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diff --git a/19969-h/19969-h.htm b/19969-h/19969-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..82b2286 --- /dev/null +++ b/19969-h/19969-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6312 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Moving Picture Girls at Oak Farm, by Laura Lee Hope</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcaps {font-variant: small-caps;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + .right {text-align: right;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + hr.full { width: 100%; } + pre {font-size: 80%;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Moving Picture Girls at Oak Farm, 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 at Oak Farm</p> +<p> or, Queer Happenings While Taking Rural Plays</p> +<p>Author: Laura Lee Hope</p> +<p>Release Date: November 29, 2006 [eBook #19969]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS AT OAK FARM***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3>E-text prepared by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Cori Samuel,<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (http://www.pgdp.net/)</h3> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 319px;"> +<a name="Page_1" id="Page_1"></a> +<img src="images/frontispiece.jpg" width="319" height="500" alt="A BULL CAME RUSHING THROUGH THE CORN." /> +<span class="caption">A bull came rushing through the corn.</span> +<p><i>Moving Picture Girls at Oak Farm</i>.—<i>Page</i> 54.</p> +</div> + +<h1><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2"></a>The<br /> +Moving Picture Girls<br /> +at Oak Farm</h1> + +<h4>OR</h4> + +<h3>Queer Happenings While Taking Rural Plays</h3> + +<h4>BY</h4> +<h2>LAURA LEE HOPE</h2> + +<h4>AUTHOR OF "THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS," "THE MOVING +PICTURE GIRLS SNOWBOUND," "THE OUTDOOR GIRLS OF +DEEPDALE," "THE BOBBSEY TWINS," ETC.</h4> + +<h5><i>ILLUSTRATED</i></h5> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h4>THE WORLD SYNDICATE PUBLISHING CO.</h4> + +<h5>CLEVELAND NEW YORK</h5> + +<h5>Made in U. S. A.<a name="Page_3" id="Page_3"></a></h5> + +<h4><span class="smcaps">Copyright, 1914, by</span> +GROSSET & DUNLAP</h4> + +<h5><span class="smcaps">Press of +THE COMMERCIAL BOOKBINDING CO. +Cleveland</span> +</h5> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<table summary="Table of Contents"> +<tr><td>CHAPTER<br /> </td><td>PAGE</td></tr> +<tr><td class="smcaps"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">I</a> Filming a Smash</td><td class="right">1</td></tr> +<tr><td class="smcaps"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">II</a> A Missing Dog</td><td class="right">11</td></tr> +<tr><td class="smcaps"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">III</a> On to the Farm</td><td class="right">20</td></tr> +<tr><td class="smcaps"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IV</a> A Queer Proposal</td><td class="right">29</td></tr> +<tr><td class="smcaps"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">V</a> Sandy's Story</td><td class="right">36</td></tr> +<tr><td class="smcaps"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">VI</a> The Butting Bull</td><td class="right">45</td></tr> +<tr><td class="smcaps"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">VII</a> The Play of the Hose</td><td class="right">55</td></tr> +<tr><td class="smcaps"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">VIII</a> In the Old Barn</td><td class="right">64</td></tr> +<tr><td class="smcaps"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">IX</a> The Rescue</td><td class="right">70</td></tr> +<tr><td class="smcaps"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">X</a> The Barn Dance</td><td class="right">79</td></tr> +<tr><td class="smcaps"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">XI</a> The Runaway Mowing Machine</td><td class="right">89</td></tr> +<tr><td class="smcaps"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">XII</a> The Man with the Limp</td><td class="right">97</td></tr> +<tr><td class="smcaps"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">XIII</a> On Guard</td><td class="right">107</td></tr> +<tr><td class="smcaps"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">XIV</a> An Upset</td><td class="right">114</td></tr> +<tr><td class="smcaps"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">XV</a> The Lonely Cabin</td><td class="right">124</td></tr> +<tr><td class="smcaps"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">XVI</a> The Man and the Umbrella</td><td class="right">132</td></tr> +<tr><td class="smcaps"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">XVII</a> In the Woods</td><td class="right">141</td></tr> +<tr><td class="smcaps"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">XVIII</a> Going to School</td><td class="right">151</td></tr> +<tr><td class="smcaps"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">XIX</a> Filming the Bees</td><td class="right">158</td></tr> +<tr><td class="smcaps"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">XX</a> That Man</td><td class="right">166</td></tr> +<tr><td class="smcaps"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">XXI</a> A Chase</td><td class="right">174</td></tr> +<tr><td class="smcaps"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">XXII</a> Caught</td><td class="right">181</td></tr> +<tr><td class="smcaps"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">XXIII</a> The Money Box</td><td class="right">193</td></tr> +<tr><td class="smcaps"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">XXIV</a> Explanations</td><td class="right">203</td></tr> +<tr><td class="smcaps"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">XXV</a> The Fire Film</td><td class="right">208</td></tr> +</table> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6"></a><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I" ></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>FILMING A SMASH</h3> + +<p>"All aboard for Oak Farm!"</p> + +<p>"Are we all here; nobody missing?"</p> + +<p>"What a relief to get out of the hot city, with summer coming on!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I'm so glad we can go!"</p> + +<p>These were only a few of the expressions that came from a motley +assemblage of persons as they stood in a train shed in Hoboken, one +June morning. Motley indeed was the gathering, and more than one +traveler paused to give a second look at the little group. Perhaps a +brief list of them may not be out of place.</p> + +<p>There were four pretty girls, two of the innocent type that can so +easily forget their own good looks; two not so ingenuous, fully aware +that they had certain charms, and anxious that they be given full +credit for them.<a name="Page_7" id="Page_7"></a></p> + +<p>Then there was a man, with rather long black hair, upon which +perched, rather than fitted, a tall silk hat that had lost its first +sheen. If ever "actor" was written in a man's make-up it was in the +case of this personage. Beside him stood, attired much the same, but +in garments that fitted him better, another who was obviously of the +theater, as were the two girls who were so aware of their own good +looks.