to
+do some hustling work."
+
+"All the better," declared Russ. "I like to keep the film running. This
+sitting about all day and reeling off only ten feet makes me tired."
+
+"You like action!" laughed Ruth.
+
+"Yes; and plenty of it."
+
+Oak Farm was the property of the Apgars. There was Mr. Belix Apgar, the
+father, Nance, his wife, and Sandy, an energetic son. The farm was
+located in New Jersey, about forty miles from New York, and it provided
+a picturesque background for the scenes evolved by Mr. Pertell and his
+company. It was during a scene on the farm, some time before, that a
+valuable discovery had been made, which endeared the moving picture
+girls and their chums to the Apgars.
+
+"How did Mr. Pertell come to pick out Oak Farm for the war plays?" asked
+Ruth, as the automobile bounced along.
+
+"Well, I suggested it to him," answered Russ. "I remembered the
+background, and I felt sure we could get all sorts of settings there to
+make the proper scenes. There are hills, mountains, valleys, streams,
+bridges, waterfalls, cliffs and caves. Everything needed for perfectly
+good war dramas."
+
+"How did they come to want that sort of stuff?" asked Paul.
+
+"Oh, war stuff is going big now," Russ answered. "All this talk of
+preparedness, you know, the war in Europe, and all that. The public is
+fairly 'eating up' war pictures."
+
+"I hope we don't have to fire any guns!" exclaimed Ruth, with a shudder.
+
+"You'll see and hear plenty of 'em fired," Russ told her. "There are to
+be some big battle scenes and cavalry charges. But one of you will be
+back of the firing line, I believe."
+
+"How is that?" asked Alice.
+
+"Well, one of you girls is to be cast for an army nurse, and the other
+will be a spy. The spy has to carry a revolver."
+
+"I'm going to be the spy!" cried Alice, impetuously. "I know how to
+shoot a gun."
+
+"I'd rather be the nurse," murmured Ruth, and truly she was better
+fitted for that part.
+
+"'A Girl in Blue and A Girl in Gray' is to be the title of the war
+play--or at least one of them," went on Russ. "There will be some lively
+scenes, and I'll be on the jump most of the time."
+
+"Are you going to film them all?" asked Paul.
+
+"Oh, no. I'm to have several assistants, but I'll be in general charge
+of the camera squad. So, girls, look your prettiest."
+
+"They always do that," said Paul.
+
+"Thank you!" came in a feminine duet.
+
+A little later the place where the retake was to be made was reached.
+Mr. Bunn was on hand, wearing his air of "Hamletian gloom," as Alice
+whispered, and the work of retaking the scenes was soon under way.
+
+This time all went well. Alice drove her "flivver" at Mr. Bunn, who was
+properly knocked down and looked after by Ruth. No small boys, with an
+exaggerated sense of humor, got in the way, and the girls were shortly
+back in their apartment. They had moved to a more pretentious home since
+their success in moving pictures, and the Dalwoods had taken an
+apartment in the same building.
+
+"And now to get on with my packing!" sighed Alice. "All I am sure of is
+that I have my 'brogans' in."
+
+"I'll help you," offered Ruth.
+
+Two days later the Comet Film Company, augmented for the occasion, was
+at the depot in Hoboken, ready to take the Lackawanna train out to Oak
+Farm, New Jersey, where it nestled in the hills of Sussex County.
+
+"I don't see how they are going to take battle scenes with just this
+company," observed Alice, as she surveyed her fellow workers. "And where
+are the guns and horses?"
+
+"They'll come up later," Russ informed her. "There are to be two big
+companies and a couple of batteries, but they won't be on hand until
+they are really needed. It costs too much to keep them when they are not
+working."
+
+"Are you all here?" asked Mr. Pertell hurrying along the seats with a
+handful of tickets--"counting noses," so to speak.
+
+"All here, I think," answered Russ.
+
+"Where is Carl Switzer?" asked the manager.
+
+"He was here a minute ago," Alice said.
+
+"Well, he isn't here now," remarked Mr. Bunn.
+
+"And almost time for the train to start!" exploded the director. "We
+need him in some of the first scenes to-morrow. Get him, somebody!"
+
+"Hey, Mister! Does yer mean dat funny, moon-faced man what talks like a
+pretzel?" asked a newsboy in the station.
+
+"Yes, that's Mr. Switzer," was the answer. "Where is he?"
+
+"I jest seen him go out dat way," and the boy pointed toward the doors
+leading to the street in front of the ferry. This street led over to the
+interned German steamships at the Hoboken piers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+HARD AT WORK
+
+
+"Great Scott!" ejaculated Mr. Pertell. "I might have known that if
+Switzer came anywhere near his German friends he'd be off having a
+confab with them. Go after him, somebody! It's only five minutes to
+train time, and it will take those Germans that long to say how-de-do to
+one another, without getting down to business."
+
+"I'll get him," offered Paul, hurrying off toward the swinging doors.
+
+"I'll go wit' youse," said the newsboy. "I likes t' listen t' him talk.
+Does he do a Dutch act?"
+
+"Sometimes," laughed Paul.
+
+"Youse is actors, ain't youse?" the boy asked.
+
+"Movies," answered Paul, hurrying along toward the entrance to the
+shipyards.
+
+"I wuz in 'em onct," went on the lad. "Dey wuz a scene where us guys wuz
+sellin' papes, an' anudder guy comes along, and t'rows a handful of
+money in de street--he had so much he didn't know what t' do wit'
+it--dat wuz in de picture," he explained. "I wuz in de scene."
+
+"Was it real money?" asked Paul.
+
+"Naw--nottin' but tin," and the tone expressed the disappointment that
+had been experienced. "But we each got a quarter out of it fer bein' in
+de picture, so we didn't make out so worse. Dere's your friend now," and
+the newsboy pointed to the comedian standing at the entrance to one of
+the piers, talking to the watchman. Both had raised their voices high,
+and were using their hands freely.
+
+"Hey, Mr. Switzer, come along!" cried Paul. "It's time for the train."
+
+"Ach! Der train! I t'ought der vos plenty of time. I vant to see a
+friend of mine who is living on vun of dese wessels. Haven't I got der
+time?"
+
+"No, not a minute to spare. You can see him when you come back."
+
+"Ach! Maybe I neffer comes back. If I get in der war plays I may be
+shotted."
+
+"Oh, come on!" laughed Paul, while the newsboy went into amused
+contortions at the exaggerated language and gestures of Mr. Switzer.
+
+"See you later, Hans!" called the comedian to the watchman at the pier.
+
+"Ach, Himmel! Vot I care!" the latter cried. "I don't care even if you
+comes back neffer! You can't get on dose ship!" and he waved his hand at
+the big vessels, interned to prevent their capture by the British
+warships.
+
+"I was having quite an argument with him," said Mr. Switzer, speaking
+"United States," as he walked back to the station with Paul.
+
+"Wouldn't he let you go on board?"
+
+"No. Took me for an English spy, I guess. But I know one of der
+officers, and I thought I'd have time for a chat with him."
+
+"Mr. Pertell is in a hurry," said the young actor.
+
+"Well, if we miss this train there's another."
+
+"Not until to-morrow, and he wants to start the rehearsals the first
+thing in the morning."
+
+"Ach! Den dat's differunt alretty yet again, wasn't it so?" and Mr.
+Switzer winked at the admiring newsboy, and tossed him a quarter, with
+the advice to get a pretzel and use it for a watch charm. Whereat the
+boy went into convulsive laughter again.
+
+"What do you mean, Switzer, by going off just at train time?" demanded
+the indignant director and manager.
+
+"Train time is der time to go off--so long as you don't go off der
+track!" declared the German. "But I vanted to go on--not go off--I
+vanted to go on der ships only dey vouldn't let me. However, better late
+than be a miss vot's like a bird in der hand," and with a shrug of his
+shoulders and a last wink at the newsboy, Mr. Switzer went out to the
+waiting train with the others.
+
+It was a long and rather tedious ride to Oak Farm, which lay some miles
+back in the hills from the railroad station, and it was late afternoon
+when the company of moving picture actors and actresses arrived, to be
+greeted by Sandy Apgar and his father and his mother.
+
+"Well, I _am_ glad to see you all again!" cried Sandy, shaking hands
+with Mr. DeVere, the girls and the others. "It seems like old times!"
+
+"We're glad dot you are glad!" declaimed Mr. Switzer. "Haf you any more
+barns vot need burning down?"
+
+"Not this time," laughed Sandy. "One barn-burning is enough for me." A
+barn, an old one, had been destroyed on the occasion of the previous
+visit of the moving picture company--a burning barn being called for in
+one of the scenes.
+
+Oak Farm was a big place, and, in anticipation of the war plays to be
+enacted there, several buildings had been built to accommodate the extra
+actors and actresses, where they could sleep and eat. The DeVere girls
+and the other members of the regular company would board at the
+farmhouse as they had done before.
+
+Hard work began early the next day. There was much to do in the way of
+preliminary preparation, and Pop Snooks, the property man, with a corps
+of assistants, was in his element. While Ruth, Alice and the others were
+going through a rehearsal of their parts without, of course, the proper
+scenic background, the property man was setting up the different "sets"
+needed in the various scenes.
+
+While they were working on one piece, Sandy Apgar came along on his way
+to look after some of the farming operations.
+
+"Hello!" he cried. "Say! you fellows did that mighty quick."
+
+"Did what?" asked Alice, who stood near, not being engaged for the time
+being.
+
+"Why, dug that well. I didn't know you could strike water so soon," and
+he pointed to an old-fashioned well with a sweep, which stood not far
+from the house. "What'd you use--a post-hole digger?" he asked. "What
+sort of water did you strike?"
+
+Before any one could answer him he strode over to the well, and, as he
+looked down into it, a puzzled look came over his face.
+
+"Well, I'll be jiggered!" he cried. "'Tain't a well at all! Only an
+imitation!"
+
+And that was what it was. Some canvas had been stretched in a circle
+about a framework, and painted to represent stones. The well itself
+stood on top of the ground, not being dug out at all. It made a
+perfectly good water-scene, with a sweep, a chain, a bucket and all.
+
+"I'm supposed to stand there and draw water for the thirsty soldiers,"
+explained Ruth, coming up at this point.
+
+"Huh! How are you goin' to git water out of there?" demanded Sandy.
+"It's as dry as a bone. Why, I've got a good well over there," and he
+pointed to a real one, under an apple tree.
+
+"That's in the shade--couldn't get any pictures there," explained Russ.
+"The well has to be out in the open."
+
+"But what about water?" asked Sandy. "Hang me if I ever heard of a well
+without water!"
+
+"We'll run a hose up to this one," explained Pop Snooks. "A man will lie
+down behind the well-curb, where he won't show in the camera. As fast as
+Ruth lowers her bucket into the well the man'll fill the pail with water
+for the soldiers to drink. It'll be quicker than a real well, and if we
+find we don't like it in one place we can move it to another. This is a
+movable well."
+
+"Well, I'll be----" began Sandy, but words failed him. "This is sure a
+queer business," he murmured as he strode off.
+
+The hard work of preparation continued. All about the farm queer parts
+of buildings were being erected, extra barns, out-houses, bits of fence,
+and the like.
+
+In what are called close-up scenes only a small part of an object shows
+in the camera, and often when a magnificent entrance to a marble house
+is shown, it is only a plaster-of-Paris imitation of a door with a
+little frame around it.
+
+What is outside of that would not photograph; so what is the use of
+building it? Of course in many scenes real buildings figure, but they
+are not built for the purpose.
+
+In one of the war plays a small barn was to be shown, and a soldier was
+supposed to jump through the window of this to escape pursuit. As none
+of the regular buildings at Oak Farm was in the proper location, Pop
+Snooks had been ordered to build a barn.
+
+He did. That is, he built one side of it, propping it up with braces
+from behind, where they would not show. The window was there, and some
+boards; so that, seen through the camera, it looked like a small part of
+a big out-building.
+
+Some hay was piled on the ground to one side, away from the camera, and
+it was on this hay that the escaping soldier would land. Then Ruth was
+to come to him, and go through some scenes. But these would be interior
+views, which would be taken in the improvised studio erected on the farm
+for this purpose.
+
+Mr. Switzer was to be the soldier, and would plunge through the barn
+window head first. He was called on to rehearse the scenes a few days
+after the semblance of a barn had been put in position and the hay laid
+out to make his landing safe.
+
+"Are you ready?" asked Mr. Pertell, who was directing the scene. "All
+ready, there, Switzer?"
+
+"Sure, as ready as I ever shall be."
+
+"All right, then. Now, you understand, you come running out of those
+bushes over there, and when you get out you stop for a minute and
+register caution. Look on all sides of you. Then you see the barn and
+the open window. Register surprise and hope. You say, 'Ah, I shall be
+safe in there!'
+
+"Then you run, look back once or twice to see if you are pursued, and
+make a dive, head first, through the open window on to the hay. All
+ready now?"
+
+"Sure, I'm ready!"
+
+"How about you, Russ?"
+
+"Let her go."
+
+"All ready, then! Camera!"
+
+Russ began to grind away at the film. Mr. Switzer had taken his place in
+the clump of bushes, his ragged Union garments flapping in the wind. He
+came out, looked furtively around, and then, giving the proper
+"registration," he advanced cautiously toward the barn.
+
+"Go on now--run!" cried Mr. Pertell through his megaphone.
+
+The German actor ran. He made a beautiful leap through the window, and
+the next moment there came from him howls of dismay.
+
+"Donner vetter! Ach Himmel! Ach! My face! My hands! Hey, somebody! bring
+a pail of water! Quick!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+A REHEARSAL
+
+
+Mingled in German and English came the shouts of dismay from Herr
+Switzer inside the dummy shed, through the window of which he had leaped
+on to the hay.
+
+"Oh, what is it?" cried Ruth, clasping her hands and registering
+"dismay" unconsciously.
+
+"He must have fallen and hurt himself," ejaculated Alice. "Do, Paul, go
+and see what it is."
+
+"Stop the camera!" yelled Mr. Pertell through his megaphone. "Don't
+spoil the film, Russ. You got a good scene there. He went through the
+window all right, and his yells won't register. Stop the camera!"
+
+"Stopped she is," reported Russ.
+
+Then those of the players who had been looking on and wondering at Mr.
+Switzer's cries could hurry to his rescue.
+
+For it is a crime out of the ordinary in the annals of moving pictures
+for any one not in the scene to get within range of the camera when an
+act is being filmed. It means not only the spoiling of the reel,
+perhaps, but a retaking of that particular action. When Russ ceased to
+grind at the camera crank, however, it was the same as when the shutter
+of an ordinary camera is closed. No more views can be taken. It was safe
+for others to cross the field of vision.
+
+"What's the matter?" cried Paul, who, with Ruth and Alice and some of
+the others trailing after him, was hurrying toward the false front of
+boards that represented a shed.
+
+"Did a cow critter or a sheep step on you?" Russ questioned.
+
+"Ach! My face! My clothes! Ruined!" came in accents of deep disgust from
+the actor. "Never again will I leap through a window without knowing
+into what I am going to land. Ach!"
+
+"What happened?" asked Paul, trying to keep from laughing, for the
+player's voice was so funnily tragic.
+
+"What happened? Come and see!" cried Mr. Switzer. "I have into a
+chicken's home invaded myself already!"
+
+"Invaded himself into a chicken's home!" exclaimed Mr. Pertell. "What in
+the world does he mean?"
+
+"I guess he means he sat down in a hen's nest!" chuckled Paul, and this
+proved to be the case.
+
+Going around to the other side of the erected boards, the players and
+others saw a curious sight.
+
+Seated on the hay, his face, his hair, his hands, and his clothing a
+mass of the whites and yellows of eggs, was Carl Switzer. He held up his
+fingers, dripping with the ingredients of half a dozen omelets.
+
+"The chicken's home was right here, in the hay--where I jumped. I landed
+right in among the eggs--head first. Get me some water--quick!" implored
+the player.
+
+"Didn't you see the eggs before you jumped among 'em?" asked Mr.
+Pertell.
+
+"See them? I should say not! Think you I would have precipitated myself
+into their midst had I done so?" indignantly demanded Mr. Switzer,
+relapsing into his formally-learned English. "I have no desire to be a
+part of a scrambled egg," he went on. "Some water--quick!"
+
+While one of the extra players was bringing the water, Sandy Apgar
+strolled past. He was told what had happened.
+
+"Plumped himself down in a hen's nest, did he?" exclaimed the young
+proprietor of Oak Farm. "Wa'al, now, if you folks go to upsettin' the
+domestic arrangements of my fowls that way I'll have t' be charging you
+higher prices," and he laughed good-naturedly.
+
+"Ach! Dat is better," said Mr. Switzer, when he had cleansed himself.
+"How came it, do you think, Mr. Apgar, that the hen laid her eggs right
+where I was to make my landing when escaping from the Confederates?"
+
+"Huh! More than one hen laid her eggs there, I reckon," the farmer said.
+"There must have been half a dozen of 'em who had rooms in that
+apartment. You see, it's this way. Hens love to steal away and lay their
+eggs in secret places. After you folks built this make-believe shed and
+put the hay in, I s'pose some of my hens seen it and thought it would be
+a good place. So they made a nest there, and they've been layin' in it
+for the last few days."
+
+"More as a week, I should say!" declared Mr. Switzer in his best German
+comedian manner. "There were many eggs!"
+
+"Yes, you did bust quite a few!" said Sandy, critically looking at the
+disrupted nest. "But it can't be helped."
+
+"Well, the film wasn't spoiled, anyhow," observed Mr. Pertell. To him
+that was all that counted. "You got him all right as he went through the
+window, didn't you, Russ?"
+
+"Oh, yes. It wasn't until he was inside, down behind the boards and out
+of sight, that the eggs happened."
+
+"No more eggs for me!" declared the comedian. "I shall never look a
+chicken in the face again."
+
+"Go on with the scene," ordered the director. "You are supposed to steal
+out to the barn to give the hidden soldier food," he said to Ruth. "You
+come out from the house, and are astonished to see a man's head sticking
+out of the shed window. You register surprise, and start to run back to
+the house, but the soldier implores you to stay, and you reluctantly
+listen to him. Then he begs for food----"
+
+"But don't bring me a hard-boiled egg, whatever you do!" called Mr.
+Switzer.
+
+"No funny business now," warned the director, with a laugh. "Go on now,
+and we'll see how you do it."
+
+After one or two trials Mr. Pertell announced himself as satisfied and
+the filming of that part of the war drama went on.
+
+So many details in regard to the taking of moving pictures have been
+given in the previous books of this series that they need not be
+repeated here. Suffice it to say that the pictures of the players in
+motion are taken on a long celluloid strip of film, just as one picture
+is taken on a square of celluloid in a snap-shot camera.
+
+This long reel of film, when developed, is a "negative." From it a
+"positive" strip of film is made, and this is the one that is run
+through the projection machine throwing the pictures on the white screen
+in the darkened theatre. The pictures taken are very small, and are
+greatly magnified on the screen.
+
+So much for the mechanical end of the business. It may interest some to
+learn that the photo-play, as seen in the theatre, is not taken all at
+once, nor in the order in which the scenes are seen as they are reeled
+off.
+
+When a play is decided on, the director or one of his helpers goes over
+the manuscript and picks out all the scenes that take place in one
+location. It may be in a parlor, in a hut, on the side of a mountain, in
+a lonely wilderness, on a battlefield, on a bridge--anywhere, in fact.
+And several scenes, involving several different persons, may take place
+at any one of these places.
+
+It can be understood that it would involve a great deal of work to
+follow the logical sequence of the scenes. That is to say, if the first
+scene was in an office showing a girl taking dictation from her
+employer, and the next showed the same girl and her employer on a
+ferryboat, and the third scene went back to the office, where some
+papers were being examined, it would mean a loss of time to photograph,
+or film, the first office scene, then take every one involved in the
+act to the ferryboat, and then back to the office again.
+
+Instead, the two office scenes, and possibly more, are taken at one
+time, on the same film, one after the other, without regard to whether
+they follow logically or not. Afterward the film is cut apart, and the
+scenes fitted in where they belong.
+
+So, too, all the scenes pertaining to a hut in the wilderness, on a
+bridge, in the woods, in a parlor--it makes no difference where--are
+taken at the same time. In this way much labor and expense are saved.
+
+But it makes a queer sort of story to an uninitiated person looking on;
+and sometimes the players themselves do not know what it is all about.
+
+So Mr. Pertell wanted to get all the scenes centering around the shed at
+the same time, though they were not in sequence. And Ruth and Mr.
+Switzer and the others in the east went through their parts with the
+shed as a background.
+
+In one scene Ruth had to discover the hidden soldier. Then she had to
+steal out to him with food. Later, at night, she was to help him to
+escape. Then, a week later, she was to go out to the same shed and
+discover a letter he had hidden in the hay. That ended the scenes at
+the shed, and it could be taken away to make room for something else.
+
+"Oh, Ruth, you did that splendidly!" exclaimed Alice, as her sister
+finished her work and went up on the shady porch to rest.
+
+"Did you like it? I'm glad."
+
+"Like it? It was great! Where you discovered that letter in the hay,
+your face showed such natural surprise."
+
+"I'm glad it didn't register merriment."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because, as I picked up the letter, I found a big blot of the yellow
+from the hens' eggs on it. I hope it doesn't show in the picture. I had
+all I could do to keep from laughing when I thought of Mr. Switzer in
+the omelet scene."
+
+"Oh, well, you know they want all white stuff yellow when they make
+pictures."
+
+"In the studio, but not outdoors."
+
+This is a fact. As the scenes in the studio are taken in the glare of a
+special kind of electric light, all white objects, even the collars and
+cuffs of the men, are yellow in tone, though in the picture they show
+perfectly white. This is due to the chemical rays of the lights used.
+Out of doors, under sunlight, colors are seen in their own hues.
+
+"You did very well in that funny little scene with Paul," said Ruth to
+her sister.
+
+"You mean in the swing under the apple tree?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I was so afraid he would swing me too high," Alice went on. "He was
+cutting up so. I told him to stop, but he wouldn't."
+
+"It was very natural. I think it will show well. Hark! what's that?"
+cried Ruth, leaping to her feet.
+
+"Thunder," suggested Alice, as a distant, rumbling noise came to their
+ears.
+
+"Sounds more like big guns."
+
+"Oh, that's what it is!" agreed Alice. "They are going to rehearse one
+of the battle scenes this afternoon, I heard Mr. Pertell say. The
+soldiers must have come, and they're practising over in the glen. Come
+on over and watch. We're in on the scenes later, but we can watch now."
+
+"All right," agreed Ruth. "Wait until I get my broad-brimmed hat, the
+sun is hot up here."
+
+Presently the two sisters, with Paul Ardite and some other members of
+the company, were strolling over the fields toward the scene of the
+distant firing. As they came in sight of several hundred men and horses,
+they saw the smoke of cannon and heard the shouting of the director and
+his assistants who were using big megaphones. It was the rehearsal of
+one of the many battle scenes that were to take place about Oak Farm.
+
+"Oh, look at that girl ride!" suddenly exclaimed Alice, pointing to a
+young woman who dashed past on a spirited horse. "Isn't she a wonder?"
+
+"She is indeed," agreed Ruth. "I wonder who she is?"
+
+"One of the extras," said Paul. "A number of them have just arrived.
+We'll begin active work soon, and film some big scenes with you girls in
+them."
+
+Alice gazed across the fields toward the figure of the girl on
+horseback. There was something spirited in her riding, and, though she
+had never seen her before, Alice felt strangely drawn toward the new
+player.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+A DARING RIDER
+
+
+"Come on now, Confederates!"
+
+"No, you Union chaps hold back there in ambush. You're not to dash out
+until you get the signal. Wait!"
+
+"Keep that horse out of the way. He isn't supposed to dash across,
+riderless, until after the first volley."
+
+"Put in a little more action! Fall off as though you were shot, not as
+though you were bending over to see if your horse had a stone under his
+shoe! Fall off hard!"
+
+"And you fellows that do fall off--lie still after you fall! Don't
+twitch as though you wanted to scratch your noses!"
+
+"If some of 'em don't stay quiet after they fall off they'll get stepped
+on!"
+
+"All ready now! Come with a rush when the signal's given!"
+
+Mr. Pertell and his men were stationed near a "battery" of camera men,
+who were ready to grind away; and the director and his assistants were
+calling their instructions through big megaphones. To reach the soldiers
+in the more distant parts of the field recourse was had to telephones,
+the wires of which were laid along the ground in shallow trenches,
+covered with earth so that the trampling of the horses would not sever
+them.
+
+"Get that battery farther back among the trees!" cried Mr. Pertell to
+one of his helpers. "It's supposed to be a masked one, but it's in plain
+sight now. Even the audience would see it, let alone the men it's
+supposed to fire on. Get it back!"
+
+"Yes, sir," answered the man, and he telephoned the instructions to the
+assistant director in charge of a battery of field guns that had been
+thundering away--the sound which had brought Ruth and Alice to the
+scene.
+
+"Do we have any part in the battle scenes?" asked Ruth.
+
+"Yes, quite big parts," Paul informed her. "But you don't go on to-day.
+This is only a rehearsal."
+
+"But they've been firing real powder," remarked Alice, "and it looks as
+though they were going to fire more," and she pointed to where men of
+the masked battery were ramming charges down the iron throats of their
+guns.
+
+"Yes, they're firing, and charging, and doing all manner of stunts, and
+the camera men are grinding away, but they aren't using any film," went
+on Paul. "It's just to get every one used to working under the
+excitement. They have to fire the guns so the horses will get so they
+don't mind them when the real time comes."
+
+Hundreds of extra players had been engaged to come to Oak Farm for these
+battle scenes in the drama, "A Girl in Blue and A Girl in Gray," and
+some of them were already on hand with their mounts. As has been said,
+special accommodations had been erected where they were to stay during
+the weeks they would be needed. There were more men than women among the
+extra people, though a number of women and girls were needed in the
+"town" scenes.
+
+Most of the men were former members of the militia, cowboys and
+adventurers, all of whom were used to hard, rough riding. This was
+necessary, for when battle scenes are shown there must be some "killed,"
+and when a man has a horse shot from under him, or is shot himself,
+riding at full speed, even though the cartridges are blank, the action
+calls for a heavy fall, sudden and abrupt, to make it look real. And
+this is not easy to do, nor is it altogether safe with a mob of riders
+thundering along behind one.
+
+Yet the men who take part in these battle scenes do it with scarcely a
+thought of danger, though often many of them are hurt, as are the
+horses.
+
+In brief the story of the play in which Ruth was to take the part of a
+girl in Blue, and Alice of a girl in Gray, was this. They were cousins,
+and Ruth was visiting Alice's home in the South when the war broke out.
+Alice, of course, sided with her people, and loved the gray uniforms,
+while Ruth's sympathies were with the North.
+
+Ruth determined to go back North and become a nurse, while Alice,
+longing for more active work, offered her services as a spy to help the
+Confederacy. Though on opposite sides, the girls' love for one another
+did not wane.
+
+Then came the scenes of the war. Battles were to be shown, and there
+were plots and counter-plots, in some of which Ruth and Alice had no
+part. Mr. DeVere was cast for a Northern General, and the character
+became him well. Later on Alice and Ruth were to meet in a hospital
+among the wounded. Alice was supposed to get certain papers of value to
+her side from a wounded Union officer. As she was escaping with them
+Ruth was to intercept her, and the two were to have a "strong" scene
+together.
+
+Alice, ignoring the pleadings of her cousin and about to depart with
+the papers, learns that the officer from whom she took them was the same
+one that had saved her father's life on the battlefield. She decides to
+forego her mission as a spy, even though it may mean the betrayal of her
+own cause, when the news comes in of Lee's surrender, and her sacrifice
+is not demanded. Then "all live happily for ever after."
+
+That is but a mere outline of the play, which was to be an elaborate
+production. And it was the rehearsal for the preliminary battles and
+skirmishes that the girls were now witnessing.
+
+"Tell that battery to get ready to fire!" cried Mr. Pertell, and this
+word went over the telephone.
+
+"Come on now with that Union charge!" was the next command.
+
+Then hundreds of horses thundered down the slopes of Oak Farm, while the
+hidden guns thundered. Down went horses and men while the girls screamed
+involuntarily, it all seemed so real.
+
+"It's a good thing we didn't plant no corn in that there field this
+season," observed Belix Apgar, Sandy's father, as he saw the charge.
+
+"That's right," agreed his wife. "There wouldn't have been 'nuff left to
+make a hominy cake."
+
+"Do it over again!" ordered the manager. "Some of you fellows ride your
+horses as if you were going to a croquet game. Get some action into it!"
+
+Once more the battery thundered its harmless shots and the men charged.
+This time the scene was satisfactory, and preparations were made to film
+it. Again the men thundered down the slope, and when they were almost at
+the battery a single rider--a girl--dashed out toward the approaching
+Union soldiers.
+
+"Oh, she'll be killed!" cried Ruth. "They'll ride right over her!"
+
+It did seem so, for she was headed straight toward the approaching
+horsemen.
+
+"She's all right," said Paul. "She's quite a rider, I believe. Her part,
+as a Union sympathizer, is to rush out and warn them of the hidden
+battery, but she is delayed by a Southerner until it is too late, and
+she takes a desperate chance. There go the guns!"
+
+Horses and riders were lost in a cloud of smoke. This time the film was
+being taken. When that charge was over, and men and horses, some
+limping, had gone back to their quarters, Mr. Pertell signaled to the
+daring woman rider to come to him.
+
+"That was very well done, Miss Brown," he said. "You certainly showed
+nerve."
+
+"I am glad you liked it," was the answer in a quiet, well-bred voice.
+"Shall you want me again to-day?"
+
+"Not until later, and it will be an interior. Is your horse all right?"
+
+"Oh, yes. I am in love with him!" and she patted the arching neck of the
+handsome creature. "He is so speedy."
+
+"He sure is speedy, all right," agreed Paul, and the girl--she was
+scarcely more than that--who had been addressed as Miss Brown by the
+director smiled at the young actor. Then she let her friendly gaze rest
+on Ruth and Alice.
+
+"Isn't she fine!" murmured Alice.
+
+"Like to meet her?" whispered Paul.
+
+"Yes!" exclaimed Alice eagerly, paying no attention to Ruth's plucking
+of her sleeve.
+
+"Miss Brown, allow me to present----" and Paul introduced the two DeVere
+girls.
+
+"That was a daring ride of yours!" remarked Alice, with enthusiasm.
+
+"Indeed it was," agreed Ruth, more quietly.
+
+"Do you think so? I'm glad you like it. I have been riding ever since I
+was a little girl."
+
+"Did you learn in the West?" asked Alice.
+
+"Why, yes--that is I--I really--oh, there goes that wild black horse
+again!" and Miss Brown turned to point to an animal ridden by one of
+the Confederate soldiers. The horse seemed unmanageable, and dashed
+some distance across the field before it was brought under control.
+
+Then the talk turned to moving picture work, though Ruth could not help
+wondering, even in the midst of it, why Miss Brown had not been more
+certain of where she had learned to ride.
+
+"It isn't something one would forget," mused Ruth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+A NEEDED LESSON
+
+
+Rehearsals, the filming of scenes, retakes and the studying of their
+parts kept busy not only the moving picture girls, but all the members
+of Mr. Pertell's company. There was work for all, and from the smallest
+girls and boys, including Tommie and Nellie Maguire, to Mr. DeVere
+himself, little spare time was to be had.
+
+Ruth and Alice had important parts, and they were given a general
+outline of what was expected of them. They would be in many scenes, and
+a variety of action would be required. In order that they do themselves
+and the film justice, since they were to be "featured," the girls spent
+much time studying in their rooms and practising to get the best results
+from the various registerings.
+
+"That is going to be a very strong scene for you and Alice," said Mr.
+DeVere to Ruth one day. "I refer to that scene where Alice takes the
+paper and afterwards discovers the identity of the man to whom she owes
+so much--the life of her father. Now let me see how you would play it,
+Alice."
+
+Alice did so, and she did well, but her father was not satisfied. The
+stage traditions meant much to him, and though he had been forced to
+give up many of them when he went into the motion pictures, still he
+knew what good dramatic action was, and he knew that it would "get over"
+just as certainly in the silent drama as it did in the legitimate. So he
+made Alice go over the scene again, and Ruth also, until he was
+satisfied.
+
+"Now, when the time comes, you'll know how to do it," he said. "Don't be
+satisfied with anything but the best you can do, even if it is only a
+moving picture show. I am convinced, more and more, that the silent
+drama is going to take a larger place than ever before the public."
+
+It was on one afternoon following a rather hard day's work before the
+cameras, that Ruth and Alice, with Miss Pennington and Miss Dixon, sat
+on the porch of the farmhouse, waiting for the supper bell. Russ and
+Paul were off to one side, talking, and Mr. DeVere and Mr. Bunn were
+discussing their early days in the legitimate. Mr. Pertell came up the
+walk, a worried look on his face, seeing which Mr. Switzer called out:
+
+"Did a cow step on some of the actors, Herr Director, or did one of our
+worthy farmer's rams knock over a camera after it had filmed one of the
+battle scenes?"
+
+"Neither one, Mr. Switzer," was the answer. "This is merely a domestic
+trouble I have on my mind."
+
+"Domestic!" exclaimed Alice. "You don't mean that some of your pretty
+extra girls have eloped with some of your dashing cowboy soldiers, do
+you? I wouldn't blame them if they----"
+
+"Alice!" chided her sister.
+
+"Oh, well, you know what I mean!"
+
+"No, it isn't quite that," laughed the director, "though you have very
+nearly hit it," and he took a chair near Alice and her sister, and near
+where Pearl Pennington and Laura Dixon were rocking and chewing gum.
+
+"Tell us, and perhaps we can help you," Alice suggested.
+
+"Well, maybe you can. It's about Miss Estelle Brown, the young lady who
+made that daring ride in front of the masked battery the other day."
+
+"What! Has she left?" asked Ruth. "She was such a wonderful rider!"
+
+"No, she hasn't left, but she threatens to; and I can't let her go, as
+she's in some of the films and I'd have to switch the whole plot around
+to explain why she didn't come in on the later scenes."
+
+"Why is she going to leave?" Alice queried.
+
+"Because she has been subjected to some annoyance on the part of a young
+man who is one of the extras. You know the extras all live down in the
+big bungalow I had built for them. I have a man and his wife to look
+after them, and I try to make it as nearly like a happy family as I can.
+But Miss Brown says she can't stay there any longer. This young man--a
+decent enough chap he had seemed to me--is pestering her with his
+attentions. He is quite in love with her, it seems."
+
+"Oh, how romantic!" gurgled Miss Dixon.
+
+"Miss Brown doesn't think so," said the manager dryly. "I don't know
+what to do about it, for I have no place where I can put her up alone."
+
+"Bring her here!" exclaimed Alice, impulsively.
+
+"Indeed, no!" cried Miss Pennington. "We actresses were told that none
+of the extra people would be quartered with us! If that had not been
+agreed to I would not have come to this place."
+
+"Nor I!" chimed in Miss Dixon. "We professionals are not to be classed
+with these extras--and amateurs at that!"
+
+"I know I did promise you regulars that you would be boarded by
+yourselves," said Mr. Pertell, scratching his head in perplexity, "and I
+don't blame you for not wanting, as a general run, to mix with the
+others. For some of them, while they are decent enough, have a big idea
+of their own importance. I wouldn't think of asking you to let one of
+the extra men come here, but this young lady----"
+
+"She is perfectly charming!" broke in Alice. "And she certainly can
+ride!"
+
+"She did seem very nice," murmured Ruth.
+
+"Pooh! A vulgar cowgirl!" sneered Miss Dixon.
+
+"There is a nice room near mine," went on Alice. "She could have that, I
+should think. The Apgars don't use it, and it is certainly annoying to
+be pestered by a young man!" and she looked with uptilted nose at Paul,
+who said emphatically:
+
+"Well, I like that!"
+
+"If I could bring her here----" began Mr. Pertell.
+
+"By all means!" exclaimed Ruth. "We will try to make her happy and
+comfortable--if she is an amateur."
+
+"She has no right to come here!" burst out Miss Dixon.
+
+"No, indeed!" added Miss Pennington. "If she comes, I shall go! I will
+not board in the same place with an amateur cowgirl doing an extra turn
+in the pictures."
+
+"Nor I!" snapped Miss Dixon.
+
+"All right--all right!" said Mr. Pertell quickly. "I know it's contrary
+to my promise, and I won't insist on it. Only it would have made it
+easier----"
+
+"Let Miss Brown come," quickly whispered Alice in the director's ear.
+"They won't leave. They're too comfortable here, and they get too good
+salaries. Let Miss Brown come!"
+
+"Will you stand by me if I do?"
+
+"Yes," said Alice.
+
+"So will I," added Ruth.
+
+Then the supper bell rang and the discussion ended for the time being.
+Later Mr. Pertell explained privately to Ruth and her sister that Miss
+Brown was a quiet and refined young lady about whom he knew little save
+that she had answered his advertisement for an amateur who could ride.
+She had made good and he had engaged her for the war scenes.
+
+"But she tells me that among the young men in the same boarding bungalow
+is one who seems quite smitten with her. He is impudent and exceedingly
+persistent, and she does not desire his attentions. She said she thought
+she would have to leave unless she could get a quiet place where he
+could not follow. It is all right during the day, as he can not come
+near her, but after hours----"
+
+"Do bring her!" urged Alice. "We'll try to make her comfortable. And
+don't fear what they will do," and she nodded toward the two other
+actresses, who had been in vaudeville before going into motion pictures.
+
+So it was that, later in the evening, Miss Brown brought her trunk to
+the Apgar farmhouse and was installed in a room near Alice and Ruth.
+
+"Oh, it is _so_ much nicer here!" sighed Estelle Brown, as she admitted
+Ruth and Alice, who knocked on her door. "I could not have stood the
+other place much longer. Though every one--except that one man--was very
+nice to me."
+
+"Let us be your friends!" urged Alice.
+
+"You are very kind," murmured Estelle, and the more the two girls looked
+at her, the prettier they thought her. She had wonderful hair, a
+marvelous complexion, and white, even teeth that made her smile a
+delight.
+
+"Have you been in this business long?" asked Ruth.
+
+"No, not very--in fact, this is my first big play. I have done little
+ones, but I did not get on very well. I love the work, though."
+
+"Were your people in the profession?" asked Alice.
+
+"I don't know--that is, I'm not sure. I believe some of them were,
+generations back. Oh, did you hear that?" and she interrupted her reply
+with the question.
+
+"That" was the voice of some one in the lower hall inquiring if Miss
+Brown was in.
+
+"It's that--that impertinent Maurice Whitlow!" whispered Estelle to Ruth
+and Alice. "I thought I could escape him here. Oh, what shall I do?"
+
+"I'll say you are not at home," returned Ruth, in her best "stage
+society" manner, and, sweeping down the hall, she met the maid who was
+coming up to tell Miss Brown there was a caller for her below.
+
+"Tell him Miss Brown is not at home," said Ruth.
+
+"Very well," and the maid smiled understandingly.
+
+"Ah! not at home? Tell her I shall call again," came in drawling tones
+up the stairway, for it was warm, and doors and windows were open.
+
+"Little--snip!" murmured Estelle. "I'm so glad I didn't have to see him.
+He's a pest--all the while wanting to take me out and buy ice-cream
+sodas. He's just starting in at the movies, and he thinks he's a star
+already. Oh! but don't you just love the guns and horses?" she asked
+impulsively.
+
+"Well, I can't say that I do," answered Ruth. "I like quieter plays."
+
+"I don't!" cried Alice. "The more excitement the better I like it. I can
+do my best then."
+
+"So can I," said Estelle. Then they fell to talking of the work, and of
+many other topics.
+
+"Did Estelle Brown strike you as being peculiar?" asked Ruth of her
+sister when they were back in their rooms, getting ready for bed.
+
+"Peculiar? What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean she didn't seem to know whether or not her people were in the
+profession."
+
+"Yes, she did side-step that a bit."
+
+"Side-step, Alice?"
+
+"Well, avoid answering, if you like that better. But my way is shorter.
+Say, maybe she has gone into this without her people knowing it, and she
+wants to keep them from bringing her back."
+
+"Maybe, though it didn't strike me as being that way. It was as though
+she wasn't quite sure of herself."
+
+"Sure of herself--what do you mean?"
+
+"Well, I can't explain it any better."
+
+"I'll think it over," said Alice, sleepily. "We've got lots to do
+to-morrow," and she tumbled into bed with a drowsy "good-night."
+
+Miss Laura Dixon and Miss Pearl Pennington most decidedly turned up
+their noses at the breakfast table when they saw Estelle sitting between
+Ruth and Alice. And their murmurs of disdain could be plainly heard.
+
+"She here? Then I'm going to leave!"
+
+"The idea of amateurs butting in like this! It's a shame!"
+
+Fortunately Estelle was exchanging some gay banter with Paul and did not
+hear. But Ruth and Alice did, and the latter could not avoid a thrust at
+the scornful ones. To Ruth, in an unnecessarily loud voice, Alice
+remarked:
+
+"Do you remember that funny vaudeville stunt we used to laugh over when
+we were children--'The Lady Bookseller?'"
+
+"Yes, I remember it very well," answered Ruth. "What about it, Alice?"
+for she did not catch her sister's drift.
+
+"Why, I was just wondering how many years ago it was--ten, at least,
+since it was popular, isn't it?"
+
+"I believe so!"
+
+"It's no such a thing!" came the indignant remonstrance from Miss
+Pennington. It was in this sketch that she had made her "hit," and as
+she now claimed several years less than the number to which she was
+entitled, this sly reference to her age was not relished. "It was only
+_six_ years ago that I starred in that," she went on.
+
+"It seems much longer," said Alice, calmly. "We were quite little when
+we saw you in that. You were so funny with your big feet----"
+
+"Big feet! I had to wear shoes several sizes too large for me! It was in
+the act. I--I----"
+
+"They're stringing you--keep still!" whispered her chum, and with red
+cheeks Miss Pennington subsided.
+
+But Alice's remarks had the desired effect, and there were no more
+references, for the present, directed at pretty Estelle. Miss Dixon and
+Miss Pennington had a scene with Mr. Pertell, though, in which they
+threatened to leave unless Estelle were sent back to the bungalow where
+the other extra players boarded. But the manager remained firm, and the
+two vaudeville actresses did not quit the company.
+
+Hard work followed, and Estelle made some daring rides, once narrowly
+escaping injury from the burning wad of a cannon, which went off
+prematurely as she dashed past the very muzzle. But she put spurs to her
+horse, who leaped over the spurt of fire and smoke. A few feet of film
+were spoiled; but this was better than having an actor hurt.
+
+Alice was sitting on the farmhouse porch one afternoon, waiting for
+Estelle and Ruth to come down, for they were going for a walk together,
+not being needed in the films. Estelle had been taken into companionship
+by the two girls, who found her a very charming companion, though little
+disposed to talk about herself.
+
+Alice, who was reading a motion picture magazine, was startled by
+hearing a voice saying, almost in her ear:
+
+"Is Miss Brown in?"
+
+"Oh!" and Alice looked up to see Maurice Whitlow smirking at her. He had
+tiptoed up on the porch and was standing very close to her. She had
+never been introduced to him, but that is not absolutely insisted on in
+moving picture circles, particularly when a company is on "location."
+
+"Is Miss Brown in?" repeated Whitlow.
+
+"I don't know, I'm sure," replied Alice.
+
+"Ah, well, I'll wait and find out. I'll sit down here by you and wait,"
+went on the young man, drawing a chair so close to that of Alice that it
+touched. "Fine day, isn't it? I say! you did that bit of acting very
+cleverly to-day."
+
+"Did I?" and Alice went on reading.
+
+"Yes. I had a little bit myself. I carried a message from the field
+headquarters to the rear--after more ammunition, you know. Did you
+notice me riding?"
+
+"I did not."
+
+"Well, I saw you, all right. If Miss Brown isn't home, do you want to go
+over to the village with me?"
+
+"I do not!" and Alice was very emphatic.
+
+"Then for a row on the lake?"
+
+"No!"
+
+"You look as though you would enjoy canoeing," went on the persistent
+Whitlow. "You have a very strong little hand--very pretty!" and he
+boldly reached up and removed Alice's fingers from the edge of the
+magazine. "A very pretty little hand--yes!" and he sighed foolishly.
+
+"How dare you!" cried Alice, indignantly. "If you don't----"
+
+"See how you like that pretty bit of grass down there!" exclaimed a
+sharp voice behind Alice, and the next moment Mr. Maurice Whitlow,
+eye-glasses, lavender tie, socks and all, went sailing over the porch
+railing, to land in a sprawling heap on the sod below.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+ESTELLE'S LEAP
+
+
+"Oh!" murmured Alice, shrinking down in her chair. "Oh--my!"
+
+She gave a hasty glance over her shoulder, to behold Paul Ardite
+standing back of her chair, an angry look on his face. Then Alice looked
+at the sprawling form of the extra player. He was getting up with a
+dazed expression on his countenance.
+
+"What--what does this mean?" he gasped, striving to make his tones
+indignant. But it is hard for dignity to assert itself when one is on
+one's hands and knees in the grass, conscious that there is a big grass
+stain on one's white cuff, and with one's clothing generally
+disarranged. "What does this mean? I demand an explanation," came from
+Mr. Maurice Whitlow.
+
+"You know well enough what it means!" snapped Paul. "If you don't, why,
+come back here and try it over again and I'll give you another
+demonstration!"
+
+"Oh, don't, Paul--please!" pleaded Alice in a low voice.
+
+"There's no danger. He won't come," was the confident reply.
+
+By this time Whitlow had picked himself up and was brushing his
+garments. He settled his collar, straightened his lavender tie and wet
+his lips as though about to speak.
+
+"You--you--I----" he began. "I don't see what right you had to----"
+
+"That'll do now!" interrupted Paul, sternly. "It's of no use to go into
+explanations. You know as well as I do what you were doing and why I
+pitched you over the railing. I'll do it again if you want me to, but
+twice as hard. And if I catch you here again, annoying any of the ladies
+of this company, I'll report you to the director. Now skip--and stay
+skipped!" concluded Paul significantly. "Perhaps you can't read that
+notice?" and he pointed to one recently posted on the main gateway
+leading to the big farmhouse. It was to the effect that none of the
+extra players were allowed admission to the grounds without a permit
+from the director.
+
+"Huh! I'm as good an actor as you, any day!" sneered Whitlow, as he
+limped down the walk.
+
+"Maybe. But you can't get over with it--here!" said Paul significantly.
+
+The notice had been posted because so many of the cowboys and girls had
+fairly overrun the precincts of Mr. Apgar's home. He and his family had
+no privacy at all, and while they did not mind the regular members of
+Mr. Pertell's company, with whom they were acquainted, they did not want
+the hundreds of extra men, soldiers, cowboys and horsewomen running all
+over the place.
+
+So the rule had been adopted, and it was observed good-naturedly by
+those to whom it applied. Whitlow must have considered himself above it.
+
+"Did he annoy you much, Alice?" asked Paul.
+
+"Not so very. He was just what you might call--fresh. He asked for Miss
+Brown, and when she wasn't here to snub him he turned the task over to
+me. Ugh!" and Alice began to scrub vigorously with her handkerchief the
+fingers which Whitlow had grasped. "I'm sorry you had that trouble with
+him, Paul," she went on. "But really----"
+
+"It was no trouble--it was a pleasure!" laughed Paul. "I'd like to do it
+over again if it were not for annoying you. I happened to come up behind
+and heard what he was saying. So I just pitched into him. I don't
+believe he'll come back. He'll be too much afraid of losing the work.
+Mr. Pertell has had a great many applications from players out of work
+who want to be taken on as extras, and he can have his pick. So those
+that don't obey the regulations will get short notice. You won't be
+troubled with him again."
+
+And Alice was not, nor was Miss Brown. That is, as regards the extra
+player's trespassing on the grounds about the farmhouse. But he was of
+the kind that is persistent, and on several occasions, when the duties
+of the girls brought them near to where Whitlow was acting, he smiled
+and smirked at them.
+
+Alice wished to tell Paul about it and have him administer another and
+more severe chastisement to Whitlow, but Ruth and Estelle persuaded the
+impulsive one to forego doing so.
+
+"I can look after myself, thank you, Alice dear," Estelle said. "Now
+that I don't have to board in the bungalow with him it is easier."
+
+"Don't make a scene," advised Ruth.
+
+"Oh, but I just can't bear to have him look at me," Alice said.
+
+Several of the scenes in the principal drama had been made, but most of
+the largest ones, those of the battles, of Alice's spy work, and of
+Ruth's nursing, were yet to come.
+
+The making of a big moving picture is the work not of days, but of
+weeks, and often of months. If every scene took place in a studio,
+where artificial lights could be used, the filming could go on every day
+the actors were on hand, or whenever the director felt like working them
+and the camera men. Often in a studio, even, the director will be
+notional--"temperamental," he might call it--and let a day go by, and
+again the glare of the powerful lights may so affect the eyes of the
+players that they have to rest, and so time is lost in that way.
+
+But the time lost in a studio is as nothing compared to the time lost in
+filming the big outdoor scenes. There the sun is a big factor, for a
+brilliant light is needed to take pictures of galloping horses, swiftly
+moving automobiles and locomotives, and every cloudy day means a loss of
+time. For this reason many of the big film companies maintain studios in
+California, where there are many days of sunshine. They can take
+"outdoor stuff" almost any time after the sun is up.
+
+But at Oak Farm there were times when everything would be in readiness
+for a big scene, the camera men waiting, the players ready to dash into
+their parts, and then clouds would form, or it would rain, and there
+would be a postponement. But it was part of the game, and as the
+salaries of the players went on whether they worked or not, they did not
+complain.
+
+One morning Alice, on going into Estelle's room, found her busy
+"padding" herself before she put on her outer garments.
+
+"What in the world are you doing?" Alice asked.
+
+"Getting ready for my big jump," was the answer.
+
+"Your big jump?"
+
+"Yes, you know there is a scene where I carry a message from
+headquarters to one of the Union generals at the front. Your father
+plays the latter part."