</p> + +<p>Add to this two or three young men, at least two of whom seemed to +hover near the two girls who were innocently unaware of their beauty; +a bustling gentleman who seemed nervous lest some of the party get +lost, a motherly-looking woman, with two children who were here, +there and everywhere; another man who looked as though all the milk +and cream in the world had turned sour, and finally one on whose +round German face there was a gladsome smile, which seemed +perpetual—and you have the main characters.</p> + +<p>No, there was one other—a genial man who seemed to be constantly +trying to solve some puzzle, and taking pleasure in it.</p> + +<p>And these personages were waiting for a train. That was evident. You +might have puzzled over their occupation and destination, as many +other travelers did, and the problem would not have been solved, +perhaps, until you had a glimpse of the markings on their trunks. But +when you<a name="Page_8" id="Page_8"></a> noted the words: "Comet Film Company," you understood.</p> + +<p>"Oh, won't it be just delightful, Ruth!" exclaimed one of the younger +girls.</p> + +<p>"It certainly will, Alice. I'm just crazy to get out where I can +gather new-laid eggs and know they are fresh!"</p> + +<p>"Little housekeeper!" exclaimed the man standing beside the one who +looked as though he dreamed of nothing else but "Hamlet."</p> + +<p>"Well, Daddy dear, won't it be just fine to have fresh eggs?" +demanded the one addressed as Ruth. "If Alice thinks it's easy to get +them in the city——"</p> + +<p>"Now Ruth DeVere, you know I was only chaffing!" exclaimed Alice. +"But I don't believe you'll get much chance to gather eggs, Ruth."</p> + +<p>"Why not?"</p> + +<p>"Those two youngsters will claim that as one of their +daily—chores—I believe they're called on a farm," and with laughing +brown eyes she motioned to the boy and girl who, at that moment, were +playing tag around the motherly-looking woman.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, I suppose Tommy and Nellie will be after them," agreed +Ruth. "But I can go with them."</p> + +<p>"And jump off the beam in the barn down<a name="Page_9" id="Page_9"></a> into the hay! Won't that be +fun!" cried Alice. "I haven't done that—not in years, when we went +once to grandfather's farm. Oh, for a good jump into the fragrant +hay!"</p> + +<p>"Why, Alice, you wouldn't do that; would you?" asked Ruth, as she +straightened her sailor.</p> + +<p>"She may—and you may all have to!" spoke the man who seemed in +charge of this odd theatrical company.</p> + +<p>"How is that, Mr. Pertell?" asked Ruth.</p> + +<p>"Well, you know we're going to make moving pictures of all sorts of +rural scenes that will fit in the plays, and jumping into a haymow +may be one of them," he laughed.</p> + +<p>"I refuse to do any such foolishness as that!" broke in the tragic +actor. "I have demeaned myself enough already in this farce and +travesty of acting, and to jump into a haymow—ye gods! Never!" and +he seemed to shudder.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I guess you'll do it, Mr. Bunn, or give up your place to someone +who will," said Mr. Frank Pertell, the manager, calmly.</p> + +<p>The tragic actor sighed, and said nothing.</p> + +<p>"Huh! Yes! Jumping around in barns! Some of us will break our arms or +legs, that's certain!" exclaimed the man who looked as though all the +world were sad. "I know some accident will happen to us yet."<a name="Page_10" id="Page_10"></a></p> + +<p>"Oh, cheer up, Mr. Sneed. The worst is yet to come, Sir Knight of the +Doleful Countenance!" exclaimed a fresh-faced young man who carried +under his arm a small box, from which projected a handle and a small +tube. The initiated would have known it at once as a camera for +taking moving pictures. "It will be jolly out there at Oak Farm, I'm +sure."</p> + +<p>"That's right, Russ! Don't let Mr. Sneed get gloomy on such a fine +day!" whispered Alice DeVere. "But when is our train coming?"</p> + +<p>"It will be made up soon," Russ Dalwood answered. "Perhaps it is +ready now. I'll go and inquire."</p> + +<p>The two girls, before spoken of as being too well aware of their own +good looks, were talking together at one side of the big concrete +platform beneath the train shed. As they strolled about and talked, +one of them, from time to time, applied a chamois to her already +well-powdered nose, and took occasional glimpses of herself in the +tiny mirror imbedded in the top of the box that contained her +"beautifier." Occasionally the two would glance at Alice and Ruth, +and make remarks.</p> + +<p>"Train will soon be ready for us," announced Russ Dalwood, coming +back to join the rest of the theatrical troupe which, instead of +presenting<a name="Page_11" id="Page_11"></a> plays in a theater, posed for them before the clicking +eye of the camera, the films later to be shown to thousands in the +chain of moving picture playhouses which took the Comet Company's +service. "We can go aboard in five minutes!" Russ added.</p> + +<p>"That's good," sighed Ruth. "There's is nothing so tiresome as +waiting. Which track will it be on, Russ?"</p> + +<p>"Number thirteen!"</p> + +<p>"What! Great Scott! Track thirteen! I'm not going!" cried Pepper +Sneed, who had come to be known as the "grouch" of the company.</p> + +<p>"Not going! Why not, I'd like to know?" demanded Mr. Pertell.</p> + +<p>"Why—track thirteen—that's unlucky, you know. Something is sure to +happen!"</p> + +<p>"Well, as we have to get to Beatonville, where Oak Farm is located, +and as this is the only road that goes there, I'm afraid we'll have +to take that train, whether it's on track thirteen or not," declared +Mr. Pertell. "Unless," he added with gentle sarcasm, "you can get the +company to switch it to another track."</p> + +<p>Mr. Sneed did not answer, but later Paul Ardite, who was one of the +younger members of the company, saw the actor tieing a knot in his +watch chain, and tossing a penny into a rubbish heap.<a name="Page_12" id="Page_12"></a></p> + +<p>"What in the world are you doing that for?" demanded Paul.</p> + +<p>"Trying to break the hoodoo!" exclaimed Mr. Sneed. "To start out to +do new film work on track thirteen! Whew! That's terrible!"</p> + +<p>But Paul only laughed.</p> + +<p>"Now, is everyone here?" asked Mr. Pertell a little later, when a +railroad man, through a megaphone, announced the make-up of the +train.</p> + +<p>"It seems so," remarked Mr. DeVere, who spoke in a hoarse and husky +whisper, difficult to understand. In fact, as you will learn later, +it was this affliction that had caused him to be acting for moving +pictures instead of in the legitimate drama.</p> + +<p>Mr. Pertell took a rapid survey of his little company, and then went +off to make sure that the trunks containing the various costumes had +been properly checked.</p> + +<p>"Funny thing about Beatonville," remarked Russ to Ruth.</p> + +<p>"Why so?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Oh, every time I inquired of the brakeman, or starter, where the +train for that place left from, they'd laugh. I thought there must be +some joke, and I asked about it."</p> + +<p>"Was there?"