+
+"Oh, yes, now I remember. And Daddy is sure no one can do quite as well
+as he can in the tent scene, where he salutes you and takes the message
+you have brought through with such peril."
+
+"Yes, that's nice. Well, I'm to ride along and be pursued by some
+Confederate guerrillas. It's a race, and I decide to take a short cut,
+not knowing the Confederates have burned the bridge. I have to leap my
+horse down an embankment and ford the stream. I'm getting ready for the
+jump now--that's why I'm padding myself. For Petro--that's my
+horse--might slip or stumble in jumping down that embankment, and I want
+to be ready to roll out of the way. It's much more comfortable to roll
+in a padded suit--like a football player's--than in your ordinary
+clothes. Your friend, Russ Dalwood, told me to do this, and I think it
+is a good idea."
+
+"It's sure to be if Russ told you, isn't it, Ruth?" asked Alice, with a
+mischievous look at her sister, who had just come in.
+
+"How should I know?" was the cool response. "I suppose Mr. Dalwood knows
+what he is doing, though."
+
+"Oh, how very formal we are all of a sudden," mocked Alice. "You two
+haven't quarreled, have you?"
+
+"Silly," returned Ruth, blushing.
+
+"Are you really going to jump your horse down a cliff?" asked Alice.
+
+"I really am," was the smiling answer. "There is to be no fake about
+this. But really there is little danger. I am so used to horses."
+
+"Yes, and I marvel at you," put in Ruth. "Where did you learn it all?"
+
+"I don't know. It seems to come natural to me."
+
+"You must have lived on a ranch a long time," ventured Ruth.
+
+"Did I? Well, perhaps I did. Say, lace this up the back for me, that's a
+dear," and she turned around so that Alice or Ruth could fasten a
+corset-like pad that covered a large part of her body. It would not
+show under her dress, but would be a protection in case of a fall.
+
+Alice and Ruth were so greatly interested in the coming perilous leap of
+Estelle's that they did not pursue their inquiries about her life on a
+ranch, though Alice casually remarked that it was strange she did not
+speak more about it.
+
+The two DeVere girls had no part in this one scene, and they went to
+watch it, safely out of range of the cameras. For there were to be two
+snapping this jump, to avoid the necessity of a retake in case one film
+failed.
+
+"All ready now!" called Mr. Pertell, when there had been several
+rehearsals up to the actual point of making the jump. Estelle had raced
+out of the woods bearing the message. The Confederate guerrillas had
+pursued her, and she had found the bridge burned--one built for the
+purpose and set fire to.
+
+"All ready for the jump?" asked the director.
+
+"All ready," Estelle answered, looking to saddle girths and stirrups.
+
+"Then come on!" yelled the director through his megaphone.
+
+Estelle urged her horse forward. With shouts and yells, which, of
+course, had no part in the picture, yet which served to aid them in
+their acting, the players who were portraying the Confederates came
+after her, spurring their horses and firing wildly. On and on rushed the
+steed bearing the daring girl rider.
+
+She reached the place of the burned bridge, halted a moment, made a
+gesture of despair, and then raced for the bank, down which she would
+leap her horse to the ford.
+
+"Come on! Come on!" yelled Mr. Pertell. "That's fine! Come on! You men
+there put a little more pep in your riding. Turn and fire at them, Miss
+Brown! Fire one shot, and one of you men reel in his saddle. That's the
+idea!"
+
+Estelle had quickly turned and fired, and one man had most realistically
+showed that he was hit, afterward slumping from his seat.
+
+Now the girl was at the edge of the bank. She was to make a flying jump
+over its edge and come down in the soft sand, sliding to the bottom--in
+the saddle if she could keep her seat, rolling over and over if,
+perchance, she left it.
+
+"That's the idea! Get every bit of that, Russ! That's fine!" yelled Mr.
+Pertell.
+
+"There she goes!" cried Alice, grasping her sister's arm, and as she
+spoke Estelle spurred her horse and it leaped full and fair over the
+edge of the embankment. Estelle had made her big jump. Would she come
+safely out of it?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+A MASSED ATTACK
+
+
+While Russ Dalwood and his helper were grinding their cameras, reeling
+away at the film on which was being impressed the shifting vision of
+Estelle Brown taking her hazardous leap, Alice, Ruth, and the others
+were watching to see how the daring young horsewoman would come out of
+it.
+
+"She's going to land in a minute!" exclaimed Miss Dixon.
+
+"In a minute? In a half second!" cried Alice. "But don't talk!"
+
+"There--she's fallen!" gasped Miss Pennington.
+
+With his feet gathered under him, Petro had come down straight on the
+sliding, shifting sand of the embankment. For a moment it looked as
+though he had stumbled and that Estelle would be thrown.
+
+But she held a firm rein, and leaned far back in the saddle. The horse
+stiffened and then, keeping upright with his forelegs straight out in
+front of him and his hind ones bunched under him, he began to slide.
+
+Down the embankment he slid, as the Italian cavalrymen sometimes ride
+their horses, with Estelle firm in the saddle. And, as a matter of fact,
+the girl said afterward it was from having seen some moving pictures of
+these Italian army riders that she got the idea of doing as she did.
+
+"She won't fall!" murmured Paul.
+
+"Oh, I'm so glad! The picture will be a success, won't it?"
+
+"I should think so," Paul said. "It certainly was a daring ride."
+
+"I wouldn't mind doing it if I had her horse," put in Maurice Whitlow,
+smirking at the girls. "I think you could do that, Miss DeVere," and he
+looked at Alice.
+
+She turned away with only a murmured reply, but, nothing daunted, the
+"pest" went on:
+
+"Estelle is certainly a fine rider. I think she must have been a cowgirl
+on a ranch at one time, though she won't admit it."
+
+"She wouldn't to you, at any rate," said Paul, significantly.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Oh, if you don't know it's of no use to tell you. Look! Now she goes
+into the water!"
+
+The action called for the halting at the top of the embankment of the
+Confederate riders, who dared not make the jump. They fired some futile
+shots at Estelle, then rode around to a less dangerous descent to try to
+catch her. But Estelle was to ford the stream and continue on to the
+Union lines with her message.
+
+Reaching the bottom of the slope, her horse gathered himself together
+for another bit of moving picture work. At the edge of the stream
+another camera man was stationed, for Estelle and her horse were by this
+time too far away from Russ and his helper to make good views possible.
+
+Into the water splashed the girl, urging on her spirited horse, that was
+none the worse for his jump and his long slide.
+
+"Good work! Good work!" cried an assistant director, who was stationed
+near the stream to see that all went according to the scenario. "Keep
+on, Miss Brown!"
+
+Estelle bent low over her horse's neck, to escape possible bullets from
+the Confederate guns, and on and on she raced until she pulled up at the
+tent of "General" DeVere. Here her mission ended, after the father of
+Alice and Ruth, in a dusty uniform of a Union officer, had come out in
+response to the summons from his orderly.
+
+Estelle slipped from her saddle, registered exhaustion, saluted and held
+out the paper she had brought through the Confederate lines at such
+risk. Nor was the risk wholly one of the play, for she might have been
+seriously hurt in her perilous leap.
+
+But, fortunately, everything came out properly and a fine series of
+pictures resulted.
+
+"I'm so glad!" Estelle exclaimed, when it was all over, and, divested of
+her padding, she sat in her room with Ruth and Alice. "I want to 'make
+good' in this business, and riding seems to be my forte."
+
+"Do you like it better than anything else?" asked Alice.
+
+"Yes, I do. And I just love moving pictures, don't you?"
+
+"Indeed we do," put in Ruth. "But we were never cut out for riders."
+
+"I'd like it!" exclaimed Alice. "I'd like to know how to ride a horse as
+well as you do."
+
+"I'll show you," offered Estelle. "I'll be very glad to, and it's easy.
+It's like swimming--all you need is confidence, and to learn not to be
+afraid of your horse but to trust him. Let me show you some day."
+
+"I believe I will!" decided Alice, with flashing eyes. "It will be
+great."
+
+"Better ask father," suggested Ruth.
+
+"Oh, he'll let me, I know. We've ridden some, you know; but I would like
+to ride as well as Estelle," and Alice and Estelle began to talk over
+their plans for taking and giving riding lessons. In the midst of the
+talk the return of the boy who went daily to the village for mail was
+announced.
+
+"Oh, I hope my new waist has come!" Alice exclaimed, for she had written
+to her dressmaker to send one by parcel post. There was a package for
+her--the one she expected--and also some letters, as well as one for
+Ruth. Estelle showed no interest when the distribution of the mail was
+going on.
+
+"Don't you expect anything?" asked Alice.
+
+"Any what?"
+
+"Letters."
+
+"Why, no, I don't believe I do," was the slowly given answer. "I don't
+write any, so I don't get any, I suppose," and both girls noticed that
+there was a far-away look in Estelle's eyes. Perhaps it was a wistful
+look, for surely all girls like to get letters from some one.
+
+"I believe she is estranged from her family," decided Alice to her
+sister afterward. "Did you see how pathetic she looked when we got
+letters and she didn't?"
+
+"Well, I didn't notice anything special," Ruth replied. "But there is
+something queer about her, I must admit. She is so absent-minded at
+times. This morning I asked her if she wanted to go for a walk, and she
+said she had no ticket."
+
+"No ticket?"
+
+"Yes, that's what she said. And when I laughed and told her one didn't
+need a ticket to walk around Oak Farm, she sort of 'came to' and said
+she was thinking about a boat."
+
+"A boat--what boat?"
+
+"That was all she said. Then she began to talk about something else."
+
+"Do you know what I think?" asked Alice, suddenly.
+
+"No. But then you think so many things it isn't any wonder I can't keep
+track of them."
+
+"I think, as I believe I've said before, that she has run away from some
+ranch to be in moving pictures. That's why she doesn't write or receive
+letters. She doesn't want her folks to know where she is."
+
+"I can hardly believe that," declared Ruth. "She is too nice and refined
+a girl to have done anything like that. No, I just think she is a bit
+queer, that is all. But certainly she doesn't tell much about herself."
+
+However, further speculation regarding Estelle Brown was cut short, as
+orders came for the appearance of nearly the entire company in one of
+the plays.
+
+The first scene was to take place in a Southern town, and for the
+purpose a street had been constructed by Pop Snooks and his helpers.
+There was a stately mansion, smaller houses, a store or two and some
+other buildings. True, the buildings were but shells, and, in some
+cases, only fronts, but they showed well in the picture.
+
+Ruth, Alice, and a number of the girls and women and men were to be the
+inhabitants of this village, and were to take part in an alarm and flee
+the place when it was known that the Confederate forces were being
+driven back and through the place by the Unionists.
+
+"Come on--get dressed!" cried Alice, and soon she, her sister, Estelle
+and the other women were donning their Southern costumes, wide skirts,
+with hoops to puff them out, and broad-brimmed hats, under which curls
+showed.
+
+There was to be a massed attack by the Unionists on the town, through
+which the Confederates were to flee, and it was the part of Ruth and
+Alice to rush from their father's "mansion" bearing a few of their
+choice possessions.
+
+All was in readiness. The Southern defenders were on the outskirts of
+the town, drawn up to receive the Unionists. Toward these Confederates,
+their enemies came riding. This was filmed separately, while other
+camera men, in the made street, took pictures of the activities there.
+Men, women and children went in and out of the houses. Though, as Mr.
+Belix Apgar said, "If you call them houses you might as well call the
+smell of an onion a dinner. There ain't nothin' to 'em!"
+
+Suddenly an excited rider dashed into the midst of the peaceful
+activities of the Southern town.
+
+"They're coming! They're coming!" he cried, waving his hat. "The Yankees
+are coming!" This would be flashed on the screen.
+
+Then ensued a wild scene. Colored mammies rushed here and there seeking
+their charges. Men began to look to their arms. Then came the advance
+guard of the retreating Confederates, turning back to fire at their
+enemies.
+
+"Come on now, Ruth--Alice! This is where we make our rush--just as the
+first of the Union soldiers appear!" called Paul, who was acting the
+part of a Southern youth. "Grab up your stuff and come on!"
+
+Ruth was to carry a bandbox and a case supposed to contain the family
+jewels. Alice, who played the part this time of a frivolous young woman,
+was to save her pet cat.
+
+"Here they come!" yelled Paul, as the first of the Unionists came into
+view at the head of the street. "Hurry, girls!"
+
+Out they rushed, down the steps of the mansion, fleeing before the
+mounted Union soldiers, who laughed and jeered, firing at the
+Confederates, who were retreating.
+
+Ruth and Estelle, with some of the other women, were in the lead. Alice
+had lingered behind, for the cat showed a disposition to wiggle out of
+her arms, and she wanted to keep it to make an effective picture.
+
+Finally the creature did make its escape, but Alice was not going to
+give up so easily. She started in pursuit, and then one of the Union
+soldiers, Maurice Whitlow, spurred his horse forward. He wanted to get
+in the foreground of the picture and took this chance.
+
+"Get back where you belong!" yelled the director angrily. "Who told you
+to get in the spotlight? Get back!"
+
+But it was too late. Alice, in pursuit of the cat, was running straight
+toward Whitlow's horse, and the next moment she slipped and went down,
+almost under the feet of the prancing animal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+MISS DIXON'S LOSS
+
+
+"Look out!" shouted Paul, and, dropping what he was carrying, he made a
+leap toward the animal Whitlow was riding.
+
+"Roll out of the way of his feet!" cried the director.
+
+"Shall I keep on with the film?" asked the camera man, for his duty was
+to turn until told to stop, no matter what happened.
+
+"Let it run!" Alice cried. "I can get out of the way. Don't stop on my
+account!"
+
+She had been in motion pictures long enough to know what it meant to
+spoil a hundred feet or more of film in a spirited picture,
+necessitating a retake. She had seen her danger, and had done her best
+to get out of harm's way.
+
+The cat had leaped into some bushes and was out of sight.
+
+Whitlow, his face showing his fear and his inability to act in this
+emergency, had instinctively drawn back on the reins. But it was to the
+intelligent horse itself, rather than to the rider, that Alice owed her
+immunity from harm. For the horse reared, and came down with feet well
+to one side of the crouching girl, who had partly risen to her knees.
+
+At the same moment Paul sprang for the steed's bridle and swerved him to
+one side. Then, seeing that Alice was practically out of danger, Paul's
+rage at the carelessness of Whitlow rose, and he reached up and fairly
+dragged that young man out of the saddle.
+
+"You don't know enough to lead a horse to water, let alone ride one in a
+movie battle scene!" he cried, as he pushed the player to one side. "Why
+don't you look where you're going?"
+
+Whitlow was too shaken and startled to reply.
+
+"Go on. Help her up and keep on with the retreat!" cried the director.
+"That's one of the best scenes of the picture. Couldn't have been better
+if we had rehearsed it. Never mind the cat, Miss DeVere. Run on. Paul,
+you land a couple of blows on Whitlow and then follow Alice. Hold back,
+there--you Union men--until we get this bit of by-play."
+
+Paul, nothing loath, gave Whitlow two hard blows, and the latter dared
+not return them for fear of spoiling the picture, but he muttered in
+rage.
+
+Then Paul, shaking his fist at the Unionists, hurried on after Alice,
+and the retreat continued. What had threatened to be a disaster, or at
+least a spoiling of the scene, had turned out well. It is often so in
+moving pictures.
+
+In the remainder of the scene the girls had little part. They had been
+driven from their home, and, presumably, were taken in by friends. The
+rest of the scenes showed the Union soldiers making merry in the
+Southern town they had captured.
+
+"My! That was a narrow escape you had!" exclaimed Ruth, when she and her
+sister were at liberty to return to the farmhouse. "Were you hurt?"
+
+"No; I strained one arm just a little. But it will make a good scene, so
+Russ said."
+
+"Too good--too realistic!" declared Paul. "When I get a chance at that
+Whitlow----"
+
+"Please don't do anything!" begged Alice. "It wasn't really his fault.
+If I hadn't had the cat----"
+
+"It was his fault for pushing himself to the front the way he did," said
+the young actor. "Only the best riders were picked to lead the charge.
+He might have known he couldn't control his horse in an emergency.
+That's where he was at fault."
+
+"He is a poor rider," commented Estelle. "But you showed rare good
+sense, Alice, in acting as you did. A horse will not step on a person if
+he can possibly avoid it. Mr. Whitlow's horse was better than he was."
+
+"Just the same, I got in two good punches!" chuckled Paul, "and he
+didn't dare hit back."
+
+"He may make trouble for you later," Alice said.
+
+"Oh, I'm not worrying about that. I'm satisfied."
+
+There was a spirited battle scene later in the day between the Union and
+Confederate forces; the latter endeavoring to retake the village.
+
+A Confederate battery in a distant town was sent for, and the Union
+position was shelled. But as by this time the Union cannon had come up
+and were entrenched in the town, an artillery duel ensued.
+
+Views were shown of the Union guns being manned by the men, who wore
+bloody cloths around their foreheads and who worked hard serving the
+cannon. Real powder was used, but no balls, of course, and now and then
+a man would fall dead at his gun.
+
+Similar views with another camera were taken of the Confederate guns and
+the scenes alternated on the screen afterward, creating a big
+sensation.
+
+Then came an attack of the Confederate infantry under cover of the
+Southern battery. This was spirited, detachments of men rushing forward,
+firing and then seeking what cover they could. At times a man would roll
+over, his gun dropping, sometimes several would drop at the same time.
+These were those who were detailed to be shot.
+
+The Unionists replied with a counter charge, and for a time the battle
+waged fiercely on both sides. Then came a lull in the fighting, with the
+Confederates ready to make a last charge in a desperate attempt to
+recapture the town.
+
+"I know what would make a good scene," said Maurice Whitlow, during the
+lull when fresh films were being loaded into the cameras. "If we had an
+airship now some of us Union fellows could go for reinforcements in
+that. It would make a dandy scene."
+
+"An airship!" cried Russ. "Say! remember that these scenes are supposed
+to have taken place in 1863. The only airships then were those the
+inventors were dreaming about or making in their laboratories. No
+airships in Civil War plays! I guess not! Balloons, maybe, but no
+airships."
+
+"More fighting! Camera!" called Mr. Pertell, and again the spirited
+action was under way. Cannon boomed; rifles spat fire and smoke; men
+fought hand to hand, often rolling over dead; riderless horses dashed
+here and there. Now and then a man would narrowly escape being run down.
+As it was, several were burned from being too near the cannon or the
+guns, and one man's leg was broken in a fall from his horse.
+
+But it was part of the game, and no one seemed to mind. A real hospital
+was set up at Oak Farm, not a mere shell of a building, and here the
+injured, as well as those who simulated injury, were attended.
+
+Ruth and some of the women made up as nurses, though this was not the
+big scene in which Ruth and Alice were to take part.
+
+"Confederates retreat!" directed Mr. Pertell, and the Southern forces,
+having been defeated, were forced to withdraw. Their attempt to
+recapture their town had failed.
+
+"Whew! that was hot work!" cried Paul, as he came back to the farmhouse,
+having played his part as a Confederate soldier.
+
+"It certainly was," agreed Mr. DeVere, who had been the directing Union
+General. Now that the "war" was over Northerners and Southerners mingled
+together in friendly converse, their differences forgotten.
+
+"I just can't bear the smell of powder!" complained Miss Dixon. "I wish
+I had my salts."
+
+"I'll get them for you, dear," offered Miss Pennington. "I'm going up to
+our rooms." The former vaudeville actresses, with Ruth, Alice, and some
+of the others, were resting on the farmhouse porch.
+
+Miss Dixon smelled the salts and declared she felt much better.
+
+"There's to be a dance in the village to-night," Paul remarked at the
+supper table.
+
+"Let's go!" proposed Alice. "Will you take me, Paul?"
+
+"Of course I will."
+
+"May I have the pleasure?" asked Russ, of Ruth.
+
+"Why, yes, if the rest go."
+
+"We'll all go!" chimed in Miss Dixon. "Some of the extra men are good
+dancers. They proved it in the ballroom scene the other day. We can get
+a man, Pearl."
+
+"All right, my dear, just as you say."
+
+The little party was soon arranged.
+
+"Estelle might like to go," suggested Alice.
+
+"I'll go to ask her," offered Ruth, for Miss Brown had quit the supper
+table early and gone to her room.
+
+As Ruth mounted the stairs she heard Miss Dixon and Miss Pennington
+talking in the hall outside their rooms.
+
+"I can't see where it can be," Miss Dixon was saying.
+
+"It was on your dresser when I went up for the salts," said her chum.
+"Are you sure you didn't take it after that?"
+
+"Positive! It's gone--that's all there is to it."
+
+"What's gone?" asked Ruth.
+
+"One of my rings," was Miss Dixon's answer. "I left it on my dresser and
+my door was open. It was there when I went down to supper, and we were
+all at the table together----"
+
+"Except Estelle Brown!" said Miss Pennington quickly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+LIEUTENANT VARLEY
+
+
+For a moment Ruth stood looking with wide-open eyes at the two former
+vaudeville actresses. On their part they stared boldly at Ruth, and then
+Miss Dixon turned and slightly winked at Miss Pennington.
+
+"That was one of your valuable rings, wasn't it, dear?" asked Miss
+Pennington, in deliberate tones.
+
+"It certainly was--the best diamond I had. I simply won't let it be
+lost--or taken. I'm going to have it back!"
+
+She spoke in a loud tone, and the door of Estelle's room, farther down
+the hall, opened. Estelle looked out. She was in negligee, and she
+seemed to be suffering.
+
+"Has anything happened?" she asked.
+
+"Yes," answered Miss Dixon. "Something has happened. Some one has stolen
+my diamond ring!"
+
+"Oh!" gasped Ruth, "you shouldn't say that!"
+
+"Say what?"
+
+"Stolen. It's such a--such a harsh word."
+
+"Well, I feel harsh just now. I'm not going to lose that ring. It was on
+my dresser when I went down to supper, and now it's gone. It was
+stolen--or taken, if you like that word better. Perhaps you want me to
+say it was--borrowed?" and she looked scornfully at Ruth.
+
+"It may have slipped down behind your dresser."
+
+"I've looked," said Miss Pennington. "You came up here from the table
+before we did," she went on, addressing Estelle. "Did you see anything
+of any one in Miss Dixon's room?"
+
+"I? No, I saw no one." Estelle was plainly taken by surprise.
+
+"Did you go in yourself," asked Miss Dixon brusquely. "Come, I don't
+mind a joke--if it was a joke--but give me back my ring. I'm going into
+town, and I want to wear it."
+
+"A joke! Give you back your ring! Why, what do you mean?" and Estelle,
+her face flashing her indignation, stepped out into the hall.
+
+"I mean you might have borrowed it," went on Miss Dixon, not a whit
+daunted. "Oh, it isn't anything. I've often done the same thing myself
+when we've been playing on circuit. It's all right--if you give things
+back."
+
+"But I haven't taken anything of yours!" cried Estelle. "I never went
+into your room!"
+
+"Perhaps you have forgotten about it," suggested Miss Pennington coldly.
+"You seem to have a headache, and sometimes those headache remedies are
+so strong----"
+
+"I am tired, but I have no headache," said Estelle simply, "nor have I
+taken any strong headache remedies, as you seem to suggest. I haven't
+been walking in my sleep, either. And I certainly was not in your room,
+Miss Dixon, nor do I know anything about your ring," and with that she
+turned and entered her room, whence, presently, came the sound of
+sobbing.
+
+For a moment Ruth stood still, looking at the two rather flashy
+actresses, and wondering if they really meant what they had insinuated.
+Then Alice's voice was heard calling:
+
+"I say, Ruth, are you and Estelle coming? The boys have the auto and
+they'll take us in. Come on."
+
+Ruth did not answer, and Alice came running up the stairs. She came to a
+halt as she saw the trio standing in the hall.
+
+"Well, for the love of trading stamps! what's it all about?" she asked.
+"Are you posing for Faith, Hope and Charity?"
+
+"Certainly not Charity," murmured Ruth.
+
+"And I certainly have lost what little faith I had, though I hope I do
+get my ring back," sneered Miss Dixon.
+
+"Your ring? What's the matter?" asked Alice. "Have you lost something?"
+
+"My diamond ring was taken off my dresser," said the actress.
+
+"And that Estelle Brown was up here ahead of us, and all alone," said
+Miss Pennington. "She may have borrowed it and forgotten to return it."
+
+"That's what one gets for leaving one's valuable diamond rings around
+where these extra players are allowed to have free access," sneered Miss
+Dixon.
+
+"You mean that little chip diamond ring of yours with the red garnets
+around it?" asked Alice.
+
+"It isn't a chip diamond at all!" fired back Miss Dixon. "It was a
+valuable ring."
+
+"Comparatively, perhaps, yes," and Alice's voice was coolly sneering,
+though she rarely allowed herself this privilege. "I'm sorry it is
+lost----"
+
+"Why don't you say taken?" asked Miss Pennington.
+
+"Because I don't believe it was," snapped Alice. "Either you forgot
+where you laid it or it has dropped behind something. As for thinking
+Estelle Brown even borrowed it, that's all nonsense! I don't believe a
+word of it."
+
+"Nor I!" exclaimed Ruth.
+
+"Did you speak to her about it?" asked Alice, and then as the sound of
+sobbing came from Estelle's room she burst out with:
+
+"You horrid things! I believe you did! Shame on you!" and she hurried to
+the closed door.
+
+"It is I--Alice," she whispered. "Let me in. It's all a terrible
+mistake. Don't let it affect you so, Estelle dear!"
+
+Then Alice opened the unlocked door and went in. Ruth paused for a
+moment to say:
+
+"I think you have made a terrible mistake, Miss Dixon," and then she
+followed her sister to comfort the crying girl.
+
+"Humph! Mistake!" sneered Miss Dixon.
+
+"That's what we get for mixing in with amateurs," added her chum. "Come
+on, we'll speak to Mr. Pertell about it."
+
+But, for some reason or other, the director was not told directly of the
+loss of the ring, nor was Estelle openly accused. She felt as badly,
+though, as if she had been, even when Ruth and Alice tried to comfort
+her.
+
+Estelle had left the table early, but though she had passed Miss Dixon's
+room, she said she had seen no one about.
+
+"Don't mind about the old ring!" said Alice. "It wasn't worth five
+dollars."
+
+"But that I should be accused of taking even five dollars!"
+
+"You're not!" said Ruth, quickly. "They don't dare make an open
+accusation. I wouldn't be surprised if Miss Dixon found she had lost her
+ring and she's ashamed to acknowledge it."
+
+"Oh, but it is dreadful to be suspected!" sighed Estelle.
+
+"You're not--no one in his senses would think of even dreaming you took
+so much as a pin!" cried Alice. "It's positively silly! I wouldn't make
+such a fuss over such a cheap ring."
+
+But Miss Dixon did make a "fuss," inasmuch as she talked often about her
+loss, though she still made no direct accusation against Estelle. But
+Miss Dixon and her chum made life miserable for the daring horsewoman.
+They often spoke in her presence of extra players who did not know their
+places, and made sneering references to locking up their valuables.
+
+At times Estelle was so miserable that she threatened to leave, but Ruth
+and Alice would not hear of it and offered to lay the whole matter
+before Mr. Pertell and have him settle it by demanding that the loser of
+the ring either make a direct accusation or else keep quiet about her
+loss.
+
+Mr. DeVere, who was appealed to by his daughters, voted against this,
+however.
+
+"It is best not to pay any attention to those young ladies," he advised.
+"The friends of Estelle know she would not do such a thing, and no one
+takes either Miss Dixon or Miss Pennington very seriously--not half as
+seriously as they take themselves. It will all blow over."
+
+There were big times ahead for the moving picture girls and their
+friends. Some of the most important battle scenes were soon to be
+filmed, those that had already been taken having been skirmishes.
+
+"I have succeeded in getting two regiments of the state militia to take
+part in a sham battle for our big play," said Mr. Pertell one day. "They
+are to come to this part of the country for their annual manoeuvers
+under the supervision of the regular army officers, and by paying their
+expenses I can have them here for a couple of days.
+
+"They will come with their horses, tents, and everything, so we shall
+have some real war scenes--that is, as real as can be had with blank
+cartridges. It will be a great thing for my film."
+
+"And will they work in with our players?" asked Mr. DeVere.
+
+"Oh, yes, indeed! I intend to use your daughters in the spy and hospital
+scenes, and you as one of the generals. In fact, Mr. DeVere, I depend
+on you to coach the militia men. For though they know a lot about
+military matters, they do not know how best to pose for the camera. So
+I'll be glad if you will act as a sort of stage manager."
+
+"I shall be pleased to," answered the old player. And he was greatly
+delighted at the opportunity.
+
+About a week after Mr. Pertell had mentioned that two regiments of
+militia were coming to Oak Farm, Ruth and Alice awakened one morning to
+see the fields about them dotted with tents and soldiers moving about
+here and there.
+
+"Why, it does look just like a real war camp!" exclaimed Alice, who, in
+a very becoming dressing gown, was at the window. "Oh, isn't it
+thrilling! How dare you?" she exclaimed, drawing hastily back.
+
+"What was it?" asked Ruth from her room.
+
+"One of the officers had the audacity to wave his hand at me."
+
+"You shouldn't have looked out."
+
+"Ha! A pity I can't look out of my own window," and to prove that she
+was well within her rights Alice looked out again, and pretended not to
+see a young man who was standing in the yard below.
+
+There was a bustle of excitement at the breakfast table. All the players
+were eager to know what parts they would have, for this was the biggest
+thing any of them had yet been in--with two regiments taking the field
+one against the other, with many more cannon and guns than Mr. Pertell
+had hitherto used.
+
+"I'll be able to throw on the screen a real battle scene," he said.
+
+"The only trouble," declared Pop Snooks, "is that their uniforms aren't
+like those of the days of sixty-three." Pop was a stickler for dramatic
+correctness.
+
+"It won't matter," said Mr. Pertell. "The views of the battle will be
+distant ones, and no one will be able to see the kind of uniforms the
+men wear. Those who are close to the camera will wear the proper Civil
+War uniforms we have on hand. The officers of the Guard have agreed to
+that."
+
+Considerable preparation was necessary before the big film of the battle
+could be taken, and to this end it was necessary to have several
+conferences among the officers and Mr. Pertell and his camera men and
+assistants, including Mr. DeVere. A number of the Guard officers were
+constantly about the farmhouse, arranging the plans.
+
+One afternoon Alice was sitting on the porch with Estelle, waiting
+until it was time for them to take their parts in a side scene of the
+production. A nattily attired young officer came up the walk, doffing
+his cap.
+
+"I beg your pardon," he said. "I am Lieutenant Varley, and I was sent
+here to ask for Mr. Pertell. Perhaps you can tell me where I can find
+him?"
+
+Alice looked and blushed. He was the one who had audaciously waved to
+her beneath her window, but now he showed no sign of recognition. As his
+gaze rested on the face of Estelle Brown, however, he started.
+
+"Excuse me!" he began, "but did you reach your destination safely?"
+
+"My destination!" exclaimed Estelle. "What do you mean? I don't know
+you!"
+
+"Perhaps not by name. But are you not the young lady whom I met some
+years ago in Portland, Oregon, inquiring how to get to New York?"
+
+"You are mistaken," said Estelle, and her voice was frigid in tone. "I
+have never been in Portland in my life," and she turned aside.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+WONDERINGS
+
+
+For a moment Lieutenant Varley seemed to hesitate, and Alice felt sorry
+for him. He was distinctly not of the type that would try to make an
+acquaintance in this way just because Estelle was a pretty girl. He
+seemed embarrassed and ill at ease. But he was not the sort of young man
+to give up, once he thought he was right, as he obviously did in this
+case. To do so, Alice felt sure he reasoned, would have been to
+acknowledge that he was just the sort he seemingly was not.
+
+"I really beg your pardon," he went on, in a firm but respectful tone.
+"I am sure I have met you before. I do not wonder that you do not
+remember me, but I cannot forget you. Yours isn't a face one easily
+forgets," and he smiled genially, and in a manner to disarm criticism.
+
+"But I never was in Portland," insisted Estelle, and it was plain that
+she was puzzled by his persistence but not offended by it. "And I don't
+remember ever having seen you before."
+
+"Perhaps if I recall some of the circumstances to you it may bring back
+the memory," suggested the lieutenant. "Believe me, I do not do it out
+of mere idle curiosity, but you seemed in such distress at the time, and
+so uncertain of where you wanted to go, that I really wished after I had
+directed you that I had placed you in charge of the conductor of your
+train."
+
+"But I never was in Portland," said Estelle again, "and though I have
+been in New York, I went there from Boston. Surely you have confused me
+with some one else."
+
+The young officer shook his head.
+
+"I couldn't do that," he said with a smile that showed his white, even
+teeth. "It was just about this time three--no, four years ago. I was in
+Portland on business, and as I entered the railroad station you were
+standing there----"
+
+Estelle shook her head, smiling.
+
+"Well, for the sake of argument," admitted the lieutenant, "say it was
+some one who looked like you."
+
+"All right," agreed Miss Brown, and she and Alice drew near the porch
+railing, on the other side of which stood the officer with doffed hat.
+
+"A young lady was standing there, and she seemed quite bewildered," went
+on Lieutenant Varley. "I saw that she was in some confusion, and asked
+if I could be of any service to her. She said she wanted to get to New
+York, but did not know which train to take. I asked her if she had her
+ticket, and she replied in the negative. I asked her if she wanted to
+buy one, and she said she did, showing a purse well filled with
+bills----"
+
+"Then surely it could not have been I!" exclaimed Estelle with a merry
+laugh. "I never had a purse well-filled with bills. We moving picture
+players--at least in my class--don't go about like millionaires.
+Gracious! I only wish I did have a well-filled purse, don't you, Alice?"
+
+"Surely. But what else happened? I'm interested in the story."
+
+"And I was interested in the young lady," went on the officer. "I bought
+her ticket for her with the money she handed me, and put her on the
+train. She was quite young--about as old as you"--and he smiled at
+Estelle, "and I asked her if some one was going to meet her. She said
+she thought so, but was not sure, at any rate she felt that she could
+look after herself. I left her, and meant to speak to the conductor
+about her, but did not have time.
+
+"I have often wondered since whether she arrived safely, and when I saw
+you sitting here I felt that I could ascertain. For I certainly took you
+for that young lady."
+
+"I am sorry to spoil your romance," said Estelle, "but I am not the one.
+I never was farther West than Chicago, and then only for a little while,
+filling a short engagement in the movies."
+
+"Well, I won't insist on your identity," said the lieutenant, "but I'm
+sure I'm not mistaken. However, I won't trouble you further----"
+
+"Oh, it has been no trouble," interrupted Estelle. "I'm sure I hope you
+will find that young lady some day."
+
+"I hope so, too," and the lieutenant bowed. But, judging from his face,
+Alice thought, it was plain that he was sure he had already found the
+young lady in question.
+
+At that moment Mr. Pertell came out on the porch and saw the lieutenant.
+
+"Ah, I'm glad you are here," observed the manager. "I want to ask you a
+great many things. This staging of sham battles is not as easy as I
+thought it would be."
+
+"We can have the sham battles all right," answered the officer, with a
+smile. "But I can imagine it is not easy to get good moving pictures of
+them. We have to operate over a large area, and we can't always tell
+what the next move will be. Though, of course, for the purpose of making
+views we can ignore military regulations and strain a point or two."
+
+"That's just what I want to talk about," remarked Mr. Pertell. "In the
+attack, for instance, the way the plans have been made the sun is wrong
+for getting good views. Can't we switch the two armies around?"
+
+"Well, I suppose we can. I'll speak to the colonel about it," and then
+the two went inside, where Mr. Pertell had his office in the parlor of
+the farmhouse.
+
+"What do you think of him, Estelle?" asked Alice.
+
+"Why, I think he's very nice, but he's altogether wrong about me."
+
+"And yet he seemed so positive."
+
+"Yes, that is what makes it strange. But I never saw him before--that
+is, as far as I know; and I'm certain I was never in Portland. He must
+be mistaken, but it was nice of him to admit it. I thought at first he
+was using the old method to get acquainted."
+
+"So did I. But he isn't that kind."
+
+"He doesn't seem to be."
+
+Russ Dalwood came around the corner of the porch with Paul Ardite and
+Hal Watson, a young man lately engaged to play juvenile roles. Hal had
+become very friendly with the little group that circled around Ruth and
+Alice.
+
+"You girls have an hour yet before you go on," Russ informed them. "We
+haven't anything to do until then, either. Want to take a run in to
+town? I've got to call at the express office for some extra film, and
+the auto is ready. Where's Ruth?"
+
+"Up in her room. I'll go for her," offered Alice. "Shall we have time?"
+
+"Plenty. You can even buy yourself some candy--or let us do it for you,"
+laughed Paul.
+
+"We'll let you do it!" said Estelle, as Alice hastened to summon her
+sister.
+
+"Ruth! Ruth! where are you?" called Alice, as she ran upstairs--Alice
+seldom walked.
+
+"Here, just reading over my new part. What's the matter?"
+
+"We're going for an auto ride with the boys. Come along. You can study
+in the car."
+
+"Yes, a lot of studying I could do under those circumstances. But I'll
+come--I want a bit of diversion. Who else is going?"
+
+Alice told her, and then spoke about the young lieutenant.
+
+"Wasn't it queer he should be mistaken?" she asked.
+
+Ruth did not reply for a moment.
+
+"Wasn't it?" repeated her sister.
+
+"I was just wondering," said Ruth, slowly. "Was it?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+AN INTERRUPTION
+
+
+While Alice was putting on her hat Ruth looked at her in some surprise.
+
+"Was it?" she repeated.
+
+"Was what?" asked her sister.
+
+"Was it a mistake?"
+
+"Of course it was, Ruth! Didn't I tell you Estelle said he must have
+taken her for some one else, as she had never been in Portland in her
+life? Of course, it was a mistake. What makes you think it wasn't?"
+
+"Because, Alice, I am beginning to have doubts regarding Estelle."
+
+"Doubts! You don't mean about the ring?"
+
+"Of course not! But I am beginning to think she is not altogether what
+she seems to be."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Well, nothing serious, of course. And if she has done what I think she
+has it isn't any worse than many girls have done, and have gained by it,
+rather than lost, though it was risky."
+
+"You mean?"
+
+"I mean that I believe she isn't telling us all she knows. She is hiding
+something about her past. And I believe it is that she has run away from
+home because her family would not let her go into moving pictures. You
+know we sort of suspected that before. Now, in that case, she would have
+every reason to deny that she had seen that young lieutenant in
+Portland."
+
+"Why should she, providing I grant that you are right?"
+
+"Because he might know her friends and would tell them where she was.
+And she doesn't want that known until she has made a reputation. I don't
+blame her. If ever I ran away----"
+
+"Ruth! _you_ are not thinking of it, are you?"
+
+"Silly! Of course not. But if I should I wouldn't want to run back home
+until I had something to show for my efforts. It may be that way in
+Estelle's case. She doesn't want to return like the prodigal son."
+
+"I believe you're entirely wrong," declared Alice. "What I think is that
+she perhaps comes of good people. When I say that I don't mean that they
+were any better than we are, but that they so regarded themselves, and
+would look askance at motion picture players. Well, Estelle doesn't want
+to bring any annoyance on her family, and that may be the reason she
+doesn't tell much about herself. But as for that young officer's having
+seen her, I believe Estelle when she says he is mistaken. Don't you?"
+
+"I don't know what to believe," returned Ruth. "But I'm not going to
+worry over it."
+
+"And you won't tell her you don't believe she is what she seems to be?"
+
+"Of course not, you little goose! But I'm going to keep my eyes open.
+You know we may be able to give her some good advice. You and I, Alice,
+don't meet with near the temptations that assail other girls in this
+business, and it's because father is with us all the while. Now Estelle
+isn't so fortunate; so I propose that we sort of look after her."
+
+"Oh, I'm very willing to do that."
+
+"And if we see anything that is likely to cause her trouble, we must
+shield her from it. That is what I mean by sort of keeping watch over
+her. At the same time, I believe that she is not altogether what she
+seems. She is hiding something from us--even though we are trying to be
+so kind to her. But she doesn't really mean to do it. She is just
+afraid, I think."
+
+"And you really believe that lieutenant knows her?"
+
+"He may. At least I think, from what you said, that he is honest in his
+belief. But we will watch and wait. We must try to help Estelle in the
+hour of trial."
+
+"Of course we will. Now hurry, for they are waiting for us."
+
+"Such a funny thing just happened to me!" cried Estelle to the party of
+young folks when they were in the automobile and on the way to the
+village. "I was mistaken for some one else."
+
+"What--again?" asked Alice.
+
+"No, the same incident that you witnessed," and she related the episode
+of the lieutenant as Alice had detailed it to Ruth.
+
+"That was queer," commented Hal Watson.
+
+"I should say so!" exclaimed Russ.
+
+"Was he at all fresh?" Paul asked, and his air was truculent.
+
+"Not in the least!" Estelle hastened to assure him. "He was honestly
+mistaken about it, that was all," and she enlarged on the incident, and
+seemed so genuinely amused by it that Alice nudged her sister as much as
+to say:
+
+"See how much in error you are."
+
+But Ruth only smiled, and Alice noticed that she regarded Estelle more
+closely than ever.
+
+The party made merry in the town, going into the "Emporium," for
+ice-cream sodas; and even the presence of Maurice Whitlow at the other
+end of the counter, where he was imbibing something through a straw,
+could not daunt Alice's high spirits. Whitlow smiled and smirked in the
+direction of his acquaintances, but he received no invitation to join
+them.
+
+As Estelle was going out in the rear of the party, the extra player slid
+up to her and asked:
+
+"Mayn't I have the pleasure of buying you some more cream?"
+
+"You may not!" exclaimed Estelle, not turning her head, and there were
+snickers from the other patrons in the place. Maurice turned the shade
+of his scarlet tie, and slid out a side door.
+
+"You're getting too popular," chided Alice to her friend. "First it's
+the young lieutenant, and now it's your former admirer."
+
+"I can dispense with the admiration of both!"
+
+"Even the lieutenant?" asked Ruth, meaningly.
+
+"Oh, he wasn't so bad," and Estelle either was really indifferent, or
+she assumed indifference in a most finished manner that would have done
+credit to a more experienced actress than she was.
+
+"What's the matter--are we late?" asked Paul, as, on the way back to Oak
+Farm, he saw Russ look at his watch and then speed up the car a bit.
+
+"Yes, a little. Mr. Pertell said he wanted to begin that skirmish scene
+at eleven exactly, and it's ten minutes to that now. We can just about
+make it. The sun will be in just the right position for making the film.
+It's in a thicket you know, and the light isn't any too good. That's the
+scene you girls are in," he went on.
+
+"Speed along," urged Paul. "I've got to get into my uniform and make up
+a bit."
+
+There is very little "make up" done for moving pictures taken in the
+open, and not as much done for studio work as there is on the regular
+stage. The camera is sharper than any eye, and make-up shows very
+plainly on the screen. Of course, eyes are often darkened and lips
+rouged a bit to make them appear to better advantage. Even the men make
+up a little but not much. For close-up views, though, where the faces
+are more than life size, artistic make-up is very essential. The camera,
+in this case, is a magnifying glass, and the most peach-blow complexion
+would look coarse unless slightly powdered.
+
+"We'll be all right if we don't get a puncture," said Hal.
+
+No sooner were these words out of his mouth than there came a hiss of
+escaping air.
+
+"There she goes!" cried Paul. "Stop, Russ!"
+
+"No, we haven't time. I'm going to keep on. It's better to get in on the
+rims and cut a shoe to ribbons than to spoil the film."
+
+They sped along in spite of the flat tire. And it was well they did, for
+Mr. Pertell was anxiously waiting for his players when they arrived at
+Oak Farm.
+
+"You cut it pretty fine," was his only comment. "Don't do it again. Now
+get ready for that skirmish scene."
+
+This was one little incident in the big war play. In it Ruth and Alice
+were to be shown driving along a country road. There was to be an alarm,
+and a body of Confederate cavalry was to encounter one of the outposts
+of the Union army. There was to be a skirmish and a fight, and the Union
+men were to be driven off, leaving some dead and wounded. The girls,
+though shocked, were to look after the wounded.
+
+All was in readiness. The soldiers, some drawn from the newly-arrived
+National Guards, were posted in their respective places. Lieutenant
+Varley was to play the part of one of the wounded Unionists.
+
+"All ready--come on with the carriage!" called Mr. Pertell to Ruth and
+Alice, who were waiting out of range of the camera. They had rehearsed
+the direction they were to take. "Go on!" called the director to Russ.
+"Camera!"
+
+The grinding of the film began, and Ruth and Alice acted their parts as
+they drove along in the old-fashioned equipage. Suddenly, in front of
+them the bushes crackled.
+
+"There they come!" cried Ruth, pulling back the horses as called for in
+the play. "The soldiers!"
+
+But instead of a band of men in blue breaking out on the road, there
+came a herd of cows, that rushed at the carriage, while the horses
+reared up and began to back.
+
+"Stop the camera! Stop that! Cut that out!" frantically cried Mr.
+Pertell through his megaphone. "Hold back those men!" he added to his
+assistant who had signaled for the Confederates to rush up.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+FORGETFULNESS
+
+
+Ruth and Alice for the moment were not quite certain whether or not this
+was a part of the scene. Very often the director would spring some
+unexpected effect for the sake of causing a natural surprise that would
+register in the camera better than any simulated one.
+
+But these were real cows, and they did not seem to have rehearsed their
+parts very well, for they rushed here and there and surrounded the
+carriage, to the no small terror of the horses, which Ruth had all she
+could do to hold in.
+
+"Oh, what shall we do?" cried Alice. "I'm going to jump out!"
+
+"You'll do nothing of the sort!" exclaimed her sister. "Sit where you
+are! Do you want to be trampled on or pierced with those sharp horns,
+Alice?"
+
+"I certainly do not!"
+
+"Then sit still! This must be a mistake."
+
+It did not take much effort on Ruth's part to make Alice remain in the
+carriage with all those cows about. For she had learned on Rocky Ranch
+that while a crowd of steers will pay no attention to a person on a
+horse, once let the same person dismount, and he may be trampled down.
+
+These, of course, were not wild steers--Alice could see that. But she
+thought the same rule, in a measure, might hold good.
+
+More cows crashed through the bushes until the road was fairly blocked,
+and then came another rush of many feet and the Union skirmish party
+came galloping along. They had received no orders to hold back, and so
+dashed up.
+
+At the same moment a ragged boy with a long whip came rushing up.
+Evidently, he was in charge of the cows, but when he saw the soldiers in
+their uniforms, a look of fear spread over his face.
+
+"I didn't do nothin', Mister Captain! Honest I didn't!" he yelled.
+"These is pap's cows, an' I'm drivin' 'em over to the man he sold 'em
+to. I didn't do nothin'."
+
+"Nobody said you did!" laughed Lieutenant Varley with a bow to Ruth and
+Alice in the carriage. "But why did you drive them in here to spoil the
+picture?"
+
+"I didn't know nothin' about no picture--honest I didn't! I took this
+road because it was shorter. Don't shoot pap's cow-critters. I'll take
+'em away."
+
+"Well, that's all we want you to do," said Mr. Pertell, coming up with a
+grim smile. "You nearly got yourself and your cow-critters in trouble,
+my boy. Drive 'em back now, and we'll go on with the film. Did any of
+'em get in, Russ?" he asked.
+
+"Just a few, on the last inch or so of the reel. I can cut that out and
+go on from there. Hold the carriage where it is, Ruth," he called.
+
+"All right," she answered, for she had now quieted the restive horses.
+
+"Don't be afraid, boy," said Alice to the lad. "You won't be hurt."
+
+"And won't they hurt pap's cow-critters, neither?"
+
+"No, indeed. It was all a mistake."
+
+"I--I didn't know there was no war goin' on," remarked the lad, as he
+sent an intelligent dog he had with him after the straying animals. "Me
+an' pap we lives away over yonder on t'other side of the mountain. An'
+we don't never hear no news. I was plum skeered when I seen all them
+ossifers. Thought sure I was ketched, same as I've heard my grandpap
+tell about bein' ketched in the army. He was a soldier with Sherman,
+and I've heard him tell about capturin' cow-critters when they was on
+the march."
+
+"Well, this would be like old times to him, I suppose," said Mr.
+Pertell. "But this is only in fun, my boy--to make motion pictures. So
+take your cows away and we'll go on with the work. Drive 'em on," and
+the boy did so with a curious, backward look at the girls in the
+carriage, and at the Union soldiers, who were going back to their places
+to get ready anew for the skirmish charge.
+
+"And this time we'll have it without cows," said Mr. Pertell. "They
+might go all right in a film of Sherman's march, but not in this
+skirmish fight. All ready now. Take your places again."
+
+The preliminary advance of the carriage, containing Ruth and Alice had
+been filmed all right. Very little need be cut out. Once the cows were
+beyond the camera range, Russ again began grinding away at the film.
+
+"Now come on--Union soldiers!" cried the director.
+
+From their waiting place Lieutenant Varley led his men; and as they
+swept on past the carriage, Alice and Ruth registering fear, the
+Confederates rushed out to meet them.
+
+Then began the skirmish. Guns popped. Horses reared, some throwing their
+riders unexpectedly, but this made it all the more realistic. Men
+fought hand to hand with swords, using only the flats, of course. Horses
+collided one with another, and the animals seemed to enter into the
+spirit of the conflict fully as much as did the men. There was a rattle
+of rifles, but no cannon were used in this scene.
+
+Russ and his helpers filmed it, and, standing behind them watching the
+mimic fight, was the director, shouting orders through his megaphone
+and, when he could not make himself heard in this way, using a field
+telephone, calling his instructions to helpers stationed out of sight in
+the bushes, where they could relay the commands to those taking part in
+the skirmish.
+
+"A little livelier now!" yelled Mr. Pertell. "Give way, you Union
+fellows, as though you were beaten, and then drive them back to the
+fight, Mr. Varley. That's the way!"
+
+The conflict raged and the cameras clicked away. It was all one to the
+camera men--a parlor drama or a sanguinary conflict. So long as the
+shutter worked perfectly, as long as the focus was correct and the film
+ran freely, the camera men were satisfied.