</p> + +<p>"Well, not much of one. It seems that Beatonville is about the last +place in Jersey that any<a name="Page_13" id="Page_13"></a>one ever heads for. I guess it must consist +of the depot and one house—the one where the agent lives. There is +only one train a day and the place is so lonesome, the starter said, +that the engineer hates to stop there."</p> + +<p>"Oh, well, we aren't going there for pleasure—we're going to work," +put in Ruth. "Besides, Oak Farm isn't exactly in Beatonville; is it, +Russ?"</p> + +<p>"No, a few miles out, I believe. Well, it will be a rest for us after +the rush of the city, anyhow."</p> + +<p>"All aboard!" called a brakeman, and the Comet Film Company, bag and +baggage, started for the train that was to take them to new scenes of +activity.</p> + +<p>"Why do you carry your camera, Russ?" asked Ruth, when she and her +sister were seated near the young man, on whom devolved the duty of +"filming," or taking, the various scenes of the plays it was planned +to produce.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I didn't know but what I might see something to 'shoot' it at," +he answered, with a laugh. "You know Mr. Pertell sometimes sends +films to the Moving Picture Weekly Newspaper—scenes of current +events. I might catch one for him on the way."</p> + +<p>"I see. Have you ever been to Oak Farm, Russ?"<a name="Page_14" id="Page_14"></a></p> + +<p>"Yes, I went up there when Mr. Pertell looked it over to see if it +would do for our new rural dramas."</p> + +<p>"What sort of a place is it?" asked Alice.</p> + +<p>"Very nice—for a farm."</p> + +<p>"Isn't there something queer about it?" asked Ruth. "I mean wasn't +there some sort of a mystery connected with Sandy Apgar, the young +farmer who works it? You know we met him in New York," she added to +Alice.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I remember."</p> + +<p>"Mystery?" spoke Russ, musingly. "Well, I believe there is something +wrong about the place—not exactly a mystery, though. Maybe it's some +sort of trouble. Well, here we go!"</p> + +<p>The train had started out into the "wilds of Jersey," as Wellington +Bunn, the tragic actor, put it. It was about forty miles to +Beatonville, the trip occupying nearly two hours, for the train was +not a fast one. The members of the company conversed on various +topics in regard to some of the projected plays.</p> + +<p>The train had stopped at a small station, and was gathering speed +when there suddenly came such an application of the air brakes as to +cause several persons in the aisle to fall. Others slid from their +seats, or were thrown against the backs of the seats in front of +them.</p> + +<p>"What is it?"<a name="Page_15" id="Page_15"></a></p> + +<p>"What's the matter?"</p> + +<p>"An accident—let's get out!"</p> + +<p>Before anyone could do anything, though, there was a terrific smash, +and amid the wild tooting of a whistle could be heard the crashing +and splintering of wood. Then the train came to a stop with a jerk +that further scattered the frightened passengers.</p> + +<p>"A smash-up!"</p> + +<p>"A collision!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, let's get out of here!"</p> + +<p>No one could tell who was saying these things. They were shouted over +and over again.</p> + +<p>Russ Dalwood picked himself up from the floor of the car. A glance +told him that no member of the company had been more than jarred or +shaken, for their car was intact, and no windows were broken.</p> + +<p>He helped Alice back to her seat, from which she had slid. Ruth had +risen to her feet. Russ caught up his camera and made for the door.</p> + +<p>"Oh, where are you going?" cried Alice, nervously clutching her +leather purse. "Is any one hurt?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know—I'm going to see," answered Russ. "And I'm going to +film this smash. I may be able to get some good pictures for our +newspaper service, Mr. Pertell," he added, as he hurried out.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II" ></a><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>A MISSING DOG</h3> + + +<p>After the first crash, the sudden stop, and the terrified cries, a +silence followed that was almost as startling and nerve-racking as +the accident had been.</p> + +<p>Then benumbed senses gradually came back to their owners, and the +passengers began to take stock of themselves and their surroundings.</p> + +<p>"Is anybody hurt?" demanded Mr. Pertell, as he surveyed the interior +of the car.</p> + +<p>"We seem to be all right," replied Mr. DeVere, hoarsely, as he noted +where his two daughters were standing together, their arms about each +other.</p> + +<p>"Py gracious, dot vos a smash, all right!" exclaimed Carl Switzer, +the comedian of the company. "I pelief me dot I haf busted——"</p> + +<p>"Not your leg—don't say you have broken your leg!" cried Mrs. +Maguire, as she clasped her two grandchildren in her arms. Nellie, +the <a name="Page_17" id="Page_17"></a>little girl, was crying, from having bumped her nose against the +back of a seat.</p> + +<p>"No, t'ank my lucky stars I haf not broken my leg. It iss only my +shoe-lace!" exclaimed Mr. Switzer, triumphantly, as he held it up, +dangling.</p> + +<p>"Luck!" grunted Mr. Sneed in gloomy tones. "Is there any such thing +as good luck? I knew something would happen when we started out on +track thirteen. This company is doomed—I can see that."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, please keep it to yourself," requested Mr. Pertell, +sharply. "You are getting on the nerves of the ladies, Sneed!"</p> + +<p>For Miss Pearl Pennington, and her friend Miss Laura Dixon—the two +rather flashily-pretty girls mentioned before—were crying +hysterically.</p> + +<p>"It doesn't seem to be a very bad smash," went on Mr. Pertell. +"Suppose we go out and see what caused it? I hope none of our baggage +has been damaged."</p> + +<p>"Oh, let's go out and see Russ taking moving pictures of the wreck!" +proposed Alice, as she brushed off her blue suit.</p> + +<p>"Are you sure you're all right?" asked Ruth, anxiously.</p> + +<p>"Oh, certainly! Not hurt at all. Just jolted up a bit. Come on. You +too, Daddy!"<a name="Page_18" id="Page_18"></a></p> + +<p>Indeed the whole theatrical company, as well as the other passengers, +made for the doors of the car. And while they are going out to see +the extent of the damage I will take just a moment to make my new +readers somewhat better acquainted with the characters of this story.</p> + +<p>To begin with the moving picture girls themselves, they were Ruth and +Alice DeVere, aged seventeen and fifteen respectively, the daughters +of Hosmer DeVere, formerly a well known actor. As told in the first +volume, "The Moving Picture Girls; Or, First Appearances in Photo +Dramas," Mr. DeVere's voice had suddenly given out, when he was +rehearsing for a part in a new play.</p> + +<p>This came particularly hard, as he had been without an engagement for +some time, and finances were low. The DeVere family lived in the +Fenmore Apartment on one of the West Sixtieth streets of New York +City. They were, in fact, about to be dispossessed for non-payment of +rent when Mr. DeVere experienced a return of an old throat affection, +making it impossible for him to speak his lines.