+
+"Now you Confederates pretend to be overwhelmed, and then rally with a
+rush and sweep the Unionists out of the thicket!" ordered the director.
+
+This was done, and, all the while, at one side of the picture crouched
+Ruth and Alice, as two Southern girls. They had leaped from their
+carriage and were waiting the outcome of the conflict, stooping down out
+of the way of flying bullets.
+
+This was a side scene in the war play, and did not involve the main
+story. Ruth and Alice, as did the other main characters, assumed various
+roles at times.
+
+"Come on now! You Unionists are beaten. Retreat!" called the director,
+and Lieutenant Varley's men rode off, leaving him and some others
+injured on the field of the conflict.
+
+It was here that Alice and Ruth took an active part again. Ruth rushed
+up to the fallen lieutenant and felt his pulse. No sooner had she done
+so than the director cried:
+
+"Stop the camera! That won't do, Miss DeVere!"
+
+"Why not?" she asked.
+
+"Because you felt his pulse with your thumb. No nurse would do that. The
+pulse in the thumb itself is too strong to allow any one to feel the
+pulse in another's wrist. Use the tips of your first and second fingers.
+Now try again. Ready, Russ!"
+
+This time Ruth did it right. It was characteristic of Mr. Pertell to
+notice a little detail like that.
+
+"Not one person in a hundred would object to the pulse being felt with
+the thumb," he explained afterward; "but the hundredth person in the
+audience would be a doctor, and he'd know right away that the director
+was at fault. It is the little things that count."
+
+Ruth and Alice busied themselves ministering to the wounded who were
+made prisoners by the Confederates. The lieutenant was put in their
+carriage and driven away. That ended the scene at the place of the
+skirmish.
+
+"Very well done!" Mr. Pertell told the girls, as they prepared for the
+next act, which was in a room of a Southern house, whither the wounded
+had been carried.
+
+These were busy days at Oak Farm. With the arrival of the two regiments
+of the National Guard, pictures were taken every day, leading up to the
+big battle scene, which had been postponed. When they were not posing
+for the cameras, the guardsmen were drilling in accordance with the
+regulations of the annual state encampment under the direction of the
+regular army officers.
+
+"Well, have you quite recovered from your wounds?" asked Alice of
+Lieutenant Varley one day, as she met him outside the farmhouse.
+
+"Oh, yes, thanks to the care of your sister and yourself. By the way, I
+hope your friend Miss Brown is not angry with me."
+
+"Why should she be?"
+
+"Well, because I thought I had seen her before."
+
+"I don't believe she is. I haven't heard her say. But here she comes
+now. You can ask her," and Estelle came around the turn of the path.
+Seeing Alice talking with the lieutenant, she hesitated, but Alice
+called:
+
+"Come on--we were just speaking about you."
+
+"I wondered why my ears burned," laughed Estelle.
+
+"Perhaps you two are going somewhere," said the officer, preparing to
+take his leave.
+
+"Oh, to no place where you are not welcome," answered Alice, graciously,
+with a side look at her companion to see if Estelle objected. But the
+latter gave no sign, one way or the other.
+
+"Thank you!" exclaimed the guardsman. "I have to take part in a little
+scene in about an hour, but I would enjoy a walk in the meanwhile. You
+are both made up, I see?"
+
+"Yes, we are Southern belles to-day," laughed Alice.
+
+"Belles every day," returned the lieutenant with a bow.
+
+"Nicely said!" laughed Estelle. "You are improving!"
+
+She and Alice wore the costumes of generations ago, big bonnets and
+hoopskirts.
+
+"Let's go over and see what they're filming there," suggested Alice,
+pointing to where a crossroads store had been put up.
+
+The scene at the store was one to represent a dispute among some
+Southerners and some Northern sympathizers. It was to end in a fight in
+which one man was to draw his revolver.
+
+All went well up to the quarrel, and then it became too realistic, for,
+by some chance, there was a bullet in the revolver instead of a blank
+cartridge, and it entered the leg of one of the disputants. He fell and
+bled profusely.
+
+"Get Dr. Wherry!" yelled Mr. Pertell.
+
+"Dr. Wherry went into the village this morning to get some stuff," Russ
+said, "and he hasn't come back yet."
+
+"Then somebody will have to go after him!" cried the director.
+
+"I'll go!" offered Alice. "I can take this horse and carriage!" for a
+rig was hitched outside the "store."
+
+"I'll go with you!" cried Estelle, and then, in costume and made up for
+the pictures as they were, they got into the vehicle and drove off.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+IN THE SMOKE
+
+
+"Do you think he'll die?" asked Estelle, as she took the reins and
+flicked the horse lightly with the whip.
+
+"I hope not," answered Alice.
+
+"Did it make you faint to see the blood?"
+
+"A little. Did it you?"
+
+"Yes. I can't bear it! It makes me---- Oh, it makes me----"
+
+Estelle closed her eyes, and Alice was surprised to see her turn pale,
+even under her rouge, and shudder.
+
+"That's queer," Alice said. "I should have thought, being on a ranch as
+you were, you might have become used to accidents and scenes of
+violence."
+
+"Who said I was on a ranch?"
+
+"Why, you did!"
+
+"I did?"
+
+"Yes; don't you remember? That day when we were talking about branding
+cows----"
+
+"Oh, maybe I did. I'd forgotten. Oh, dear! here comes an auto, and I'm
+not sure about this horse. I'm afraid he'll start to rear."
+
+At this intimation that there might be trouble, Alice's face took on a
+worried look, and she fore-bore to press the questions she had been
+asking Estelle.
+
+The horse showed some signs of fear as he passed the automobile in the
+road, but the man driving the car was considerate enough to stop his
+machine and motion to the girls to pass. They did so, the horse getting
+as far to one side of the road as he could, his nostrils distended and
+his ears pricked forward.
+
+"There! Thank goodness that's over!" sighed Estelle. "Now to make speed
+and get that doctor. I hope the man doesn't die."
+
+"I do too," acquiesced Alice. "Did you see how sharply the man looked at
+us?"
+
+"Who, the man that was shot?"
+
+"No, the one in the auto. He stared and stared!"
+
+"Probably he wondered where in the world we got a horse in these days
+that was afraid of an auto. I wonder myself where this steed has been in
+hiding. There are so many cars now that it is a wonder horses aren't
+using gasoline as perfume."
+
+"No, he wasn't looking at the horse," persisted Alice. "He was looking
+at us. Perhaps he knew you, Estelle."
+
+"Why do you say that? I'm sure I never saw him before. Maybe it was you
+he was staring at."
+
+"No, it was you he was staring at, but I don't blame him. You are very
+striking looking to-day."
+
+"It's this dress. Isn't it quaint?"
+
+"And pretty! Oh, but we mustn't talk so frivolously when that poor man
+may be dying. We must drive faster."
+
+"Talking isn't going to make the horse go any slower. In fact, I think
+maybe he'll go quicker to get the trip over with sooner so he can be rid
+of our chatter. But I don't think the poor man is badly hurt. He may
+bleed a lot, but they can hold that in check until we get the doctor."
+
+They drove on, and were presently in the village. They had been told
+where Dr. Wherry had gone--to a drugstore to get some medical
+supplies--and thither they made their way.
+
+"Do you notice how every one is staring at us?" asked Alice, as they
+drove along the streets.
+
+"They do seem to be," admitted Estelle, looking for the drugstore. "I
+guess it's the horse; he is so bony he has many fine points about him,
+as Russ said. And we're queer looking in these costumes ourselves."
+
+When they alighted at the pharmacy and started in, they became aware of
+the growing sensation they were creating. For a little throng had
+gathered in front of the store, and more men and boys came running up,
+to form in two lines--a living lane--through which Alice and Estelle had
+to pass.
+
+"We certainly are creating a sensation," gasped Alice, growing
+embarrassed.
+
+"Look! a regular bridal crowd," said Estelle in a low voice.
+
+Though they undeniably presented a pretty picture in their paint,
+powder, curls and hoopskirts, they were also an unusual one for that
+little country village.
+
+"Look at the society swells!" cried one boy.
+
+"Dat's de new fashion--makin' your nose look like a flour barrel!" added
+another.
+
+"Aren't those dresses sweet?" sighed a girl.
+
+"They must be the latest New York style," added a companion. "I heard
+that full skirts were coming in again."
+
+"Well, ours are certainly full enough," murmured Alice, looking down at
+her swaying hoops.
+
+And then some one guessed the truth.
+
+"They're actresses--the movie actresses!" came the cry, and this
+attracted more attention than ever, for if there is one person about
+whom the American public is curious, it is the actor.
+
+"Oh my!" exclaimed Estelle, "now we are in for it. Hurry inside the
+store!"
+
+The girls fairly ran into the friendly shelter, and some of the crowd
+attempted to follow, but the drug clerks barred the way, guessing what
+the excitement was about.
+
+"Dr. Wherry!" gasped Alice. "Is he here?"
+
+"Right back there--in the prescription department," a clerk said. "Which
+of you is ill?"
+
+"Neither one!" cried Estelle. "We want him for a man out at Oak Farm.
+He's been shot--an accident in the play. Tell him to hurry, please, and
+then show us some way of getting out through a side door. I can't face
+that crowd--this way," and she looked down at her elaborate hoop-skirted
+costume, which might have been all right in the days of sixty-three, but
+which was unique at the present time.
+
+"What's the trouble?" asked Dr. Wherry, coming from behind the
+ground-glass partition. "Oh, Miss DeVere and Miss Brown!" he went on as
+he recognized the moving picture girls. "Is some one hurt?"
+
+They told him quickly what the trouble was, and he cried:
+
+"I'll go at once. You'd better come back with me in the auto if you
+don't want to run the gauntlet of the staring crowd. I'll bring my
+machine around to the side door."
+
+"What about the horse we drove over?" asked Alice.
+
+"I'll have Mr. Pertell send a man for that."
+
+The girls, in their curiosity-exciting costumes, managed to slip out the
+side door and into the doctor's automobile without attracting the
+attention of the crowd. Then they made the trip back in good time and
+comfort.
+
+"And to think we never for a moment thought of changing our things!"
+cried Alice, when they were at Oak Farm again.
+
+"Or even of rubbing off some of the make-up," added Estelle. "But we
+were so excited--at least I was--when I saw the poor fellow hurt. I hope
+it is not serious."
+
+"No, he's lost a little blood, that's all," said Dr. Wherry. "But I
+thought you were used to such scenes, Miss Brown, coming from the West,
+as you did."
+
+"I from the West? Oh, yes, I have been there. Come on, Alice, let's see
+if they still want us for anything, and, if they don't, we'll change our
+clothes," and Estelle seemed glad of a chance to hurry away.
+
+"I wonder," said Alice to her sister afterward, "whether she is really
+so squeamish as she pretends, or if she doesn't want it known that she
+is from the West?"
+
+"It's hard to say. Estelle is acting more and more queerly every day, I
+think."
+
+"So do I. Though I am quite in love with her. She has such a sweet
+disposition."
+
+"Yes, she is a lovely girl. I only wish there wasn't that bit of mystery
+about her."
+
+"And it is a mystery," went on Alice. "Every once in a while I catch
+Lieutenant Varley looking at her, when he thinks he isn't observed, and
+he shakes his head as though he could not understand it at all."
+
+"Then you think he still feels sure she is the girl he met in Portland?"
+
+"I'm positive he does, and he isn't doing it to further his own ends and
+force an acquaintance with her, either. He honestly believes he has met
+her before."
+
+"Well, it is very strange. But she doesn't seem to want to talk about
+anything connected with her past."
+
+"No, and I suppose we should not try to force matters."
+
+The man who was shot was soon out of danger, and, meanwhile, the taking
+of the war scenes went on with some one else in his place. A number of
+sham engagements had been fought, all working up to the big final
+battle, in which Ruth would play her part as an army nurse, and Alice
+would act as the spy. Estelle, too, had been given a rather important
+part, much to the annoyance of Miss Dixon, who had been expecting it.
+
+The vaudeville actress made sneering and cutting remarks about "extra
+players butting in," and there were veiled insinuations concerning the
+missing ring, but Estelle took no notice, and Alice, Ruth and her other
+friends stood loyally by her.
+
+"We'll film that burning barn scene to-day," said Mr. Pertell one
+morning at the breakfast table, when he had ascertained that the
+atmospheric conditions were right. "That's the one where you two DeVere
+girls are surprised on your little farm by the visit of some Union
+soldiers. You have been caring for a wounded cousin, who has escaped
+through the Union lines, and at the news that the Yankees are coming you
+hide him in the barn. Then the Unionists set fire to it, and you girls
+have to drag him out.
+
+"There'll be no danger, of course, for the fire won't be near you--in
+fact, the barn won't burn at all--only a shack nailed to it. And the
+smoke will be from the regular bomb. You have plenty of them, haven't
+you, Pop Snooks?"
+
+"Oh yes, plenty of smoke bombs, Mr. Pertell."
+
+All was soon in readiness for the burning-barn scene. Ruth and Alice
+received the wounded cousin (an inside scene this) and then, when an old
+colored mammie (Mrs. Maguire) came panting with the news that the
+Yankees were coming, the wounded Confederate was carried out to the
+barn. Then came the visit of the Yankees, who, suspecting the presence
+of the escaped prisoner, made diligent search, but without success.
+
+"Fire the barn, anyhow!" cried the captain.
+
+Then came the spirited scene where Ruth and Alice got their wounded
+relative out. He was a slim young man, and they could easily carry him,
+for he was supposed to be overcome by the smoke.
+
+"Ready, Alice?" asked Ruth, as they went through the action called for
+in the script.
+
+"Yes, ready. You take his head and I'll take his heels. Don't be too
+stiff," Alice admonished the young man. "We can carry you better if
+you're limp."
+
+"I'll be limp enough if I swallow any more of that smoke," choked the
+actor. "It's fierce!"
+
+Indeed, Pop Snooks had been very liberal in the matter of smoke bombs.
+Great clouds of the black vapor swirled here and there, and Ruth and
+Alice had to get free breaths whenever they could.
+
+"Come on!" yelled the director through his megaphone. "Lively!"
+
+Alice and Ruth, half carrying, half dragging, the wounded soldier,
+staggered out, Russ clicking away at the camera.
+
+"Good! That's good! It's fine!" exclaimed the enthusiastic director.
+
+Ruth was conscious that she was suddenly dragging more of the weight of
+the man's body than at first. But she thought one of Alice's hands had
+possibly slipped off, and she did not want to call a halt to get a
+better hold.
+
+"My! But this is choking!" gasped Ruth.
+
+Finally, she staggered out into the open, dragging the soldier by his
+shoulders. She slumped down on the ground, in a place free from smoke,
+and registered exhaustion.
+
+"Where's Alice?" cried Paul, who was holding back in readiness for his
+appearance in the scene. "Where's Alice?"
+
+"Isn't she there?" gasped Ruth, rising on her elbow.
+
+"No, she isn't. She must be----"
+
+"Hold that pose, Ruth! Don't stir or you'll spoil the scene!" yelled the
+director. "We'll get your sister!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE HOSPITAL TENT
+
+
+"The show must go on!" This is the motto of circus and theatrical
+performers the world over. No matter what happens, under what strain or
+pain the player labors, no matter what occurs short of death itself, the
+public must not be allowed to guess that anything is wrong. And
+sometimes even death itself has been no barrier--for players have gone
+through with their parts on the stage when, but the act previous, they
+have learned that some loved one had passed away.
+
+And more than one clown has bounded into the sawdust ring with merry
+quip and jest, with a smile on his painted face, while his heart was
+breaking with grief.
+
+And so it was with Ruth DeVere. As she staggered out of the smoke clouds
+and saw that Alice had not followed, at once the dreadful thought came
+to her that her sister had been overcome by the fumes. And, although the
+smoke bombs were harmless as regards fire, the breathing of the
+chemical fumes for any length of time might mean death.
+
+Thus, as Ruth was about to stagger to her feet to go back into the murky
+cloud to look for Alice, there came the director's orders to "hold that
+pose!"
+
+The show must go on! That meant it would not do to spoil the scene, ruin
+the film, and necessitate a retake if, by any possibility, it could be
+avoided.
+
+"Stay where you are, Ruth! Stop the camera, Russ! Hold the pose--both of
+you. We'll go on from there when we get Alice out!"
+
+And Ruth, her heart torn with anguish, must remain. She was glad her
+father was not present.
+
+"Get in there and get the girl!" cried Pop Snooks who was busy lighting
+more smoke bombs. "Get that girl, some of you fellows!" For he had
+guessed in an instant what had happened. It was not the first time one
+of the players had been overcome by the heavy fumes.
+
+Into the cloud dashed some of the head property man's helpers. Russ and
+Paul, who could leave their posts while the camera was not in motion,
+also penetrated the murkiness.
+
+Fortunately, Alice had been overcome when within a few feet of the clear
+atmosphere, and it was the work of but an instant for Paul to carry her
+outside, where she could breathe pure air.
+
+"The poor dear!" cried Mrs. Maguire. "Here, give her this ammonia and
+water."
+
+"Don't come too close to her, Mrs. Maguire!" warned the director. "Your
+black make-up will come off on her face, and it will show in the film."
+
+The director had to think of all those things, though it might seem a
+bit heartless.
+
+"I'll be careful," promised the motherly old woman. "I'll be careful."
+
+Alice sipped the aromatic spirits of ammonia, and felt better.
+
+"Did I faint?" she asked. "How silly of me!"
+
+"Are you all right?" asked Ruth, still in her place by the side of the
+soldier, who was supposed to be unconscious.
+
+"Yes, Ruth dear. I'm all right now. Oh, and did I leave you to carry him
+all alone? I'm so sorry!"
+
+"It was all right. I dragged him."
+
+"Yes, the scene is all right," said Mr. Pertell. "Now, Alice, I don't
+want to be heartless, but will you be ready to go on in this, or shall
+we abandon it and make a retake?"
+
+"Oh, I'll go on. Just a moment, and I'll be all right."
+
+After a minute or two the plucky girl recovered from the effects of the
+smoke, and, though she was weak and wan, managed to go through her part.
+She and Ruth carried their "cousin" out of the burning barn which was
+then allowed to fall to ruins. Or rather, the extra part, built on for
+the purpose, was, Pop Snook's smoke bombs effectually concealing from
+the audience the fact that the real barn was not in the least harmed.
+
+"Well, I'm glad that's over," said Alice with a sigh, as a little later
+she washed off her make-up and donned her ordinary clothes.
+
+"Do you feel bad?" her sister asked.
+
+"Yes, sort of choked."
+
+"Then let's take a walk up on the hill where there is always a breeze."
+
+On the grassy eminence with the fresh breezes blowing about them, Alice
+soon felt much better. But Mr. Pertell called off some of the scenes set
+down for next day, so that she might have a rest.
+
+"We'll soon be ready for the big hospital scene, Ruth, and also for the
+one where you try to get away with the papers, Alice," said Mr. Pertell
+to the two girls one day. "And, in order that everything may run
+smoothly I've made a little change in the scenario. I'm going to have a
+preliminary hospital scene. In that you will be a sort of orderly, or
+assistant nurse, Ruth. And there comes an emergency in which you do so
+well that you are sent for to be a nurse in one of the big hospitals
+maintained near the front. That will make the story more logical.
+
+"So we'll have one of those hospital scenes to-day. I'll stage a small
+engagement, and have a number of men wounded. They'll be brought in, and
+there will be a night scene. The doctors and other nurses go off duty,
+and you are in charge. An emergency occurs--maybe a bandage slips from
+an artery and you sit and hold the wound until a doctor can come and tie
+the artery again. We'll work it out as we go along."
+
+"Is there anything for me?" asked Alice.
+
+"No, your part will stand all right as it is until you get to the big
+hospital scene. Come on now, Ruth; we'll have a rehearsal."
+
+The rehearsal went off well, and the little change promised to
+strengthen the story of the war play. The hospital was set up near Mr.
+Apgar's corn-crib.
+
+"And maybe that'll be a good thing," he said. "If you folks use enough
+of them there disinfectants and carbolic acid, you may scare away all
+the rats and mice that eat my corn in the winter."
+
+"Oh! will there be rats and mice?" asked Ruth, apprehensively.
+
+"Not in the hospital," said Mr. Pertell with a laugh. "It will be
+strictly sanitary--as much so as things were in the days of
+sixty-three."
+
+The fight between the two forces was staged some distance away from the
+hospital, and the guns soon began to rattle and to roar again. The girls
+did not mind them by this time, however.
+
+This skirmish had no particular part in the general story, but it was
+filmed just the same, as it could be spliced in with the other fighting
+scenes.
+
+"And you can't get too much of that," Mr. Pertell said.
+
+Russ, with some helpers, was taking the fighting pictures preliminary to
+the hospital act. He was nearing the end of the reel in his machine
+when, to his dismay, he found he had forgotten to bring a spare one.
+
+"Here, you!" he called to one of the extra soldiers lying lazily on the
+grass near the camera, "hop over and ask Pop Snooks to give you an extra
+reel for me."
+
+The man did not answer.
+
+"Don't you hear me?" yelled Russ, grinding away at the film which was
+being quickly used up. "Go and get me that reel!"
+
+Still no response.
+
+"Are you deaf?" shouted Russ, and then he thought perhaps the discharge
+of so many cannon had made the man unable to hear.
+
+"Go over and punch that fellow!" cried Russ to Paul. "Wake him up, and
+tell him to get me that extra reel."
+
+"All right," Paul assented. "I'd go myself only I have to carry a
+message to headquarters in a minute or two."
+
+He ran over and kicked the soldier, who seemed to be asleep.
+
+"Hi! What's the idea?" demanded the rudely awakened one.
+
+"The camera man wants you to go to get him some film."
+
+"Who--me?"
+
+"Yes--you! Skip!"
+
+"I can't go get no film!"
+
+"You can't? Why not?"
+
+"'Cause I'm dead, that's why! I was told to be killed, and I was. I fell
+off my hoss dead, an' I'm deader'n a door nail. I dassn't git up to git
+no film for nobody. I'm dead!"
+
+And the man rolled over and closed his eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+A RETAKE
+
+
+"What's the matter over there?" called Russ to Paul. "Is he going to get
+my film?"
+
+"He says he can't."
+
+"Can't? Why not? Has he lost his legs?"
+
+"No. But he's dead. This is carrying realism to the extreme."
+
+"Oh, good-night!" cried Russ. "I haven't but a few feet left. Make him
+go."
+
+"I won't go I tell you," the man cried. "I was told to play dead, and
+I'm goin' to," and he stuck to the instructions he had received.
+
+Fortunately, one of Russ' helpers was free a moment later, and he went
+for the extra roll of film, while the dead man enjoyed his part to his
+satisfaction.
+
+"Well, he did just right," said Mr. Pertell, when told of the incident
+afterward. "I wish more performers would do exactly as they are told. Of
+course, I don't mean to say a player must slavishly do just as I tell
+him. But in some cases a dead man's coming to life might spoil a big
+scene."
+
+Matters were now in readiness for the preliminary hospital scene. A ward
+had been fitted up in a shed where electric lights could be used to get
+the necessary illumination, the current being brought from town. In the
+shed were ranged white beds, in which a number of wounded men were
+reposing. Other men were in wheeled chairs, while still others sat up as
+if recovering from a long and dangerous siege from wounds. All were
+picturesquely bandaged.
+
+The preliminary scenes had been taken. The doctor had made his rounds of
+the wounded on the cots. He had taken their temperature and had felt
+their pulses, while the other women of the company, as nurses,
+accompanied the surgeon on his journey. Other wounded were brought in.
+
+Night settled down in the hospital. The big, hissing electric lights
+were turned off, and from outside a window "moonlight" streamed in. The
+moonlight, of course was made by another electric light, properly
+shaded.
+
+"Now, I think we're ready for you, Ruth," said the director. "You are on
+duty alone in the ward when the emergency occurs."
+
+In the glow of the beams of light from the window Ruth, on duty alone,
+took her place.
+
+"All ready now!" called Mr. Pertell, from where he was standing behind
+Russ, who was grinding away at the camera. "You start from your
+half-doze, Ruth, and listen. Then you approach one of the cots and
+discover that the bandage has slipped and that the man is bleeding to
+death. You press on the artery, and finally rouse another of the
+hospital patients--one not badly wounded--and send him for the surgeon."
+
+Ruth carried out the instructions perfectly. Her acting was so very
+natural that afterward, when the film was shown, more than one person
+found himself holding his breath lest Ruth should remove her thumb from
+the severed artery.
+
+The slightly wounded man limped out to get the surgeon, who came rushing
+in, and the artery was tied. Then followed words of praise for Ruth.
+This laid the foundation for her summons to a larger hospital when the
+proper time came.
+
+The next day more battle views were the order of the day. In one of
+these Estelle had to do some fast riding, to leap her horse across a
+ditch and speed away from pursuing troopers.
+
+"Aren't you nervous for fear you'll fall?" asked Ruth, as the young
+horsewoman was making ready.
+
+"Well, no. I don't think about that part. All I am afraid of is that I
+may get out of range of the camera. You see I'm not very old at this
+business."
+
+"Just how did you come to get into it?" asked Alice.
+
+"Why, it was a sort of accident. I was on a boat one day, leaning over
+the rail looking at the water, when a gentleman came up, begged my
+pardon for speaking without being introduced, and asked me if I had ever
+been in the movies.
+
+"I hadn't, though I had often thought I would like to be, and I told him
+so. He asked me to call at his studio, and I did. They gave me a 'try
+out,' found I photographed well, and they cast me for small parts. Then
+they found out I could ride and they let me do some outdoor stuff. From
+then on I did very well, and when I heard your company was going to make
+a big war play, I applied to Mr. Pertell. He took me, I'm glad to say."
+
+"And we're glad you're here," ejaculated Alice.
+
+"We'll go out and watch you jump; it fascinates me, though it makes me
+afraid," Ruth declared. "My sister and I did some riding while we were
+at Rocky Ranch, but it was nothing to what you do."
+
+"Oh, it takes practice, that's all," answered Estelle.
+
+There were some animated scenes previous to the one in which Estelle
+took part. There was a fight over the possession of a bridge, and the
+Confederates, having driven off their enemies, prepared to blow it up to
+prevent the Union army from using it.
+
+Estelle was to try to reach the bridge before it was destroyed, but,
+failing in that, she was to ride her horse to a narrow part of the
+stream and leap over.
+
+All went well, and the time came for her to take her swift ride to try
+to reach the bridge. On and on she galloped, until she was met by a
+colored man who warned her of the fact that in another moment the bridge
+would be destroyed.
+
+"She's going pretty close!" murmured Mr. Pertell, as he stood near Russ,
+who was filming the scene. "Some of those timbers may fall pretty near
+her."
+
+But Estelle seemed to know no fear. She rode straight for the bridge,
+and she was only a short distance away when it blew up, the planks and
+rails flying high into the air.
+
+Then she turned her horse to reach, ahead of her pursuers, the place she
+was to jump the stream. So near was she to the bridge that she had to
+swerve her horse quickly to avoid being struck by a fragment of the
+falling wood.
+
+"Plucky girl, that!" murmured Mr. DeVere.
+
+While Estelle was being filmed down by the stream, one of the assistant
+camera men, a new hand, prepared to take a scene where a Southern farmer
+rides up to warn the Confederate cavalry of Estelle's escape, so they
+may take after her. Maurice Whitlow was the farmer.
+
+"Here, you!" cried Mr. Pertell to Whitlow, "ride down there and deliver
+the message--that's your part in this scene."
+
+There was a small automobile which Mr. Pertell had been using standing
+near, and Maurice leaped into this and started across the field toward a
+detachment of the Southern cavalry.
+
+Away rattled Maurice in the car, and the camera man ground away, showing
+the farmer on his way to give the warning. Suddenly Mr. Pertell turned
+and saw what was going on.
+
+"For the love of gasoline, stop!" he cried. "The whole scene is spoiled.
+There'll have to be a retake! Of all the stupid pieces of work this is
+the worst! Stop that camera!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+ESTELLE'S STORY
+
+
+"What's the matter?" cried Russ Dalwood, running back from the stream
+where he had been to see that an assistant was successfully getting the
+scene after Estelle had leaped to the other bank.
+
+"Matter! Look!" cried the director, and he pointed to Maurice, speeding
+to carry his message in the small runabout.
+
+"Good-night!" gasped Russ, who understood at once.
+
+"Why, what's wrong with it?" asked Paul. "Isn't he running the machine
+all right?"
+
+"Oh, he's running it all right," said Mr. Pertell in tones of disgust.
+"And that's just the trouble! I told him to jump on a horse with that
+dispatch, and he goes in the auto!"
+
+"I suppose he thought it was quicker," commented Paul.
+
+"Quicker! Yes, I should say it was! But I'll get him out of there
+quicker than he can shake a stick at a dead mule. The idea of riding in
+an auto to carry a message in Civil War days. Why, there wasn't a real
+auto in the whole world then. How would it look in a film to see an
+up-to-date runabout butting in on a scene of sixty-three. Get him back
+here and make him start over again on a horse as he ought to," went on
+the director. "An auto in sixty-three! Next he'll be sending wireless
+telephone messages about fifty years before they were ever dreamed of!"
+
+Fortunately, not much of the film had been reeled off, and the scene was
+one that could easily be made over. Estelle's leap was not spoiled, nor
+was the blowing up of the bridge.
+
+"Huh! I didn't think anything about there not being autos in those
+days," said Maurice, when he had been brought back and mounted on a
+horse.
+
+"That's just it," commented Mr. Pertell. "You've got to think in these
+days of moving pictures. The audiences are more critical than you would
+suppose. Even the children now laugh at fake scenes and incongruities.
+And as for using a dummy in danger scenes, it's getting harder and
+harder every day to get by with it. You stick to horses or to Shank's
+mules, young man, when it comes to transportation in this war film. No
+autos where they are going to show in the film."
+
+That was only one of the many details the director and his assistants
+had to look after. If eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, it is
+much more so the price of good films. The camera sees everything in a
+pitiless light. It exaggerates faults and it refuses to shut its eye to
+anything at which it is pointed. The absolute truth is told every time.
+
+Of course, there are trick films, but even then the camera tells the
+truth fearlessly. It is only the on-lookers' eyes that are deceived. The
+camera can not be fooled. And though a man may be seen to be shaking
+hands with himself or cutting off his own head, it is done by double
+exposure, and could not be accomplished were it not for the fact that
+the camera and the film are so fearlessly honest and truth-telling.
+
+"What's the matter, Estelle?" asked Alice of the rider that afternoon,
+when they were in Ruth's room resting after the work of the day. "You
+seem to be in pain."
+
+"I am. I strained my side a little in that water jump. Petro slipped a
+bit on the muddy bank."
+
+"Did you do much jumping out West?" asked Ruth, while Alice was getting
+a bottle of liniment.
+
+"In the West? I don't know that I ever jumped there. I can't
+remember----"
+
+Estelle paused, and passed her hand across her eyes as though to shut
+out some vision.
+
+"Are you faint?" asked Ruth.
+
+"No--no, it isn't that. It--it is just that I--that I---- Oh, I wonder
+if I can tell you?" and Estelle seemed in such distress that the two
+sisters hastened to her.
+
+"What is it? Tell me, are you badly hurt?" asked Ruth. For she had known
+of performers who concealed injuries that they might not be laid off,
+and so lose a day's work. "What is the matter, Estelle?"
+
+"It is my--my head."
+
+"Did you fall? I didn't hear them say anything about it!" exclaimed
+Alice.
+
+"No, it isn't that," and the girl looked from one sister to the other.
+"Oh, I wonder if I dare tell you?"
+
+"If there is anything in which we can help you, tell us, by all means!"
+answered Ruth, warmly--sympathetically. "But we don't want to force
+ourselves----"
+
+"Oh, no! It isn't that. I'm only wondering what you will think of me
+afterward."
+
+"We shall love you just the same!" cried impulsive Alice.
+
+"Don't be too sure. But I feel that I must tell some one. I have borne
+all I can alone. It is getting to the point where I fear I shall scream
+my secret to the cameras--or some one!"
+
+Then Estelle had a secret!
+
+"Do tell us. Perhaps we can help you--or perhaps my father can,"
+suggested Ruth.
+
+"I don't believe any one can help me," said Estelle. "But at least it
+will be a relief to tell it. I--I am living under false pretenses!" she
+blurted out desperately.
+
+"False pretenses!" repeated Alice. At once her mind flashed back to Miss
+Dixon's ring. Was it the taking of this that Estelle was hinting at? The
+girl must have guessed what was in the mind of her hearers, for she
+hastened to add:
+
+"Oh, it isn't anything disgraceful. It's just a misfortune. You remember
+you have been asking me where I learned to ride--whether I didn't use to
+live on a ranch--questions like that. Well, you must have noticed that I
+didn't answer."
+
+"Yes, we did notice, and we spoke about it," said truthful Ruth.
+
+"We thought you didn't wish to tell," added Alice.
+
+"Wish to tell! Oh, my dears, I would have been only too glad to tell if
+I could."
+
+"Why can't you?" asked Ruth. "Are you bound by some vow of secrecy? Is
+it dangerous for you to reveal the past?"
+
+"No, it is simply impossible!"
+
+"Impossible!" the two sisters exclaimed.
+
+"Yes, I can no more tell you what life I lived, where I lived, who I
+was, or what I was doing, up to a time of about three or four years ago,
+than I can fly."
+
+"Why not?" asked Alice, puzzled.
+
+"Because the past--up to the time I named--is a perfect blank to me. My
+mind refuses absolutely to tell me who I was or where I lived--who my
+people were--anything of the past. My mind is like a blank sheet of
+paper. I can remember nothing. Oh, isn't it awful!" and she burst into
+tears.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+"WHAT CAN WE DO?"
+
+
+"You poor dear!" cried Alice, and she knelt down on the floor beside
+Estelle and put her arms about the weeping girl. Ruth, too, with an
+expression of sympathy, stroked the bowed head.
+
+"We want so much to help you," Ruth murmured.
+
+"Let me get you something," begged Alice. "Some smelling salts--some
+ammonia--shall I call any one--the doctor----?"
+
+"No, I--I'll be all right presently," said Estelle in a broken voice.
+"Just let me alone a little while--I mean stay with me--talk to me--tell
+me something. I want to get control of my nerves."
+
+Ruth did not seem to know what to say, but Alice pulled a small bottle
+from her pocket, and held it under Estelle's nose.
+
+"It's the loveliest new scent," she said. "I bought a sample in town."
+
+Estelle burst into a laugh, rather a hysterical laugh, it is true, but a
+laugh nevertheless. It showed that the strain and tension were relaxing
+to some extent.
+
+"Isn't it sweet?" Alice asked.
+
+"It is, dear. Let me smell it again. It makes me feel better," and
+Estelle breathed in deep of the odorous scent.
+
+"How silly I was to give way like that," she went on. "But I simply
+couldn't help it. This has been going on for so long, and it got so I
+couldn't stand it another minute. How would you like it not to know who
+you are?"
+
+"Not very much, I'm afraid," said Ruth, softly.
+
+"That, in a way, is why it has been such a relief to be in the moving
+pictures," Estelle went on. "I could be so many different characters,
+and, at times, I thought perhaps, by chance, I might be cast for the
+very part I have lost--cast for my real self, as it were."
+
+"You must have had a hard time," said Alice.
+
+"I haven't told you half the story yet," Estelle went on. "Would you
+like to hear the rest?"
+
+"Indeed we would!" exclaimed Ruth. "Not from any idle curiosity, but
+because we want to help you."
+
+"And I do need some one to help me," murmured Estelle. "I am all alone
+in the world."
+
+"You must have relatives somewhere!" insisted Alice.
+
+"None that I ever heard of. But then, who knows what might have happened
+in the life that is a blank to me--in the life that lies beyond that
+impenetrable wall of the past?
+
+"But I mustn't get hysterical again. Just let me think for a moment, so
+I may tell you my story clearly. I shall be all right in a moment or
+two."
+
+"Let me make you a cup of tea," proposed Ruth. "I'll make some for all
+of us," and presently the little kettle was steaming over the spirit
+lamp, and the girls were sipping the fragrant beverage.
+
+"Thank you. That was good!" murmured Estelle. "I feel better now. I'll
+tell the rest of my miserable story to you."
+
+"Don't make it too miserable," and Alice tried to make her laugh a gay
+one.
+
+"I won't--not any more so than I can help. I think it will do me good to
+let you share the mystery with me."
+
+"Then it is a mystery?" asked Ruth.
+
+"Somewhat, yes. You may think it strange, but I can not think back more
+than three years--four at the most. I am not at all certain of the time.
+But go back as far as I can, all I remember is that I was on a large
+steamer."
+
+"On the ocean?" asked Alice.
+
+"No, on the Great Lakes. I was going to Cleveland, which I learned when
+I asked one of the officers."
+
+"And didn't you know where you were going before you asked?" Ruth
+questioned.
+
+"I hadn't the least idea, my dear. I might just as well have been going
+to Europe. In fact, when I first looked out and saw the water, I thought
+I was on the ocean."
+
+"But where did you come from, what were you doing there, where were your
+people?" cried Ruth.
+
+"That's it, my dear. Where were they? I didn't know. No one knew. All I
+could grasp was the fact that I was there on the boat."
+
+"Alone?"
+
+"Yes, all alone."
+
+"But who bought your ticket--who engaged your stateroom?" questioned
+Ruth.
+
+"That is the queer part of it. I did it myself. When I first became
+conscious that I was in a strange place I was so shocked that I wanted
+to scream--to cry out--to ask all sorts of questions. Then I realized if
+I did that I might be taken for an insane person and be locked up. So I
+just shut myself in my stateroom and did some thinking.
+
+"The first thing I wanted to know was how I got on the steamer, but how
+to find that out without asking questions that the steamship people
+would think peculiar, was a puzzle to me. Finally, I decided to pretend
+to want to change my room, and when I went to the purser I asked him if
+that was the only room to be had.
+
+"'Why no, Miss,' he said, 'but when you came on board and I told you
+what rooms I had, you insisted on taking that one.' That was enough for
+me. I realized then that I had come on board alone, and of my own
+volition, though I had not any recollection of having done so, and I
+knew no more of where I came from than you do now."
+
+"How very strange!" murmured Alice. "And what did you do?"
+
+"Well, I pretended that I had been tired and had not made a wise choice
+of a room, and asked the purser to give me another.
+
+"'I thought, when you picked it out, you wouldn't like that one,' he
+said to me, 'but you looked like a young lady who was used to having her
+own way, so I did not interfere.'
+
+"That was another bit of information. Evidently, I looked prosperous, a
+fact that was borne out when I examined my purse. I had a considerable
+sum in it, and the large valise I found in my room was filled with
+expensive clothes and fittings. Yet where I had obtained it or my money
+or my clothes I could not tell for the life of me. All I knew was that
+I was there on board the ship."
+
+"And did you change your stateroom?" asked Ruth.
+
+"Yes; the purser gave me another one. And then I sat down and tried to
+puzzle it out. Why was I going to Cleveland? I knew no one there, and
+yet I had bought a ticket to that port--or some one had bought it for
+me."
+
+"Did that occur to you?" asked Alice. "That some one might have had an
+object in getting you out of the way."
+
+"Well, if they had, they took a very public and expensive method of
+doing it," Estelle said. "I was on one of the best boats on Lake Erie,
+and I had plenty of money."
+
+"Did you find in what name your room was taken?" asked Ruth. "That might
+have given you a clue."
+
+"The name given was Estelle Brown," was the answer. "I gave that name
+myself, for I recognized my handwriting on the envelope in which I
+sealed some of my jewelry before handing it to the purser to put in his
+safe. Estelle Brown was the name I gave."
+
+"And was it yours?" asked Alice.
+
+"I haven't any reason to believe that it was not. In fact, as I looked
+back then, and as I look back now, the name Estelle Brown seems to be
+my very own--it is associated closely with me. So I'm sure I'm Estelle
+Brown--that is the only part I am sure about."
+
+"But what did you do?" asked Ruth. "Didn't you make some inquiries?"
+
+"I did; as soon as I reached Cleveland. At first I hoped that my memory
+would come back to me when I reached that place. I thought I might
+recognize some of the buildings. In fact, I hoped it would prove to be
+my home, from which I had, perhaps, wandered in a fit of illness.
+
+"But it was of no help to me. I might just as well have been in San
+Francisco or New York for all that the place was familiar to me. So I
+gave that up. Then I began to look over the papers to see if any Estelle
+Brown was missing. But there was nothing to that effect in the news
+columns. All the while I was getting more and more worried.
+
+"I went to a good hotel in Cleveland and stayed two or three days. Then
+I happened to think that perhaps my clothes might offer some clue. I
+examined them all carefully, and the only thing I found was the name of
+a Boston firm on a toilet set. At once it flashed on me that I belonged
+in Boston. I seemed to have a dim recollection of a big monument in the
+midst of a green park, of narrow, crooked streets and historical
+buildings.
+
+"Then, in a flash it came to me--I did belong in Boston. How I had come
+from there I could not guess, but I was sure I lived there. So I bought
+a ticket for there and went as fast as the train could take me.
+
+"But my hopes were dashed. Even the sight of Bunker Hill monument did
+not bring the elusive memory, nor did viewing the other places of
+historic interest. Yet, somewhere in the back of my brain, I was sure I
+had been in that city before. I went to the place where my toilet set
+was bought, but the man had sold out and the new owner could give me no
+information.
+
+"I did not know what to do. My money was running low, and I had not a
+friend to whom to turn. I happened to go in to see some moving pictures,
+and the idea came to me that perhaps I could act. I had rather a good
+face, so some one had hinted."
+
+"You do photograph beautifully," said Alice.
+
+"That's what one of the managers in Boston told me when I applied to
+him," said Estelle. "He gave me a small part, and then I learned that
+New York was really the place to go to get in the movies, so I came on,
+with a letter to a manager from the Boston firm.
+
+"It must have been my face that got me my first engagement, for now I
+know I couldn't act. But, somehow or other, I made good, and then I got
+this engagement with Mr. Pertell.
+
+"And that is my story. You can see what a strange one it is--for me not
+to know who I am. I'm almost ashamed to admit it, and that is why I have
+been avoiding all references to my past. But now I have told you, what
+do you think?"
+
+"I think it's just terrible!" cried Alice. "The idea! Not to know who
+you are."
+
+"The question is," said Ruth, "what can we do to help you? This must not
+be allowed to go any further. Valuable time is being lost. We want to
+help you, Estelle. What can we do? We must try to find out who you are."
+
+"Yes, but how can you?" asked the strange girl.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+A BIG GUN
+
+
+Ruth did not answer for several seconds. She seemed to be thinking
+deeply, and Alice, who was fairly bursting with numberless questions she
+wanted to ask, respected her sister's efforts to bring some logical
+queries to the fore.
+
+"Then your hopes that Boston would prove to be your home were not borne
+out?" asked Ruth, after a bit.
+
+"No, but even yet I feel sure that I have lived at least part of my life
+in Boston, or near there. One doesn't have even shadowy memories of big
+monuments and historic places without some basis; and it was not the
+memory of having seen pictures of them. It was a real vision."
+
+"And the name Estelle Brown?"
+
+"Oh, I'm sure that belongs to me. It seems a very part of myself."
+
+"Did you tell any of this to Mr. Pertell or to the other moving picture
+managers?" asked Alice.
+
+"No. You are the first persons to whom I have told my secret," Estelle
+said. "I was afraid if I mentioned it they might make it public for
+advertising purposes, you know. They might make public the fact that a
+young actress was looking for herself and her parents. I never could
+bear that!"
+
+"But you want to find your folks, don't you?" asked Alice.
+
+"That's the queer part of it," Estelle replied. "I seem never to have
+had any relatives. The way I feel about it now, I would never know that
+I had had a father or a mother. I seem to have just 'growed,' the way
+poor Topsy did in Uncle Tom's Cabin. That is another strange part of my
+present existence. I seem to be in a world by myself, and, as far as I
+can tell, I have always been there."
+
+"What about Lieutenant Varley?" inquired Alice.
+
+"Lieutenant Varley?" and Estelle's voice showed that she was puzzled.
+
+"The young officer who said he met you in Portland."
+
+"Oh, yes. I had forgotten. Well, I have absolutely no recollection of
+that, and I'm sure I would remember if I had been in the West. I'm
+certain I never was there."
+
+"And yet if you weren't in the West how did you learn to ride so well?"
+Ruth queried.
+
+"That's another part of the puzzle, my dear. Riding seems to come as
+natural to me as breathing. I don't seem ever to have learned it any
+more than I learned how to dance. I seem always to have known how."
+
+"There's only one way to account for that," Alice said.
+
+"How?"
+
+"From the fact that you must have started to learn to ride and to dance
+when you were very young--a mere child."
+
+"I suppose that would account for it. And yet, I can't remember ever
+being a child. I don't recall having played with dolls or having made
+mud pies. For me my existence begins about three or four years back, and
+goes on from there, mostly in moving pictures."
+
+"It is a queer case," commented Ruth. "I don't know what to do to help
+you. Perhaps it would be a good thing to speak to Mr. Pertell about it.
+Often when children have been kidnapped, you know, their pictures are
+flashed on the screen in hundreds of cities, and sometimes persons in
+the audiences recognize them. That might be done with you, Estelle."
+
+"No, I wouldn't dream of doing that. Perhaps something may turn up some
+day that will tell me who I really am. And perhaps I shall be sorry for
+having learned."
+
+"No, you will not!" declared Alice. "You come of good people--one can
+easily tell that."
+
+"Thank you, dear. And now I have inflicted enough of my troubles on you.
+Let's talk about something pleasant."
+
+"You haven't burdened us with your troubles, Estelle dear," insisted
+Ruth. "It is a strange story, and we are interested in the outcome."
+
+"Indeed we are," said Alice. "We want very much to help you."
+
+"That's good of you. But I don't see what you can do. I'm just a sort of
+Topsy, and Topsy I'll remain. Now please don't say anything about what I
+have told you to any one--not even to your father--unless I give you
+permission. I don't want to be the object of curiosity, as well as of
+suspicion."
+
+"Suspicion!" cried Alice.
+
+"Yes, about Miss Dixon's ring."
+
+"Oh! no one in the world believes you took that--not even Miss Dixon
+herself. I believe she has found the old paste diamond, and is too mean
+to admit it!" cried impulsive Alice.
+
+"You mustn't say such things!" objected her sister.
+
+"Well, neither must she, then. Oh, Estelle! Wouldn't it be great if you
+should prove to be the daughter of a millionaire!"
+
+"Too great, my dear. Don't let's think about it. But I feel better for
+having unburdened some of my troubles on you. And if you will still be
+as nice to me as you always have been----"
+
+"Why shouldn't we be?" asked Ruth.
+
+"Oh, I don't know, but I thought----"
+
+"Silly!" cried Alice, as she threw her arms about the strange girl and
+kissed her.
+
+Suddenly, from a distant hill, came a dull, booming sound, that, low as
+it was, seemed to make the very ground tremble.
+
+"What's that?" cried Alice.
+
+"Thunder," suggested Ruth.
+
+"It sounded more like an explosion," asserted Estelle.
+
+"There it goes again!" exclaimed Alice.
+
+"Look!" cried her sister.
+
+She pointed through the open window, and as the girls peered out they
+saw the top of the hill fly upward in a shower of dirt and stones.
+
+Once more the deep boom sounded.
+
+"It's a big gun!" cried Alice. "I remember, now. Mr. Pertell said he
+wanted pictures of a siege of a fort, and he sent for a big gun to get
+explosive effects. Come on over!"
+
+"And be blown to pieces?" objected Ruth. "Don't dare go, Alice DeVere!"
+
+"Oh, come on! There's no danger. Russ is going to make the films. I
+guess they're just trying it now. It's too late to make good pictures.
+Come on."
+
+"I'll go," offered Estelle. "I don't mind the noise."
+
+Ruth declined to go, so the other two girls set off. On the porch they
+met Russ and Paul, who confirmed their guess that it was a big siege gun
+which Mr. Pertell had sent to New York to get, so he might show the
+effect of explosive shells.
+
+"I'm going to film some to-morrow," Russ said.
+
+"Be careful," urged Alice. "Don't get blown up!"
+
+"I'm no more anxious for that than any one," laughed Russ, and together
+they set off toward the place where the big gun was being tried out.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+A WRONG SHOT
+
+
+The big gun which Mr. Pertell had secured to make more realistic the war
+play he was preparing for the films, was an old fashioned siege rifle,
+made toward the close of the Civil conflict. It had not been used more
+than a few times, and then it had been stored away in some arsenal. The
+director, hearing of it, had secured it to fire at a certain hill on Oak
+Farm.
+
+This hill would, in the motion pictures, form a stronghold of the
+Southern forces and it would be demolished by shells from the large
+cannon, and then would follow a charge on the part of the Union
+soldiers.
+
+Real shells, with large explosive charges in them, would be used, but it
+is needless to say that when the shots were fired at the hill the
+players taking the parts of the Southerners would be at a safe distance.
+
+"They're just trying it out now," observed Russ, who with Paul, was
+walking over the fields with Alice and Estelle. "Mr. Pertell wants to
+get the range, and decide on the best places from which to make the
+pictures. I think we'll film some to-morrow if it's a good day."
+
+"What's the matter with your eyes, Estelle?" asked Paul, as he looked at
+her. "Were you working in the studio to-day? I know those lights always
+affect my sight."
+
+"Why, no, I wasn't in the studio," and then Estelle realized why her
+eyes were so inflamed--it was from crying. She gave Alice a meaning
+glance, as though to enjoin silence, but she need have had no fears.
+Alice would not betray the secret.
+
+The big gun had been mounted on a level piece of land, not far from the
+hill, and on this plain had been thrown up earthworks behind which the
+Union forces would take their stand in an effort to reduce the
+Confederate stronghold.
+
+"They're going to fire!" cried Estelle as they came within sight of the
+gun, and saw, by the activities of the men about it, that a shot was
+about to be delivered.
+
+Alice covered her ears with her hands, and Russ and Paul stood on their
+tiptoes and opened their mouths wide.
+
+"What in the world are they doing that for?" asked Estelle.
+
+"I can't hear a word you say!" called Alice, making her voice loud, to
+overcome her own hearing handicap.