</p> + +<p>He was replaced in the character, and matters looked black indeed. +Across the hall from the DeVere family lived Russ Dalwood, a moving +picture operator, with his widowed mother and <a name="Page_19" id="Page_19"></a>brother, Billy. Russ +learned of the distress of his neighbors, and suggested that as Mr. +DeVere could act he might get a place with a moving picture company +that produced picture dramas. In this work he would not need to speak +very much.</p> + +<p>At first Mr. DeVere would not hear of it, as he was an actor of some +reputation in the "legitimate." But finally he yielded and became a +member of the Comet Film Company. How his two daughters joined the +company, through a mere accident, and how they made fame for +themselves, you will find set down in the book; also how they aided +Russ greatly when it seemed as if a valuable patent he had perfected, +for an attachment to a moving picture camera, was in danger of being +stolen.</p> + +<p>Toward the close of that story you may learn how Mr. Pertell became +acquainted with a young farmer named Sandy Apgar, who was working a +large farm for his aged father, near Beatonville, in New Jersey. It +happened that Mr. Pertell was contemplating the filming of a number +of rural plays, and he made arrangements with Mr. Apgar to use the +farm as a background for the scenes. The company would also live and +board at the farmhouse, which was a large, old-fashioned home.<a name="Page_20" id="Page_20"></a></p> + +<p>The players were on their way there when the accident occurred.</p> + +<p>To go a little more into detail about the two girls, and the others, +I might say that Ruth was tall, with deep blue eyes and light hair. +She was rather inclined to be romantic, too, as might be suspected.</p> + +<p>Alice was just the opposite—plump, jolly, always laughing or joking, +and with a wealth of brown hair, and eyes like hazel nuts. She was +very like her dead mother, while Ruth was more like her father in +character.</p> + +<p>Mr. Pertell was the manager and owner of the Comet Film Company, and +I have already mentioned the principal players. Ruth and Alice were +the newest members. Miss Pennington and Miss Dixon were from the +vaudeville stage, and you could see this without being told. They +were a bit jealous of the DeVere girls.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Maguire, who was billed as "Cora Ashleigh," was generally played +in "old woman parts." And she played them well. Her two +grandchildren, Tommy and Nellie, occasionally had small parts in the +plays. Mr. Switzer was the comedian, and, opposite to him, was Pepper +Sneed, the "grouch." Wellington Bunn seemed always to have a +grievance because he had not made a success in Shakespeare.<a name="Page_21" id="Page_21"></a></p> + +<p>Pop Snooks was the "Old Reliable" property man of the company, and +what he could not manufacture in the way of "props" at short notice +was hardly worth mentioning.</p> + +<p>The company of moving picture players and the other train passengers +found a scene of desolation awaiting them as they alighted. But it +was not as bad as might have been expected, and no one had been +killed. In fact, no one was hurt, save the fireman and engineer of +the passenger train, and they only slightly.</p> + +<p>What had happened was this: A freight train, on a siding, had overrun +a switch, and one of the cars encroached on the main line tracks. The +passenger engine had "side-swiped" it, as the railroad term has it. +That is, the engine had struck a glancing blow, and had been +derailed. The baggage car, directly behind the engine, had been +smashed, but a quick survey on the part of Mr. Pertell showed that +the company's baggage had not been damaged.</p> + +<p>The wreck was bad enough, however, and meant a delay until the track +was cleared. The members of the company, and the other passengers, +gathered about, looking on while the railroad men held a consultation +as to what was best to be done.</p> + +<p>"Look, there's Russ, taking pictures!" ex<a name="Page_22" id="Page_22"></a>claimed Ruth, pointing to +him. The young operator had gone to the baggage car and obtained the +tripod of his camera. This he had set up in an advantageous position, +and was industriously grinding away at the handle, taking pictures of +the wreck on the moving strip of celluloid.</p> + +<p>"This will be all right for our newspaper service!" he called to Mr. +Pertell.</p> + +<p>"That's right! Good work, Russ! But this will mean a delay in getting +to Oak Farm."</p> + +<p>However, there was no help for it. One of the trainmen went to the +nearest station to telephone for the wrecking crew. Fortunately it +was not necessary to bring one out from Hoboken, since at Dover, a +station some miles down the line, such an equipment was kept. And a +little later the wrecking crew was on the scene.</p> + +<p>"I'll get some fine pictures now!" exulted Russ. "I'm glad I'm here, +though I wouldn't want a railroad collision to happen every day. We +might not get off so lucky next time."</p> + +<p>"Luck! Don't mention luck!" grumbled Mr. Sneed. "The idea of starting +out on track thirteen! I told you something would happen."</p> + +<p>"Den you vas not disappointmented alretty yet!" laughed Mr. Switzer.</p> + +<p>The work of getting the engine back on the <a name="Page_23" id="Page_23"></a>track was comparatively +easy, and it was found that the train could proceed, since the +running gear of the baggage car was intact.</p> + +<p>The train was almost ready to go on again, when a woman, flashily +dressed, and wearing many diamonds, came bustling up from the parlor +car.</p> + +<p>"Is my dog safe?" she inquired of the baggageman. "Is he hurt?"</p> + +<p>"No'm, he's all right; or he was a little while ago," the man +answered. "He was tied in the corner, just where you told me to put +him. I guess he's there yet. His end of the car wasn't hit. But he +howled a lot."</p> + +<p>"Poor Rex! Let me see him." The lady went to the open door of the +baggage car, and looked in. "Why, he's gone!" she cried. "My dog—my +darling dog—is gone!"</p> + +<p>"Can't be!" exclaimed the trainman. "He was tied right there a minute +ago."</p> + +<p>He jumped into the shattered car and looked about.</p> + +<p>"Is he there?" cried the woman.</p> + +<p>"No, ma'am, he's gone," was the answer. "But I don't see how it could +be."</p> + +<p>"Did he break loose?" the lady asked, with much eagerness.</p> + +<p>"No, the strap is gone, and he couldn't pos<a name="Page_24" id="Page_24"></a>sibly untie the knot I +put in it. Someone has taken him, ma'am."</p> + +<p>"Then this company is responsible, and I shall sue it!" the lady +cried, bristling with what might be righteous anger. "My dog was a +valuable one. Rex III has taken prize after prize, and I was on my +way with him to a dog show now. Oh, Rex! Who could have taken you?" +and she seemed genuinely distressed.</p> + +<p>"What kind of a dog was he?" asked Alice, for she loved animals.</p> + +<p>"A collie—a most beautiful collie. He had a pink bow on, and here it +is! Oh, how I loved him! We were inseparable! And now he is gone!" +and tears filled the lady's eyes.