+
+"There she goes!" cried Russ.
+
+The earth trembled as flames and smoke belched from the muzzle of the
+cannon, and the girls screamed.
+
+Something black was seen for an instant in the air amid the swirl of
+smoke, and then another portion of the hill was seen to lift itself up
+into the air and dirt and stones were scattered about.
+
+"A good shot!" observed Russ, letting himself down off his tiptoes.
+"That would make a dandy scene for the film."
+
+"That's right," agreed Paul, also letting himself down and closing his
+opened mouth.
+
+"Why did you do that?" asked Estelle, when the echoes of the firing had
+died away. "Why did you stand on your toes, and open your mouths?"
+
+"To lessen the shock to our ear drums," answered Paul. "It is the
+concussion, that is, the rushing back of air into the vacuum caused by
+the shot, that does the damage. By opening your mouth you equalize the
+air pressure on the inside and the outside of your ear drums, just as
+you do when you go through a river tunnel. When there is a partial
+vacuum outside your ear, the air inside you presses the drum outward,
+and by opening your mouth--or by swallowing you make the pressure
+equal. Sometimes the pressure outside is greater than the pressure
+inside, and you must also equalize that before you can be comfortable."
+
+"But that wasn't why you stood on your toes," Alice said.
+
+"No; we did that to have less surface of our bodies on the ground so the
+vibration would be less. If one could leap up off the earth at the exact
+moment a shot was fired it would be much better, but it is hard to jump
+at the right instant, and standing on one's toes is nearly as good. Then
+you present only a comparatively small point which the vibrations of the
+earth, caused by the explosion of the gun, can act upon."
+
+"That's a good thing to remember," Estelle said. "Are they going to fire
+again?"
+
+"It looks so," observed Russ. "But if they knock away too much of the
+hill there won't be any left for the pictures to-morrow."
+
+"I believe they want to make the top of the hill flat," said Paul. "They
+are going to have some sort of hand-to-hand fight on it after the
+Unionists capture it," he went on. "I heard Mr. Pertell speaking of it."
+
+"There goes another!" cried Alice, as she saw the same preparations as
+before and one man standing near the gun to pull the lanyard, which, by
+means of a friction tube, exploded the charge.
+
+Once more the projectile shot out and, burying itself in the soft dirt
+of the hill, threw it up in a shower.
+
+"That'll save me a lot of work!" exclaimed a voice behind the young
+people, and, turning, they saw Sandy Apgar smiling at them. "That's a
+new way of plowing," he went on. "It sure does stir up the soil."
+
+"Won't it spoil your hill?" asked Alice.
+
+"Not so's you could notice it. That hill isn't wuth much as it stands.
+It's too steep to plow, and only a goat could find a foothold on it to
+graze. So if you moving picture folks level it for me I may be able to
+raise some crops on it. Shoot as much as you like. You can't hurt that
+hill!"
+
+The men at the gun signaled that they were going to fire no more that
+day, and then, as it was safe, the young folks made a trip to see the
+extent of damage caused by the shells.
+
+Great furrows were torn in the earth and the stones, and the top of the
+hill, that had been rounding, was now quite flat, though far from being
+smooth.
+
+The next day had been set for filming the scenes with the big gun in
+them. Contrary to expectations, no pictures could be taken, as the
+throwing up of the earthworks had not been finished. But a number of men
+from both "armies" were set to work, and as it afforded good practice
+for the militia they were called on to dig trenches, throw up ridges of
+earth, and go through other needful military tactics.
+
+The girls had no part in the scenes with the big gun, except that, later
+on, they were to act as nurses in the hospital tent.
+
+On top of the hill a force of Confederates would be stationed, and they
+were to reply to the fire of the big gun. Of course, when the
+projectiles struck the hill the soldiers would be a safe distance away,
+but by means of trick photography scenes would be shown just as if they
+were sustaining a severe bombardment.
+
+"Is everything ready?" asked Mr. Pertell, a few days after the setting
+up of the big gun, during which interval a sort of fort had been
+constructed on the hill and a redoubt thrown up.
+
+"I think so," answered Russ. "We couldn't have a better day, as far as
+sunshine is concerned. I'm ready to film whenever you are."
+
+"I'll give the word in a minute. Paul, you're in charge of a detachment
+of Union soldiers that storms the hill as soon as the big gun has
+silenced the battery there."
+
+"Very well, sir."
+
+The big gun rattled out its booming challenge and was replied to by
+volleys from the rifles of the Confederates on the hill and by their
+field artillery, which they hurriedly brought up.
+
+Shot after shot was fired, and one after another the Confederate cannon
+were disabled. They were blown up by small charges of powder put under
+them, set off by fuses lighted by the Confederates themselves, but this
+did not show in the picture, and it looked as though the Southern
+battery was blown up by shots from the big gun.
+
+"All ready now, Paul! Lead your men!" yelled the director, who was
+standing near Russ and his camera. "Rush right up the hill. Stop firing
+here!" he called to those in charge of the big gun.
+
+But something went wrong, or some one misunderstood. As Paul was
+charging up the hill at the head of his little band, Russ, turning his
+head for an instant, saw a man about to pull the lanyard of the big gun.
+
+"Don't shoot! Don't shoot!" he yelled. "It's aimed right at Paul and his
+fellows!"
+
+But Russ was too late. The man pulled the cord. There was a deafening
+roar, a cloud of smoke, a sheet of fire, and a black projectile was sent
+hurtling on its way against the hill, up the side of which Paul was
+climbing with his soldiers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE BIG SCENE
+
+
+Nothing could be done! No power on earth could stop that projectile now
+until it had spent itself, or until it had struck something and
+exploded.
+
+Horror-stricken, those near the big gun looked across the intervening
+space. How many would survive what was to follow?
+
+The man who had pulled the lanyard sank to the ground, covering his face
+with his hands.
+
+For a brief instant Paul, leading his men, looked back at the sound of
+the unexpected shot. He had been told that no more were to be fired.
+Doubtless, this was an extra one to make the pictures more realistic.
+But when he saw, in a flash, something black and menacing leaping
+through the air toward him and his men, instinctively he cried:
+
+"Duck, everybody! Duck!"
+
+He fell forward on his face and those of his men who heard and
+understood did likewise.
+
+Ruth, Alice and Estelle, who were watching the scene from a distant
+knoll, hardly understood what it was all about. They had thought no more
+shots would be fired when Paul began his charge, but one had boomed out,
+and surely that was a projectile winging its way toward the partly
+demolished hill.
+
+"That is carrying realism a little too far," said Ruth. "I hope----"
+
+"Paul has fallen!" cried Alice. "Oh--something has happened!"
+
+One must realize that all this took place at the same time. The firing
+of the shot, the realization that it was a mistake, Paul's flash of the
+oncoming projectile, his command to his men and the vision had by the
+girls. All in an instant, for a shot from a big gun does not leave much
+margin of time between starting and arriving even when fired with only a
+small charge of powder for moving picture purposes.
+
+And, so quickly had it happened that Russ had not stopped turning the
+crank of his camera, nor had an assistant on the hillside, where he had
+been stationed to film Paul and his soldiers.
+
+And then the projectile struck. Into the soft dirt of the hillside it
+buried its head, and then, as the explosion came, up went a shower of
+earth and stones. And ever afterward the gunner who inserted that
+charge blessed himself and an ever-watchful Providence that he had put
+in but half a charge, the last of the powder.
+
+For it was this half-charge that saved Paul and his men. The projectile
+struck in the hill a hundred feet below where Paul was leading his force
+up the slope, and though they were well-nigh buried beneath a rain of
+sand and gravel, they were not otherwise hurt--scratches and bruises
+being their portion.
+
+"What are they trying to do, kill us?" cried a man, staggering to his
+feet, blood streaming from a cut on his cheek.
+
+"This is too much like real war for me!" yelled another throwing down
+his gun. "I'm going to quit!"
+
+"No you don't!" shouted Paul. "Come on. It was a mistake. They won't
+fire any more. It will make a great scene on the film. Come on!"
+
+He gave one look back toward the Union battery and saw Mr. Pertell
+fluttering a white flag which meant safety. Waving his sword above his
+head, Paul yelled again:
+
+"Come on! Come on! It's all right! Up the hill with you! That shot was
+only to put a little pep in you!"
+
+"Pep! More like sand! I got a mouthful!" muttered a sergeant.
+
+"Get every inch of that. It's the best scene we've had yet, though it
+was a close call!" telephoned Mr. Pertell to the operator on the side of
+the hill. "Film every inch of it!"
+
+"All right! I'm getting it," answered the camera man and he went on
+grinding away at his crank.
+
+The explosion of the shell had, for the moment, stopped the advance of
+Paul and his men up the hill, but this momentary halt only made it look
+more realistic--as though they really feared they were in danger, as
+indeed they had been. Now the director called:
+
+"It's all right, Paul! Go ahead! Keep on just as if that was part of the
+show."
+
+"It was a lively part all right!" and Paul laughed grimly. "Come on,
+boys!"
+
+And the charge was resumed.
+
+Back of the dismantled battery, whence they had presumably been driven
+by the fire from the big gun, the Confederates were massed. They were
+waiting for Paul's charge, and they, too, had been a little surprised by
+the unexpected firing of the shell.
+
+But now, in response to a signal on the field telephone, they prepared
+to resist the assault.
+
+"Come on, boys! Beat the Yankees back!" was the battle cry that would be
+flashed on the screen.
+
+Then came the fierce struggle, and it was nearly as fierce as it was
+indicated in the pictures. Real blows were given, and more than one man
+went down harder than he had expected to. There were duels with clubbed
+rifles, and fencing combats with swords, though, of course, the
+participants took care not to cut one another.
+
+In spite of this, several received minor hurts. But this result only
+added to the effectiveness of the scene, though it was painful. But in
+providing realism for motion pictures more than one conscientious player
+has been injured, and not a few have lost their lives. It is devotion of
+no small sort to their profession.
+
+Back and forth surged the fight, sometimes Paul's men giving way, and
+again driving the Confederates back from the crest of the hill. Small
+detachments here and there fired volleys of blank cartridges from their
+rifles, but there was not as much of this for the close-up pictures as
+there had been for the larger battle scenes. For while smoke blowing
+over a big field on which hundreds of men and horses are massed makes a
+picture effective, if seen at too close range it hides the details of
+the fighting.
+
+And Mr. Pertell wanted the details to come out in this close-up scene.
+
+Back and forth surged the fight until it had run through a certain
+length of film. Then the orders came that the Confederates were to give
+up and retreat. Before this, however, a number of them had been killed,
+as had almost as many Union soldiers.
+
+Then came a spirited scene. Paul, leading his men, leaped up on the
+earthworks of the Confederate battery, cut down the Southern flag--the
+stars and bars. In its place he hoisted the stars and stripes, and with
+a wild yell that made the fight seem almost real, he and his men
+occupied the heights.
+
+"Well done!" cried Mr. Pertell, enthusiastically, when he came over from
+the ramparts of the big gun. "Are you sure none of you was hurt when
+that shell exploded?"
+
+"None of us," answered Paul. "It fell short, luckily, and the dirt was
+soft. No big rocks were tossed up, fortunately, and we came out of it
+very nicely."
+
+"Glad to hear it. I've discharged the man who fired the gun."
+
+"That's too bad!"
+
+"Well, I hired him over again--but to do something else less dangerous.
+I can't afford to take chances with big cannon. But I think the scene
+went off very well. That stopping and the bursting of the shell made it
+look very real."
+
+"That's good," Paul said, wiping some of the dirt and blood off his
+face, for he had been scratched by the point of some one's bayonet.
+
+That ended this particular scene for the day, and the players could take
+a much-needed rest. Plenty of powder had been burned, and the air was
+rank and heavy with the fumes.
+
+"Are you sure you're all right, Paul?" asked Alice, when he came up to
+the farmhouse later in the day.
+
+"Well, I think I'd be better if you would feel my pulse," he said,
+winking at Russ. "And you don't need to be in a hurry to let go my hand.
+I sha'n't need it right away."
+
+"Silly!" exclaimed Alice, as she turned, blushing, away.
+
+"It must have been a shock to you," said Ruth.
+
+"It was. But it was over so quickly I didn't have time to be shocked
+long. Now, let's talk about something nice. Come on in to the town, and
+I'll buy you all ice-cream."
+
+"That will be nice!" laughed Estelle.
+
+It was several days later that Mr. Pertell, coming to where the moving
+picture girls and their friends were seated on the porch, said:
+
+"The big scene is for to-morrow. In the hospital. This is where you are
+looking after the wounded officer, Ruth, and Alice, on pretense of
+being a nurse seeking to give aid, comes in to get the papers. I want
+this very carefully done, as it is one of the climaxes of the whole
+play. So we'll have some rehearsals in the morning."
+
+"Am I to do that riding act?" asked Estelle.
+
+"Yes, you'll do the horse stunt as usual. There's to be a cavalry
+charge, Miss Brown, so don't get in their way and be run down."
+
+"I'll try not to," she answered.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+ALICE DOES WELL
+
+
+Long rows of wounded men lay stretched out on white cots in the
+hospital. Some wore bandages over their heads all but concealing their
+eyes. Others were so entwined with white wrappings that it was hard to
+say whether they were men or oriental women. Still others raised
+themselves on their elbows, spasms of pain corrugating their brows,
+while red cross nurses held to their lips cooling drinks.
+
+Here at the bedside of one stood a grave surgeon, slowly shaking his
+head as he came to the melancholy conclusion that a further operation
+was useless. Over there they were carrying out a motionless form on a
+stretcher, a sheet mercifully draped over what was left. At the entrance
+to the hospital other bearers were carrying in those who came from the
+scene of the distant firing.
+
+The boom of big guns shook the frail shack that had been turned into a
+hospital. Now and then, as the wind blew in fitful gusts, there was
+borne on it the acrid smell of powder. And again, in some dark corner of
+that building of suffering, there could be seen through the cracks, left
+by hasty builders, the flash of fire that preceded the booming crash of
+the cannon.
+
+A sad-faced woman in black moved slowly down the line of cots led by a
+sympathetic nurse. She came to one bed, stopped as though in doubt,
+passed her hand over her face as if she did not want to admit that what
+she saw she did see, and then she fell on her knees in a passion of
+weeping, while the surgeons turned away their heads. She had found what
+she had sought.
+
+From the farther door there entered a man, limping on crutches
+improvised from the limbs of a tree. Stained bandages were about one arm
+and another leg. His head, too, was wrapped so that only half his face
+showed. A hurrying orderly met him.
+
+"You can't come in here!" he cried.
+
+"Why not, I'd like to know. Ain't this the horspital?"
+
+"Of course it is."
+
+"Then why can't I come in here. I'm hurt, and hurt bad, pardner. Shot
+through leg and arm, and part of my jaw gone. Why can't I come in?"
+
+"'Cause you can't. Didn't we just carry you out for dead? What'll the
+audience think if they see you walking again? Git on out of here!"
+
+"I will not! I've wrapped this bandage around my head on purpose so they
+won't know me. Let me come in, will you? That's real lemonade them
+pretty nurses is givin' out to drink, and I'm as dry as a fish. I've
+been firin' one of them guns until I've swallowed enough smoke to play
+an animated cannon ball. Let me in the horspital."
+
+"Yes, let him in!" called Mr. Pertell through his megaphone. He was at
+the far end of the shack that had been hastily erected on Oak Farm as a
+hospital, for the last big scenes of the war play, "A Girl in Blue and A
+Girl in Gray."
+
+"All right, just as you say," answered the orderly. "Come on in, Bill.
+Are you going to die this time?"
+
+"I am not! I'm going to be one of them converts, and get chicken
+sandwiches and jelly."
+
+"You mean convalescent."
+
+"Um. That's it! Lead me to me bed, will you, for I'm a sadly wounded old
+soldier--that's what I am."
+
+Amid laughter he was led to a cot, where a smiling nurse tucked him in
+between the yellow sheets. For, as has been said, yellow takes the place
+of white in inside scenes.
+
+And this was an inside scene, powerful electric lights dispelling all
+shadows so the cameras could film every motion and expression.
+
+"Now remember!" called Mr. Pertell when the "wounded man," one of the
+extra players, had been comfortably put to bed, "remember no smiling or
+laughing when we begin to make the picture. This is supposed to be
+serious."
+
+The rehearsal went on and finally the director announced that he was
+satisfied. Then the scenes were enacted over again, but with more
+tenseness and with a knowledge that every motion was being filmed with
+startling exactness.
+
+"Now, Ruth, you come on!" called Mr. Pertell. "We've made a little
+change from the original scenario. You're to relieve Miss Dixon, who has
+been on this case. He's one of the Northern officers, you remember, and
+he has with him papers that the Confederacy would do much to get.
+
+"They are under the officer's pillow, you know. He is afraid to let them
+out of his possession. You must humor him, though you know that the
+papers will soon have to be taken away as he is to be operated on. It is
+here that Alice, as the spy, gets her chance. She pretends to be one of
+the nurses of this hospital, dons the uniform, and comes in here to get
+the papers. Are you ready?"
+
+"Yes," answered Ruth.
+
+Then the big hospital scene began.
+
+Ruth, in her garb of a nurse, took her place at the side of the injured
+officer's cot. She felt his pulse, took his temperature and administered
+some medicine. Then the injured man, who was Mr. DeVere himself, sank
+back on his pillows. His hand went under the mass of feathers and
+brought out a packet of papers. At this point a close-up view was taken,
+showing on the screen the papers in magnified shape, so that the
+audience could note that they were Civil War documents. It was these
+that the officer was afraid would fall into the hands of the
+Confederates, so he kept them ever near him.
+
+Ruth made as if to remove them when he had placed them under the pillow
+again, but he awoke with a start and prevented her. This was to show
+that it was necessary for some one to take them while the operation was
+being performed.
+
+Then the scene changed to show Alice preparing for her work as a spy.
+The camera was taken to another part of the hospital, Ruth and her
+father having a respite, though they maintained their positions.
+
+"Did I do all right, Daddy?" asked Ruth.
+
+"Very well, indeed. You are getting to be a good actress. I wish you
+were on the speaking stage."
+
+"I like this ever so much better. I never could speak before a whole
+crowd."
+
+Alice was shown making her way into the hospital, a previous scene
+having depicted her as promising the Confederate officer in whose employ
+as a spy she was, that she would get the papers. She entered the
+hospital, pretending to be in search of a missing relative. Then,
+watching her chance, she prepared a sleeping powder for a tired and
+half-sleeping nurse off duty and prepared to take her uniform.
+
+Alice played her part well. The sleeping nurse aroused, took the drugged
+drink, and went more soundly to sleep than ever. Then Alice was shown in
+the act of taking off the uniform. Another scene showed her walking
+boldly into the ward room to relieve Ruth.
+
+There was a little scene between the two sisters, and Ruth registered
+that Alice must be very careful not to alarm or shock the wounded man
+who was soon to undergo the operation.
+
+Alice acquiesced, and then sat down beside the cot. Slowly and
+carefully, like some pickpocket, she inserted her fingers under the
+pillow. Amid a tenseness that affected even the actors working with her,
+Alice took out the papers, inch by inch, and began to move away with
+them.
+
+It was at this point that she was to be discovered by Paul, in the next
+bed. He had, in a previous scene, supposed to have taken place several
+months before, saved Alice's life, and they had fallen in love, Alice
+promising to wed him after the war. He supposed her to be a true
+Northern girl, and now he discovered that she was a Southern spy.
+
+There was a strong scene here. Paul leaped from his bed, and tried to
+get the papers away from Alice. She, horror-stricken at being discovered
+as a spy by her lover, is torn between affection for him and duty to the
+South. She throws him from her, as he is weakened by illness, and is
+about to escape with the papers, when she fears Paul is dying and she is
+stricken with remorse. She decides to give up her task for the sake of
+her lover.
+
+Slowly and softly, without awakening the old officer, she puts the
+papers back under his pillow and then, stooping over Paul, who has
+fainted from loss of blood, she kisses his forehead and goes out in a
+"fadeaway."
+
+"Good! Great! Couldn't be better!" cried Mr. Pertell, as Alice came out
+of range of the camera. "That was better than I dared to hope. This will
+make a big hit!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+A BAD FALL
+
+
+"Have you made up your mind yet, Estelle?"
+
+"No, Ruth! I haven't. I don't know what to do."
+
+The two girls were in Estelle's room. Miss Brown was putting some
+protective padding under her outer garments, for in a little while she
+was to take part in a desperate ride--one of the last scenes in the big
+war play--a ride that had a part in a cavalry charge that was to be made
+by the desperate Confederates on the hosts of Unionists, who were
+closing in on their enemies. It was to be the last battle--a final stand
+of the Southern States, and they were to lose.
+
+But Estelle was to make a desperate ride to try to save the day. This
+time she was to pose as a daughter of the South. The ride would
+necessarily be a reckless one, and Estelle felt that she might fall; so
+she was preparing for it.
+
+"I don't know what to do," she went on to Ruth, who was helping her.
+"Sometimes I feel like doing as you and your sister suggest, and let
+your father into the secret--and Mr. Pertell too--and have them try what
+they can do to discover who I am.
+
+"Then again, as I think it over, I'm afraid. Suppose I should turn out
+to be some one altogether horrid?"
+
+"You couldn't, my dear, not if you tried. But if you don't want my
+father to know, and would rather work out this mystery yourself, why, I
+won't say another word."
+
+"I want to think about it a little more," Estelle said.
+
+They had been talking about her strange case, and the possible outcome
+of it. Alice had suggested that a motion picture story be written around
+it.
+
+"It could be called 'Who is Estelle Brown?'" Alice said, "and it could
+be a serial. You could pose in it, Estelle, and make a lot of money.
+And, not only that, but you'd find out who your relatives were, I'm
+sure."
+
+"Oh, I couldn't do it!" Estelle had cried. "I'd like the money, of
+course. I never was so happy as when I found I had a purse full when I
+was on that Cleveland boat! But I could not capitalize my misfortune
+that way."
+
+"No, I was only joking," said Alice. And so the matter had gone on. Now
+Ruth had broached the subject again, and Estelle was still undecided.
+
+"Wait until after this big ride of mine," she said. "Then I'll make up
+my mind. I really do want to know who I am, and I think, after this
+engagement, if I don't find out before, I'll go to Boston again. I'm
+sure my people are from that vicinity."
+
+So it was left.
+
+From outside came the stirring notes of a bugle. At the sound of it Ruth
+and Estelle started.
+
+"That's the signal," said the latter. "I must hurry."
+
+"I'll help you," offered Ruth, and she assisted in the tying of the last
+strings, and the snapping of the final fastenings of the suit of
+protective padding the rider wore.
+
+"You don't take part in the actual charge, do you?" asked Alice, who
+came in at this point.
+
+"Well, I have to ride ahead of the Union forces for a way," Estelle
+answered. "But I'm not afraid. Petro will carry me safely, as he has
+done before."
+
+The girls went down and out into the yard. Off on the distant meadow of
+Oak Farm, which had been turned into a battlefield for the time being,
+were two hostile armies. The two regiments of cavalry were to meet in a
+final clash that was to end the war. There was to be the firing of many
+rifles and cannon. There were to be charges and countercharges. Men
+would fall from their horses shot dead. Certain horses, trained for the
+work, would stumble and fall, going down with those who rode them, the
+men having learned how to roll out of the way without getting a broken
+arm or leg. In spite of their training and practice, nearly all expected
+to be scratched and bruised. However, it was all part of the game and in
+the day's work.
+
+"All ready now!" called Mr. Pertell. "We're going to have the first
+skirmish, and, after that, Miss Brown, you are to do your ride. Are you
+ready?"
+
+"Yes," Estelle told the director.
+
+The signal was given through the field telephone and then, with his
+ever-present megaphone, the director began to issue his orders.
+
+The rifles cracked, the big guns rumbled and roared, smoke blew across
+the battlefield and horses snorted and pawed at the ground impatient to
+be off and in the charge. To them it was real, even though their masters
+knew it was only for the movies.
+
+Bugles tooted their inspiring calls, and the officers, who knew the
+significance of the cadence of notes, issued their orders accordingly.
+
+"Deploy to the left!" came the command to a squad of Union cavalry, and
+the men trotted off, to try a flank movement. Then came the firing of a
+Confederate battery in a desperate attempt to scatter the Union forces.
+
+All the camera men in the employ of the Comet Film Company were engaged
+this day, and Russ was at his wits' end to keep each machine loaded with
+film, and to see that his own was working properly.
+
+Pop Snooks had never before been called on to provide so many "props" as
+he was for this occasion, but he thoroughly enjoyed the work, and when,
+at the last minute, he had to make a rustic bridge whereon two lovers
+had a farewell before the soldier rode off to battle, the veteran
+property man improvised one out of bean poles and fence rails that made
+a most artistic picture.
+
+"They'll have to get up the day before breakfast to beat Pop Snooks!"
+exclaimed Russ, admiringly.
+
+All was now ready for the big cavalry charge.
+
+"All ready!" came the order from Mr. Pertell. "Cameras!"
+
+And the cranks began to work, reeling off the sensitive film.
+
+The two bodies of cavalry rushed toward one another, hoofs thundering,
+carbines cracking, sabres flashing in the sun, white puffs of smoke
+showing where the cannon were firing.