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III" ></a><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>ON TO THE FARM</h3> + + +<p>Despite the excitement and hard work caused by the wreck, many of the +trainmen had time to look for the missing dog. This was after the +conductor had been appealed to by Mrs. Delamont, the owner of the +prize animal.</p> + +<p>And it appeared, from the deferential attitude of the conductor, that +Mrs. Delamont was a person of some importance. Her husband was one of +the directors of the railroad, and she was much interested in prize +dogs.</p> + +<p>But a careful search failed to disclose the missing Rex III. An +examination of the car revealed nothing, and the baggage man was sure +he had tied such a knot in the dog's leash that the animal could not +have worked it loose.</p> + +<p>"Besides," said Mrs. Delamont, "Rex would not leave me. Someone must +have taken him."</p> + +<p>"That's what I think," agreed the baggageman.<a name="Page_26" id="Page_26"></a></p> + +<p>And this was very possible, as many strangers had been attracted to +the scene of the wreck. Mrs. Delamont offered a reward of a hundred +dollars for the return of her prize dog, and this spurred a number of +volunteer searchers to work.</p> + +<p>They scurried about the fields near the scene of the accident, but in +spite of enticing calls and whistles no Rex answered.</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid he is gone," said Alice, who had taken quite a liking to +Mrs. Delamont, in spite of the lady's rather "loud" dress and +manners.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I must find him!" exclaimed Mrs. Delamont. "I shall have to +advertise," she went on. "This is not the first time he has been +taken. He is such a fine-looking dog that many are attracted to him. +And he is so friendly! Oh, Rex, where are you?"</p> + +<p>But Rex III was not to be found, and the trainmen could no longer +delay. A last search was made in the surrounding fields, and then the +passengers went back to their cars. A substitute engineer and fireman +had come with the wrecking crew.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Delamont made many inquiries as to whether anyone had seen her +dog being led away, but no one had, and lamenting over her loss, and +dwelling on the fine qualities and value of her pet, she resumed her +seat in the parlor car.<a name="Page_27" id="Page_27"></a></p> + +<p>"Well, I sure did get some fine pictures," remarked Russ, as he came +back to the others of the film company. "It will be something for our +newspaper service, all right."</p> + +<p>"We'll send them back to New York from the next station," said Mr. +Pertell, "and wire that they're on the way. They can develop and +print them there."</p> + +<p>In the first book of this series I have described the mechanical part +of moving pictures, how they are made and prepared for projection on +the screen. To briefly sum it up, I might say that the pictures, or +negatives, are taken on a continuous strip of celluloid film in a +specially prepared camera, which takes views at the rate of sixteen +per second. Then, after this long strip of negative is developed, a +positive, as it is called, is made, and this is run through the +projecting machine in the theatre. Thus, by means of powerful lenses, +and intense lights, the miniature pictures, less than an inch in +width, are enlarged to life size.</p> + +<p>In order to make sure that the passengers should reach their +destinations the train that had been in the wreck was stopped at the +next important station. There a new baggage car was put on, and +another engine. Russ took advantage of the delay to send back, by +express, the film he had made of the collision, at the same time +tele<a name="Page_28" id="Page_28"></a>graphing the manager of the film studio to expect the reel.</p> + +<p>The journey to Beatonville was then taken up again, and proceeded +without further accident. The train was somewhat delayed, and when it +drew up at the small station Ruth, Alice and the others looked out +eagerly to see what sort of place it was.</p> + +<p>"It isn't as bad as you said, Russ!" exclaimed Ruth. "I see two +houses, anyhow."</p> + +<p>"Not many more, though," he answered, with a laugh.</p> + +<p>Beatonville was a typical country railroad town, and quite a crowd of +depot loungers gathered around as the theatrical company alighted.</p> + +<p>As the train went on its way again Alice caught a glimpse of Mrs. +Delamont at one of the windows in the parlor car. The owner of the +missing Rex III waved her hand in friendly farewell to the girl.</p> + +<p>"I wish I could find her dog," thought Alice. "It's too bad to have a +pet and lose him."</p> + +<p>"I don't like dogs!" exclaimed Ruth. "I'm always afraid they'll bite +me."</p> + +<p>Alice laughed at her sister's nervousness.</p> + +<p>"There's Sandy!" exclaimed Russ, pointing to a young farmer who was +holding the heads of two horses attached to a large "carryall."</p> + +<p>"Come on!" called Mr. Pertell to his players.<a name="Page_29" id="Page_29"></a> "I expect you're all +hungry, on account of the delay. Have you anything to eat out at your +place?" he called to Sandy.</p> + +<p>"Yep. Ma's been bakin' an' cookin' for th' last week!" was the +comforting answer. "We're all ready for you. I'm going to take you +over in this rig, and I've got another wagon for your trunks and +stuff. Have a good journey?"</p> + +<p>"Good! Bah! A smash-up!" growled Mr. Sneed. "But we might have +expected it—starting out on track thirteen."</p> + +<p>"Yah! But ve are all right now, alretty yet!" laughed Mr. Switzer.</p> + +<p>Ruth, Alice and the others looked about them with interest. It was a +typical country landscape—a little valley nestling amid the green +hills.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I know I'm going to like it here," murmured Ruth. "It is so +restful!"</p> + +<p>"Restful! Yes! I should say it was!" exclaimed Pearl Pennington, as +she bent a stick of chewing gum, preparatory to enjoying it. "I know +what I'll do, all right!"</p> + +<p>"What, dear?" asked her friend Laura Dixon, with lazy interest. +"What'll you do?"</p> + +<p>"I'll be going back to little old New York in about a week. This +place has got on my nerves already. Ugh! Isn't it quiet!"</p> + +<p>It certainly was, after the departure of the train. There was none of +the various noises of<a name="Page_30" id="Page_30"></a> New York. Even the horses seemed ready to go +to sleep as they stood lazily at the shafts or poles of the vehicles +they drew.</p> + +<p>"Come on!" cried Sandy, hospitably. "It's quite a little drive out to +our farm, and I know your folks must be tired and hungry."</p> + +<p>"Hungry! That's no name for it!" voiced Miss Dixon. "Have you any +lobsters, Mr. Apgar?"</p> + +<p>"Lobsters? No'm. They don't raise none of them birds out here. But we +got chicken."</p> + +<p>"Oh, listen to him, Pearl!" exclaimed Miss Dixon. "He thinks a +lobster is a bird."</p> + +<p>"Don't mind them," said Paul Ardite to Sandy, in a low voice. "It +hasn't been many years that they could afford lobster. Chicken for +mine, every time."</p> + +<p>"Well, they do say ma cooks th' best chicken around here," spoke +Sandy, proudly. "She done it in Southern style this time."