+
+"Now Miss Brown!" yelled the director, above the riot of noise. "This is
+where you make the ride of your life!"
+
+"All right!" answered the brave girl, and, giving rein to her horse, she
+dashed off ahead of a detachment of cavalry that was to try to intercept
+her.
+
+On and on rode Estelle. Ruth and Alice, who had finished their part in
+this scene, stood on a little hill, watching her.
+
+On and on dashed Estelle, doing her part well, and foot after foot of
+the film registered her action. She was almost at the end now. She
+reached the Confederate ranks, gave over the message she had carried
+through such danger, and then, turning her horse, dashed away.
+
+How it happened no one could tell. But suddenly Petro stumbled, and
+though Estelle tried to keep him on his feet she could not.
+
+"Oh--oh!" gasped Ruth. "Look!" and then she turned her head away so as
+not to see.
+
+Alice had a flash of Estelle flying over the head of her falling horse,
+and then, unable to stop, the rushing soldiers on their horses rode over
+the very place where Estelle had fallen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+A DENIAL OF IDENTITY
+
+
+Confused shouts, cries, and orders echoed over the field, Mr. Pertell,
+dropping his megaphone, rushed toward the scene of the accident, calling
+on Russ to follow and yelling back an order to have the stretcher men
+and the doctor follow him.
+
+Dr. Wherry was even then waiting in readiness, for it had been feared
+that this big scene might result painfully, if not dangerously, for more
+than one. Some men had also been detailed as stretcher bearers and were
+in waiting.
+
+"Shall we film this?" asked one of Russ's helpers, as the former dashed
+past on his way to help Estelle.
+
+"No. Don't take that accident. It won't fit in with the rest of the
+film. It's all right up to that point, though. We can make a retake of
+the last few feet if we have to."
+
+Even in this time of danger and suspense it was necessary to think of
+the play. That must go on, no matter what happened to the players.
+
+"Go on with the cavalry charge--farther over!" directed Mr. Pertell,
+when he arrived on the scene and found a group of men about the fallen
+girl. "You can't do any good here. We'll look after her. I can't delay
+any longer on this scene. Go on with the charge, and carry out the
+program as it was outlined to you. Russ, you look after the camera men."
+
+"What about Estelle?"
+
+"Dr. Wherry and I will see to her."
+
+The girl's golden hair was tumbled about her head, having come loose and
+fallen from under her hat in her fall. She lay in a senseless heap at
+one side of her horse. The animal had not gotten up, and at first it was
+thought he had been killed. But it developed that Estelle had trained
+him to play "dead" after a fall of this kind, and the intelligent
+creature must have thought this was one of those occasions.
+
+"Easy with her, boys," cautioned the director, as the stretcher men
+tenderly picked up the limp form. "She may have some broken bones."
+
+They placed her carefully on the stretcher and bore her to the hospital.
+Mrs. Maguire was ready to assist the trained nurse, who was kept ready
+for just such emergencies.
+
+"The poor little dear!" exclaimed the motherly Irish woman. "Poor little
+dear!"
+
+Meanwhile, the cavalry charge went on. Estelle had done her part in
+this. Was it the last part she was to play?
+
+Ruth and Alice asked themselves this as they hurried toward the
+hospital.
+
+"Oh, if she should be killed!" gasped Ruth.
+
+"Wouldn't it be dreadful? And no one to tell who she really is," added
+Alice. "We must go to her."
+
+"Yes, as soon as they will let us see her," agreed Ruth.
+
+Dr. Wherry and the trained nurse were busy over the injured girl. A
+quick examination disclosed no broken bones, but it could not yet be
+told whether or not there were internal injuries. They could only wait
+for her to recover consciousness and hope for the best. All that could
+be done was done.
+
+"Plucky little girl!" murmured Mr. Pertell, when told that Estelle was
+resting easily, but was still insensible. "She must have seen that she
+was going to have a bad fall, but she kept on and saved the film for us.
+We won't have to retake her scene at all--merely cut out the accident.
+Do your best for her, Dr. Wherry."
+
+"I will, you may be sure."
+
+Ruth and Alice were told that they could see Estelle as soon as she
+recovered consciousness, and it was safe for visitors to be admitted.
+And several hours after the accident the nurse, Miss Lyon, came to
+summon them from their room, where they were waiting.
+
+"She has opened her eyes," Miss Lyon said.
+
+"Did she ask for us?" Alice asked.
+
+"I can't say that she did. She seems dazed yet. Sometimes in falls like
+this, where the head is injured, it is days before the patient realizes
+what has happened."
+
+"Is her head injured?" Ruth inquired.
+
+"Yes, she seems to have received a hard blow on it. Whether there is a
+fracture or a concussion Dr. Wherry had not yet determined. It will take
+a little time to decide. Meanwhile, you may see her, just for a moment."
+
+Alice and Ruth softly entered the room where Estelle lay on a white bed.
+Her face was pale, but her eyes were bright. There was a subtle odor of
+disinfectants, of opiates and of other drugs in the room--a veritable
+hospital atmosphere.
+
+"Don't startle her," cautioned the nurse, motioning for silence.
+
+"We'll be careful," promised Alice, in a whisper.
+
+The two sisters approached the bed. Estelle looked at them but, strange
+to say, there was no look of recognition in her eyes. Ruth and Alice
+might have been two strangers for all the notice Estelle took of them.
+
+"She--she doesn't know us," whispered Ruth.
+
+"She will, as soon as you speak," said Miss Lyon. "Just talk to her in a
+low voice, but naturally. She'll know you then, I'm sure."
+
+"How--how are you feeling?" asked Ruth, in a whisper.
+
+There was no response--no light of recognition in the eyes.
+
+"A little louder and call her by name," suggested the nurse.
+
+"You try, Alice," Ruth whispered.
+
+Her sister stepped to the bedside.
+
+"Estelle, don't you know me?" Alice asked.
+
+The eyes turned in the direction of the voice.
+
+"Were you speaking to me?" came the question, and both Ruth and Alice
+started at the changed tones of their friend.
+
+"Yes, to you," Alice answered.
+
+"I--I _don't_ know you," was the gentle response.
+
+"Don't you know me--Alice DeVere? And this is my sister, Ruth. Don't you
+know us, Estelle?"
+
+"Is your name Estelle?" came the query.
+
+"No, that is _your_ name," and Alice smiled, though a cold hand seemed
+to be clutching at her heart. "That is your name--you are Estelle. Don't
+you remember?"
+
+"Estelle what? Who is Estelle?"
+
+"You are. You are Estelle Brown! Don't you know your own name?"
+
+The golden head on the white pillow was slowly moved from side to side.
+The bright eyes showed no sign of recognition. Then came the gentle
+voice:
+
+"I am not Estelle Brown. I don't know her. What do you mean? I don't
+know any of you. Why am I here? What has happened? I wish you would take
+me home at once. I live at the Palace."
+
+"What--what does she mean?" gasped Ruth, looking in alarm at the nurse.
+
+"I don't know. Perhaps she is delirious and imagines she is playing in
+the moving pictures. Was there a palace scene?"
+
+"Not since she joined the company. But why does she deny her identity?"
+
+"I can not say. Sometimes after an injury like this happens, people say
+queer things. We had better not disturb her further. I'll call Dr.
+Wherry."
+
+Alice made one more effort to bring recollection to Estelle.
+
+"Don't you know me, dear?" she asked softly. "I am Alice--your friend
+Alice. This is Ruth, and you are Estelle Brown, from Boston, you know."
+
+"Boston? I was never in Boston. And I am not Estelle Brown. You must be
+mistaken."
+
+Her eyes roved around the hospital room, and a look of pain and fright
+dimmed them. Then, seeming to fear that she had been unkind, she said
+gently to Alice:
+
+"I am sorry I do not know you, for you are trying to help me, I am sure.
+But I never heard the name Estelle Brown. I am not she--that is certain.
+If you would only take me home! My people will be worried. We live at
+the Palace and----"
+
+She tried to raise herself up in bed. A look of pain came over her face,
+and she fell back with closed eyes.
+
+"She has fainted!" cried Miss Lyon. "I must get Dr. Wherry at once!
+Don't disturb her!"
+
+She hastened off, while Ruth and Alice, not knowing what to think, went
+softly from the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+REUNION
+
+
+"Nothing but a passing fancy," said Dr. Wherry, later in the day, when
+Ruth and Alice questioned him about Estelle. "When a person has received
+a hard blow on the head, as Estelle has, the memory is often confused.
+She will be all right in a day or so. Rest and quiet are what she
+needs."
+
+"Then she is in no immediate danger?" asked Mr. Pertell.
+
+"None whatever, physically. She came out of that fall very well, indeed.
+The blow on her head stunned her, but the effects of that will pass
+away. She has no internal injuries that I can discover."
+
+The last scenes of the war play were taken. The Confederates, after
+their final desperate stand were driven back, surrounded and captured.
+The "war" ended.
+
+The regiments of cavalry took their departure. The extra players were
+paid off and left. A few simple scenes were yet to be taken about Oak
+Farm, but the big work was over, and every one was glad, for the task
+had been no easy one.
+
+"Does Estelle yet admit her identity?" asked Ruth of Dr. Wherry, two
+days after the accident.
+
+The physician scratched his head in perplexity.
+
+"No, I am sorry to say she doesn't," he answered. "She does not seem to
+recognize that name. I wish you and your sister would come in and speak
+to her again. It may be she will recognize you this time. A little shock
+may bring her to herself. I have seen it happen in cases like this."
+
+Ruth and Alice again went to the hospital. Estelle was still in bed, but
+she seemed to be better. But, as before, there was no sign of
+recognition in the bright eyes that gazed at the two moving picture
+girls.
+
+"Don't you know me--us?" asked Alice, gently.
+
+"Yes. You were here before, soon after I was brought here," was the
+answer.
+
+"Oh, Estelle! don't you know us!" cried Ruth, in horror.
+
+"Whom are you calling Estelle?"
+
+"Why, you. That is your name."
+
+"I am not she. You must be mistaken! Oh, I wish they would take me home.
+I want father--mother--I want Auntie Amma. Oh, why don't they come to
+me?"
+
+Ruth and Alice looked at one another. What did it mean? This babbling of
+strange names? Was it possible that they were on the track of
+discovering the identity of the girl who now denied the name she had
+given?
+
+"Who is your father?" asked Ruth.
+
+"And who is Auntie Amma?" inquired Alice.
+
+"Why, don't you know? They live with me at the Palace. And my doll. Why
+don't you bring my doll?"
+
+"She is delirious again," whispered the nurse. "You had better go.
+Evidently, she thinks she is a child again. Her doll!"
+
+"I want my doll! Why don't you bring me my doll?" persisted the stricken
+girl.
+
+"What doll do you want?" asked Alice.
+
+"My own doll," was the reply. "My dear doll that I always have in bed
+with me when I am ill; my doll Estelle Brown!"
+
+"Estelle Brown!" cried Ruth, in sudden excitement. "Is that the name of
+your doll?"
+
+"Yes! Yes! Bring her to me, please!"
+
+"Who gave you that doll?" asked Ruth, and she waited anxiously for the
+answer.
+
+"My doll--my doll Estelle Brown. Why, my daddy gave her to me, of
+course. My father!"
+
+"And what was your father's name?" asked Ruth in a tense voice.
+
+She and Alice and the nurse leaned forward in eager expectation. They
+all recognized that a crisis was at hand. Would the stricken girl give
+an answer that would be a clue to her identity--the identity she had
+denied? Or would her words trail off into the meaningless babble of the
+afflicted?
+
+"What is your father's name?" Ruth repeated.
+
+The girl in the bed raised herself to a sitting position. She looked at
+the DeVere sisters--at the trained nurse. In her eyes now there was not
+so much brightness as there was weariness and pain.
+
+And also there was more of the light of understanding. She looked from
+one to the other. Her lips moved, but no sound came from them. It was a
+tense moment. Would she be able to answer? Would the obviously injured
+brain be able to sift out the right reply from the mass of words that
+hitherto had been meaningless?
+
+"What is your father's name?" repeated Ruth in calm, even tones. "Your
+father who gave you the doll, Estelle Brown? Who is he?"
+
+Like a flash of lightning from the clear sky came the answer.
+
+"Why, he is Daddy Passamore, of course!"
+
+"Passamore!" gasped Alice. "Passamore?"
+
+"Is your name Passamore?" whispered Ruth.
+
+"Yes, I am Mildred Passamore. My father is Jared Passamore of San
+Francisco. I don't know why I am here, except that I was hurt in the
+railroad accident. If you will telegraph to my father, at the Palace
+Hotel, San Francisco, he will come and get me. And please tell him to
+bring my doll, Estelle Brown.
+
+"I know it seems silly for a big girl like me to have a doll," went on
+the injured one. "But ever since I was a child I have had Estelle with
+me when I was ill. I am ill now, but I feel better than I did. So
+telegraph to Daddy Passamore to bring Estelle Brown with him when he
+comes for me. And tell him I was not badly hurt in the wreck."
+
+And with that, before the wondering eyes of the nurse, of Alice and of
+Ruth, Estelle Brown--no--Mildred Passamore, turned over and calmly went
+to sleep!
+
+For an instant those in the hospital room neither moved nor spoke. Then
+Alice cried:
+
+"That solves it! That ends the mystery! I'll go and get the paper."
+
+"What paper?" asked Ruth.
+
+"Don't you remember? The old paper that I wrapped my scout shoes in when
+we were packing to come to Oak Farm. The one that father saved because
+it had a theatrical notice of him in it.
+
+"It was that four-year-old paper which contained an account of the
+strange disappearance of the wealthy San Francisco girl, Mildred
+Passamore. Don't you remember? There was a reward of ten thousand
+dollars offered for her discovery."
+
+"Oh, I do remember!" gasped Ruth. "And this is she!"
+
+"Must be!" declared Alice. "She says that's her name. And from what she
+told us she can, as Estelle Brown, think back only about four years. She
+must have received some injury that took away her memory. Now she is
+herself again.
+
+"Ruth, I believe we have found the missing Mildred Passamore! We must
+tell daddy at once, and Mr. Pertell. Then we must telegraph Mr.
+Passamore. I'll get his address from the old paper. But the Palace
+Hotel, San Francisco, will reach him, I presume. Oh, isn't it all
+wonderful!"
+
+"It certainly is," agreed Ruth.
+
+They gave one glance at the sleeping girl--Mildred or Estelle--and then
+went out, while Miss Lyon summoned Dr. Wherry to acquaint him with the
+strange turn of the case.
+
+"Mildred Passamore found! How wonderful!" exclaimed Mr. DeVere, when his
+daughters told him what had happened. "But we must make sure. It would
+be a sad affair if we sent word to the father, and it turned out that
+this girl was not his daughter. We must make sure."
+
+Alice got out the old paper. It contained a description of the missing
+Mildred Passamore, and in another newspaper dated a few days before the
+one Alice had used as a wrapper for her shoes (another paper which Mr.
+DeVere had saved because of a notice in it) was a picture of the girl.
+
+"It is she! Our girl--the one we knew as Estelle Brown--is Mildred
+Passamore!" cried Alice as she looked at the picture in the paper.
+
+"There is no doubt of it," agreed Ruth, and Mr. DeVere affirmed his
+daughters' opinions.
+
+Mr. Pertell was told of the occurrence, and, being a good judge of
+pictures and persons, he decided there was no doubt as to the identity.
+
+"We will telegraph to Mr. Passamore at once," decided the director.
+
+The crisis--for such it was in the case of the injured girl--seemed to
+mark a turn for the better. She slept nearly forty-eight hours,
+awakening only to take a little nourishment. Then she slept again. She
+did not again mention any names, nor, in fact, anything else. Her
+friends could only wait for the arrival of Mr. Passamore to have him
+make sure of the identity.
+
+He had sent a message in answer to the one from Mr. Pertell saying that
+he and his wife were hastening across the continent in a special train.
+
+"That means he hasn't found his daughter up to this time," said the
+manager, "and there is every chance that this girl is she."
+
+Three days after her startling announcement Estelle or Mildred, as she
+was variously called, was much better. She sat up and seemed to be in
+her right mind.
+
+"I don't in the least know what it is all about, nor how I came here,"
+she said, smiling. "The last I remember is being in a railroad train on
+my way from San Francisco to visit relatives in Seattle. There was a
+crash, and the next I knew I found myself in bed here. I presume you
+brought me here from the train wreck."
+
+"Yes, you were brought here after the--the--ah, accident," said Mr.
+Pertell, lamely.
+
+"The nurse tells me you are a moving picture company," went on Mildred.
+"I shall be interested to see how you act. I always had a half-formed
+desire to be a moving picture actress, but I know Daddy Passamore would
+never consent to it."
+
+"And she's been in the films for three years or more, and doesn't
+remember a thing about it!" murmured Alice. "Good-night!"
+
+"Alice!" rebuked her sister. But Alice, for once, did not care for
+Ruth's rebuke. Her astonishment was too great. And it was a queer case.
+
+"We must be very careful!" said Dr. Wherry when, after a swift ride
+across the continent, Mr. Passamore and his wife reached Oak Farm. "We
+must not startle the patient."
+
+"Oh, but I want to see my little girl!" cried the mother, with tears in
+her eyes. "My little girl whom I thought gone for ever!"
+
+"I hope this will prove to be she," said Mr. DeVere.
+
+"I'm sure it will!" cried the father. "No one but Mildred would remember
+her old doll--Estelle Brown!" and he held up a battered toy.
+
+Softly, the parents entered the room. The girl on the bed heard some one
+come in, and sat up. There was a look of joy and happiness on her face;
+and yet it was not such as would come after a separation of four years.
+It was as if she had only separated from her loved ones a few hours
+before.
+
+"Oh, Daddy! Momsey!" she cried. "I did so want you! And did you bring
+Estelle Brown?"
+
+"My little girl! My own little lost girl!" cried Mrs. Passamore. "Oh,
+after all these years--when we had given you up for dead!"
+
+"After all these years? Why, Momsey, I left you only two days ago to go
+to Seattle. There must have been a wreck or something; for I heard a
+dreadful crash, and then I awakened here with these nice moving picture
+folk. They were on the same train, I guess."
+
+Dr. Wherry made the parents a signal not to tell the secret just yet.
+
+"And did you bring Estelle?" asked Mildred.
+
+"Yes, here is your doll!" and as Mr. Passamore handed it to his daughter
+he and his wife exchanged tearful glances of joy. The lost had been
+found.
+
+It was a scene of rejoicing at Oak Farm, and the moving picture girls
+came in for a big share of praise. For had it not been for the fact that
+Alice had seen the paper containing the account of the missing girl and
+saved it, the identity of Mildred might not have been disclosed for some
+time.
+
+Finally, she was told what had happened; that for four years she had
+been another person--Estelle Brown--a name she had taken after the
+awakening following the railroad accident because of some kink in the
+brain that retained the memory of the doll.
+
+"Then Lieutenant Varley was right, he must have seen you in Portland,"
+said Alice, when explanations were being made.
+
+"He must have," admitted Mildred. "But I don't understand how it
+happened."
+
+Later on it was all made clear.
+
+Mildred Passamore, the daughter of a wealthy family, living temporarily
+at the Palace Hotel, in San Francisco, had started on a trip to visit
+relatives in Seattle. She was well supplied with money.
+
+The train Mildred was on was wrecked near Portland, Oregon, and the girl
+received a blow on her head that caused her to lose her sense of
+identity completely. She did not seem to be hurt, and she was not in
+need of medical aid. Without assistance, she got on the relief train
+that took the injured in to Portland, and there it was that Lieutenant
+Varley saw her in the station.
+
+Through some vagary of her brain, Mildred imagined she wanted to go to
+New York, and, as she had plenty of money, she bought a ticket for that
+city, the one to Seattle having been lost. Lieutenant Varley had helped
+her and, though he suspected something was wrong with the young lady the
+impression with him was not very strong until it was too late to be of
+assistance to her.
+
+So, her identity completely lost, Mildred started on her trip across the
+continent. What happened on that journey she never could recollect
+clearly. That she got on the Great Lakes and then went to Boston was
+established. The reason for that was that, as a child, she had lived
+there. This accounted for the toilet set her mother had given her, and
+for the recollection of the monument and the historic places.
+
+Why she was attracted to moving pictures could only be guessed at, but
+she "broke in," and "made good." Her ability to ride was easily
+explained. Her father owned a big stock farm, and Mildred had ridden
+since a child. But all this, as well as other remembrances of her
+younger days, was lost after the injury to her head in the railroad
+accident. She retained but one strongly marked memory--the name of her
+doll, the name which she took for her own.
+
+So, as a new personage, she came to Oak Farm, unable to think back more
+than four years, and totally without suspicion that she was the missing
+Mildred Passamore. That she was not recognized as the missing girl was
+not strange, since the search in the East had not been prosecuted as
+vigorously as it had been in the West.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Passamore, hearing that the train on which their daughter
+was traveling had been wrecked, hastened to Portland, but there they
+could find no trace of Mildred. Lieutenant Varley, who might have given
+a clue, had sailed for Europe the day after his meeting with Mildred.
+Then began the search which lasted four years, and had now come to an
+end at Oak Farm.
+
+"And to think that I have been two persons all this while!" exclaimed
+Mildred, when explanations had been made, and she was on the road to
+recovery. "But what made my memory come back?"
+
+"The same thing that took it from you," explained Dr. Wherry. "It was
+the blow you received on the head when you fell from your horse. There
+had been a pressure on your brain, from the railroad crash, and the fall
+from your horse relieved it, so you came to yourself."
+
+"Oh, I wonder if I could have taken Miss Dixon's ring in my second
+personality?" asked Mildred one day, when various happenings were being
+explained to her.
+
+"No, you didn't!" exclaimed Alice. "It was found down under the carpet,
+back of her bureau. A maid discovered it there when cleaning. And that
+snip of a Miss Dixon left without apologizing to you."
+
+"Oh, it doesn't matter, since I am not Estelle Brown, and my doll
+doesn't care what they say about her!" laughed Mildred. Miss Dixon and
+her friend had left Oak Farm to go back to New York, for their part in
+the pictures was finished for the time being.
+
+"And to think that I really became a movie actress, after all!" laughed
+Estelle. "I think I shall continue in it, Daddy! It must be fun, though
+I don't recollect anything about it."
+
+"No you sha'n't!" laughed Mr. Passamore. "Your mother and I want you at
+home for a while."
+
+There is little more to tell.
+
+Mildred Passamore rapidly recovered her health and strength. Her part in
+the pictures was finished and though he did not exactly relish the
+appearance on the screen of his daughter in battle scenes, the
+millionaire, realizing what his refusal would mean to Mr. Pertell, made
+no objections. Besides, it was Estelle Brown who was filmed, not Miss
+Passamore.
+
+"Well, what is next on the program?" asked Alice of the director one
+day, after several other war plays had been made and when they were
+about to leave Oak Farm, to go back to New York.
+
+"Oh, I think I'm going to get out a big film entitled 'Life in the
+Slums.' You and Ruth will play the star parts."
+
+"No!" laughed Alice. "Not since we became millionaires. You will have to
+cast us for rich girls. Mr. Passamore gave us the ten thousand dollars
+reward, you know."
+
+"All right!" laughed the director, "then I'll bill you as the rich-poor
+girls."
+
+Before going back to San Francisco with Mildred, Mr. Passamore had
+insisted that Ruth and Alice take the reward, as it was through their
+agency that he received word of his daughter's whereabouts. But Ruth and
+Alice insisted on sharing their good fortune with their friends in the
+company, so all benefited from it.
+
+The day came for the moving picture players to leave Oak Farm.
+
+"Good-bye, Sandy!" called Alice to the young farmer. "I suppose you're
+glad to see the last of us!"
+
+"Well, not exactly, no'm! Still, I'll be glad not to see houses and
+barns that have only fronts to 'em, and there won't be no more mistakes
+made trying to haul up water from a well that's only made of painted
+muslin. I'll try an' get back to real life for a change!"
+
+The big war play was over. It was a big success when shown on the
+screen, and the pictures of Ruth, Alice and Mildred--or Estelle Brown,
+as she was billed--came out well. The fight where Paul and his men were
+nearly blown up was most realistic.
+
+"You girls are not going to retire, just because you have a little
+money, are you?" asked Russ of Ruth, one day, when they were back in New
+York.
+
+"Indeed, we're not!" cried Alice. "And I wouldn't be surprised if
+Mildred joined us. I had a letter from her the other day, and, after
+seeing herself on the screen, she says she is crazy to do it all over
+again. Give up the movies? Never!"
+
+And it remains for time to show what further fame the Moving Picture
+Girls won in the silent drama. For the present, we will say farewell.
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+   Obvious punctuation errors corrected.
+
+   Page 27, "proping" changed to "propping". (propping it up)
+
+   Page 34, "himmel" changed to "Himmel". (Ach Himmel! Ach!)
+
+   Page 93, "bruskly" changed to "brusquely". (Miss Dixon brusquely)
+
+   Page 94, "Devere" changed to "DeVere". (In fact, Mr. DeVere)
+
+   Page 95, "property" changed to "proper". (the proper Civil)
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS IN WAR
+PLAYS***
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