</p> + +<p>"Say no more!" exclaimed Mr. DeVere. "Sandy, you are a gentleman and +a scholar. How long will it take us to get to your farm?"</p> + +<p>"About half an hour."</p> + +<p>"That's twenty-nine minutes too long, since you have mentioned +chicken in Southern style. But do your best."</p> + +<p>Seated in the comfortable carryall, the mem<a name="Page_31" id="Page_31"></a>bers of the moving +picture company began their trip to Oak Farm. The way lay along a +pleasant country road, and in the distance could be seen the cool, +green hills.</p> + +<p>It was early June, and, all about, the farmers were doing their work. +The air was sweet with the scent of flowers and the green woods, for +the road led past several forest patches where the wind swept +pleasantly through the swaying trees.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it is just lovely here!" sighed Ruth, as she removed her hat and +let the gentle wind blow about her hair. "I know I shall love it. +And, Daddy dear, maybe it will do your voice good."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it will, daughter," he agreed. "However, since we are doing +so well in moving pictures, I have not the desire I had at first to +get back to the boards. I am becoming content in this line."</p> + +<p>"I'm glad," said Alice, "for I like it very much. Oh, it is lovely +here, Ruth!"</p> + +<p>"Just fine, I call it!" exclaimed Russ. "The air is so clear. I'm +sure we'll get fine pictures here."</p> + +<p>"I know we'll die of loneliness," grumbled Miss Pennington. "I wish +we hadn't come, Laura."</p> + +<p>"So do I, but there's no help for it now," replied Miss Dixon.</p> + +<p>Rumbling behind the carryall was the farm <a name="Page_32" id="Page_32"></a>wagon containing the +trunks, and in less than the half-hour stipulated by Sandy, Oak Farm +was reached. Ruth, Alice and their father fell in love with the place +at first sight. Mr. Pertell and Russ had seen it before, and most of +the others admired it.</p> + +<p>There was a big, old-fashioned farmhouse, setting back from the road, +and fronted by a wide stretch of green lawn. The house was white, +with green shutters, and was well kept. Back of it were barns and +other farm buildings, some of which were rather dilapidated.</p> + +<p>"Welcome to Oak Farm!" cried Sandy. "There's Pa Felix and Ma Nance +lookin' for ye! Here they are, Ma!" he called. "All ready for your +chicken."</p> + +<p>"Bring 'em right in!" the mother invited, cordially.</p> + +<p>Ruth and Alice liked the farmer's wife at once. There was a stoop to +her shoulders that told of many weary days of work, and she looked +worn and tired, but there was a bright welcome in her eyes as she +greeted the visitors. "Pa Felix," as Sandy called his father, was +rather old and feeble.</p> + +<p>"Come right in and make yourselves to home," urged Mrs. Apgar. "Your +rooms is all ready for ye!"</p> + +<p>"Where is the bell-boy?" asked Miss Pen<a name="Page_33" id="Page_33"></a>nington, with uptilted head +and powdered nose. "I want him to take my valise to my room at once. +And I shall want a bath before dinner."</p> + +<p>"Isn't she horrid, to try to put on such airs here?" said Alice to +Ruth, nodding in the direction of the vaudeville actress.</p> + +<p>"Yes. She only does it to make trouble."</p> + +<p>Sandy and his father were talking together in low tones in one corner +of the big parlor.</p> + +<p>"You didn't get any word; did you?" asked the old man.</p> + +<p>"No, Pa. There wasn't no letter."</p> + +<p>"Then we won't git th' money."</p> + +<p>"It don't look so."</p> + +<p>"And we'll have to lose th' place?"</p> + +<p>"I—I'm afraid so," replied Sandy.</p> + +<p>"Gosh! That—that's hard, in my old age," said the elderly farmer, +softly. "I hoped your ma and I'd be able to end our days here. But I +guess it ain't to be. However, this company will help us pay some of +the claims. We'll do the best we can, Sandy."</p> + +<p>"That's what we will!"</p> + +<p>Alice wondered what secret trouble could be worrying the farmer and +his son. Mrs. Apgar, too, had an anxious look on her face, but she +tried to make her visitors feel at home.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV" ></a><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>A QUEER PROPOSAL</h3> + + +<p>Oak Farm was a most delightful place. Ruth and Alice agreed to this +even before the first meal was served. They stood at the window of +their room—a large one with two beds—and gazed across the green +meadows, off to the greener woodland and then to the distant hills +which girt the valley holding Oak Farm in its clasp.</p> + +<p>The hills were purple now with the coming of night—a deep purple +like the depth of a woodland violet—and their tops were shrouded in +mist.</p> + +<p>At the foot of the hills ran a little river, and now it looked like +some ribbon of silver, twining in and out amid the green carpet of +the fields.</p> + +<p>"Oh, isn't it beautiful—just beautiful!" sighed Ruth.</p> + +<p>"Do you mean the odor of that fried chicken?" asked Alice, with a +frank laugh, as she let down her hair, preparatory to putting it <a name="Page_35" id="Page_35"></a>up +again, in the general process of "dressing." "It is delightful; but I +would hardly call it 'beautiful.'"</p> + +<p>"Oh, you know what I mean!" returned Ruth, not turning from the +window which gave a view of the distant hills. "I'm speaking of the +scenery."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, I suppose it is beautiful," agreed Alice, who, truth to +tell, was not gifted with a very strong æsthetic sense. "But I +suppose Mr. Pertell came here because it was so practical for the +rural dramas."</p> + +<p>"Beauty counts in them, too," said Ruth, softly. "Oh, just look at +the purple light on those hills, Alice!"</p> + +<p>"Can't, my dear. I've dropped a hairpin and I can't see it in the +dark. Gracious, I never thought! We won't have any electric lights +here, and no gas. I wonder if we'll have to go back to candle days."</p> + +<p>"They weren't so bad," observed Ruth. "I think it must have been fine +in the Colonial days, to have the candles all aglow, and——"</p> + +<p>"Candle fiddlesticks!" exclaimed Alice, who could be very outspoken +at times. "Give me an incandescent light, every time. It's getting +dark here. I wonder what system of illumination they have?"<a name="Page_36" id="Page_36"></a></p> + +<p>"Kerosene lamps," replied Ruth. "There's one on the mantel. I'll +light it."</p> + +<p>"Do, that's a dear. I've dropped another hairpin, and I need every +one."</p> + +<p>There was silence in the bedroom of the old-fashioned country house +for a space. Ruth lighted the lamp, and drew down the window shades.</p> + +<p>The girls freshened themselves up after their journey, and prepared +to descend to the dining room. From the kitchen came more delicious +odors as Mrs. Apgar and her helper finished preparing the evening +meal.</p> + +<p>Scattered about, in other apartments of the big farmhouse, were the +other members of the film theatrical company. Mr. DeVere had been +given a room near his daughters', and they could hear him talking in +his husky voice to Mr. Pertell, who was across the hall.</p> + +<p>"When are they going to begin taking the pictures?" asked Ruth, as +she helped Alice hook up a waist that fastened in the back.</p> + +<p>"Oh, not for some days yet, I fancy," was the answer. "Mr. Pertell +will have to look around, and pick out the best backgrounds for the +different scenes. I wonder what sort of parts I'll get? Something +funny, I hope; like tumbling into the river and being rescued."<a name="Page_37" id="Page_37"></a></p> + +<p>"Alice! You wouldn't want anything like that!" cried Ruth, much +shocked.</p> + +<p>"Wouldn't I, though! Just give me a chance. I can swim, you know!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know, but tumbling into the river—with your clothes on—it +might be dangerous!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, well, if we're in the moving picture business we will have to +learn to take chances. I read in the paper the other day how a couple +leaped from the Brooklyn Bridge with a parachute—a man and woman."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know; but we're not going to do anything like <i>that</i>! Papa +wouldn't let us."</p> + +<p>"No, I suppose not," and Alice sighed as though she really wanted to +indulge in some such daring "stunt" as a bridge leap.</p> + +<p>"I know one part you're going to have, Ruth," went on Alice, as she +surveyed herself in the glass.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" asked Ruth, eagerly. "Shall I like it?"</p> + +<p>"I think you will, dear. It's laid in an old mill—there is one on +Oak Farm, I believe. You're to be imprisoned in it, and your lover +rides up—probably on one of those silly milk-white steeds I object +to—and rescues you—breaks down the door in fact—and gets you just +as you are about to be bound on the mill wheel."<a name="Page_38" id="Page_38"></a></p> + +<p>"Really, Alice?" cried Ruth, clasping her hands in delight, for she +dearly loved a romantic rôle.</p> + +<p>"Really and truly—truly rural, I call it."</p> + +<p>"How did you hear of it?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I overheard daddy and Mr. Pertell talking about it. Mr. Pertell +asked daddy if he'd object to your taking a part like that."</p> + +<p>"And what did dad say?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, he agreed to it, as long as you weren't in danger. But I want +something funny. I believe I'm to be a sort of 'cut-up' country maid, +in some of the plays. I'm to upset the milk pails, tie a tin can to +the calf's tail, hide under the sofa, when your country 'beaus' come +to see you, and all that."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Alice!"</p> + +<p>"That's all right—I just love parts like that. None of the love +business for me!"</p> + +<p>"I should say not—you're entirely too young!" exclaimed Ruth, with +sudden dignity.</p> + +<p>"Pooh! You're not so old! Oh, there goes the supper bell. Come on! +I'm starved!"</p> + +<p>The entire theatrical troupe gathered about the table, and a merry +party it was. That Mrs. Apgar was a good cook was one of the first +matters voted on, and there was not a dissenting voice. It was well +that there was plenty of <a name="Page_39" id="Page_39"></a>chicken, for nearly everyone had more than +the first helping.</p> + +<p>"Ach! But I'm glad that I came here!" announced Mr. Switzer, as he +passed his plate for more. "Ven I get so old dot I can vork no more, +I am coming here!" and he leaned back with a contented sigh.</p> + +<p>Even Pepper Sneed smiled graciously, and for once seemed to have no +fault to find, and no dire prediction to make.</p> + +<p>"The meal is very good," he said to Pop Snooks, the property man.</p> + +<p>"Glad you think so—even if we did come out on track thirteen," was +the reply. "I think that accident was the best thing that could +happen. It delayed us so we all had fine appetites."</p> + +<p>After supper the members of the company went on the broad veranda, to +sit in the dusk of the evening and listen to the call of the night +insects.</p> + +<p>"We'll all have a day or so of rest," Mr. Pertell said. "That is, you +folks will, while I lay out my plans and decide what we are to make +first. Russ, I'll want you, the first thing in the morning, to take a +walk around the farm with me, and we'll decide on which are the best +backgrounds."</p> + +<p>"Oh, may I come!" cried Alice, before Ruth could restrain her.<a name="Page_40" id="Page_40"></a></p> + +<p>"Why, yes, I guess so," answered the manager, slowly. "Only we'll +probably do a deal of walking."</p> + +<p>"I don't tire easily," Alice replied.</p> + +<p>"Oh, by the way, Mr. Apgar," said Mr. Pertell after a pause, turning +to the farmer, "I am planning one play that has a barn-burning +incident in it. Have you some old barn on the premises I could set +fire to."</p> + +<p>"Good land!" exclaimed the farmer, starting from his chair. "Set fire +to a barn! Why th' idea! Th' sheriff will git after you, sure pop. +That's arson, man!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, not the way I'd do it," laughed the manager. "I'd be willing +to pay you for the barn, so no one would lose anything. Haven't you +some such building on the place—one that isn't of much use?"</p> + +<p>"Wa'al, I reckon there might be," was the slow answer, as if the +farmer could not understand the strange proposition. "But as fer +settin' fire to it; wa'al, I reckon you'll have to git permission of +th' mortgagee. You see we're in trouble about this place. Sandy, +maybe you'd better tell him," and he turned to his son.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V" ></a><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>SANDY'S STORY</h3> + + +<p>For a moment or two Mr. Pertell seemed rather embarrassed. He feared +he had forced some unpleasant secret from the farmer, and he did not +want to hurt his feelings. Then, too, he remembered that Sandy had +hinted at some trouble at the farm. This was probably it, and it had +to do with money.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you would rather not talk about it," suggested the manager, +after a pause. He and Sandy were at one end of the porch now, the +others having gone in. Felix Apgar, preferring to let his son do the +talking, had risen from his chair, and was going slowly down the +gravel walk to close the gate lest some stray cow wander in from the +highway and eat his wife's favorite flowers.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I reckon I might jest as well tell you," spoke Sandy, slowly. +"It's bound to come out <a name="Page_42" id="Page_42"></a>sooner or later, and then everybody in +Beatonville will hear of our trouble."</p> + +<p>"Then it is trouble?" asked Mr. Pertell.</p> + +<p>"That's what it is."</p> + +<p>"If I could do anything to help," suggested the manager, "I would be +glad to."</p> + +<p>"No, I don't reckon you could, unless you wanted to invest quite a +sum of money in this farm," returned the young man.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm afraid I'm hardly ready to do that," declared Mr. Pertell. +"Farming isn't in my line, and I've got about all my spare funds +invested in the moving picture business. But if a loan would help +you——"</p> + +<p>"That's th' trouble!" interrupted Sandy. "We've got too much of a +loan now, and we can't pay it off. Th' place is 'mortgaged up to th' +handle,' as they say out this way. That's why pa couldn't give you +permission to burn a barn.</p> + +<p>"We have an old shack, that's almost toppling over, and it would be +better burned and out of th' way. But I guess Squire Blasdell would +object if you sot fire to it. The squire pretty near owns our place +with this mortgage; or, rather with th' mortgages of folks he +represents. He's a lawyer," he added simply. "But maybe if you paid +him what he thought the barn was wuth he'd let you fire it."<a name="Page_43" id="Page_43"></a></p> + +<p>"Then I'll have to talk to him," went on Mr. Pertell. "I need a +barn-burning in one scene. It will be very effective, I think."</p> + +<p>"Gosh! But you movin' picture fellers certainly do things," commented +Sandy. "You hire yachts to make believe take a trip to Europe, and +now you're wantin' to burn a barn! I never heard tell th' like of +such doin's."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that's nothing to what some of them do," remarked the manager. +"Why, some of my competitors have bought old steamboats, taken them +out in mid-ocean, and set fire to them, just to get a rescue +picture."</p> + +<p>"Get out!" cried Sandy, clearly incredulous.</p> + +<p>"That's a fact," declared Mr. Pertell. "And, more than once, some of +them have bought old locomotives and coaches, and set them going +toward each other on the same track, to make a railroad collision."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean it?" cried Sandy.</p> + +<p>"I certainly do. Why, one manager actually burned up a whole mining +town just to get a good picture. He destroyed more than twenty +shacks. Of course they weren't very elaborate ones, but he got a fine +effect."</p> + +<p>"Wa'al, then I reckon burnin' one barn isn't so wonderful," observed +Sandy.</p> + +<p>"No, indeed. And I'll see Squire Blasdell the <a name="Page_44" id="Page_44"></a>first thing in the +morning to get my plans ready for this. But I'm sorry to hear of your +trouble, Sandy, I sure am. What caused it; did the crops fail?"</p> + +<p>"No, we've always had pretty good crops, or we wouldn't stay here," +answered the young farmer. "But I don't reckon we'll be able to stay +here much longer. It will be hard for pa and ma, too. They don't want +to leave—it will break 'em all up. They've lived here all their +lives, and they counted on dyin' and bein' buried here. But I reckon +they won't now."</p> + +<p>"Why not? Are you about to be put off the farm?"</p> + +<p>"We will be, by fall, unless I can raise four thousand dollars—and I +can't do that, nohow," said Sandy, sadly.</p> + +<p>"That's too bad," spoke the manager, sympathetically. "How did it all +come about? That is, if you don't mind telling me."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no. I don't mind," answered the young farmer, in rather hopeless +tones. "You see father had a brother—Uncle Isaac he was, and he was +quite a business man, in a way. He used to farm it, but he gave that +up, and went into other schemes. I never knew rightly what they were, +but he used to make money—at least he must have got it somehow, for +he didn't work.<a name="Page_45" id="Page_45"></a></p> + +<p>"Well, one time, several years ago, he came to pa and borrowed quite +a sum—more than five thousand dollars I've heard pa say it was. He +and ma had inherited most of it only a short time before from pa's +granduncle Nathan and they decided to keep it ready to pay off th' +mortgage, but 'fore pa could do that Uncle Isaac come and borrowed +it."</p> + +<p>"But why did your uncle need to borrow money when he had so much of +his own?" asked Mr. Pertell, curiously.</p> + +<p>"Wa'al, there was some business deal on. I never understood th' right +of it, and I don't believe pa did, either. All I know is that Uncle +Isaac got pa's money. I believe he wanted to go into some +scheme—Uncle Isaac did—and didn't have quite enough cash. He +promised to pay pa back in a few weeks, and give him big interest for +the use of the money.</p> + +<p>"Pa set quite a store by Uncle Isaac, and so he let him have th' +money that ought to have gone to pay off th' mortgage. And then +things went wrong. Uncle Isaac died before he could pay pa back th' +money, and from then on things went from bad to worse, until now +we're goin' to lose th' farm."</p> + +<p>"But my dear man!" exclaimed Mr. Pertell, "if your uncle owed your +father money, and your <a name="Page_46" id="Page_46"></a>father had a note, or any paper to prove his +claim, he could collect from your uncle's estate."</p> + +<p>"That's th' trouble," said Sandy. "There wasn't no estate."</p> + +<p>"But he must have left something! What became of the money he got +from your father?"</p> + +<p>"Nobody knew. You see poor Uncle Isaac went crazy before he died, and +was put in th' asylum. In fact, that's where he died. He was clean +out of his mind."</p> + +<p>"But did you try to find what he had done with the money? I should +have thought you could do that."</p> + +<p>"We did try, and even got a lawyer to try," replied Sandy. "But it +was no use. Uncle Isaac would only laugh at us. Poor fellow, he meant +all right, but his head give way. He wouldn't have cheated pa for the +world. It was jest an accident—that's all."</p> + +<p>"You see he was near our threshing machine one day when there was an +accident. Somethin' broke and Uncle Isaac was hit on th' head. Not +hard enough to kill him, but it made him forget things, and he died +that way."</p> + +<p>"But couldn't you tell from the papers he left where he had invested +the money—his own, as well as your father's?"</p> + +<p>"That's th' odd part of it. We couldn't find <a name="Page_47" id="Page_47"></a>a scrap of paper, nor a +dollar, among his things. You see Uncle Isaac was queer, even before +he went crazy. He didn't believe in banks, and he used to hide his +papers and money in all sorts of out-of-the-way places. He lived all +alone—an old bachelor."</p> + +<p>"Did you search for his things?" asked Mr. Pertell, who was much +impressed by Sandy's story.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes! We searched all over!" exclaimed Sandy. "But we couldn't +find a thing. It's too bad, for Uncle Isaac never would have done it +for th' world, if he had been in his right mind."</p> + +<p>"No, I suppose not," agreed Mr. Pertell. "Have you any papers to show +that your father let him have the money?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, we've got a note. But it's no good. Uncle Isaac is dead, +and he didn't leave nothin'. We've searched all over, and couldn't +find a thing. No, I reckon th' only thing to do is to lose the farm. +But it will come hard on pa and ma—it surely will."</p> + +<p>Mr. Pertell said nothing. There was little he could say to make the +sad lot of the Apgar family any easier. The manager wished he could +provide the money himself, but, as he had said, he had invested all +his surplus cash in the moving picture business. The taking of the +rural dramas <a name="Page_48" id="Page_48"></a>was going to cost considerable, too, and there would be +the added expense of burning the barn.</p> + +<p>Mr. Pertell was paying a fair price for the use of the farm, and for +the board and lodging of his company. This would, in a measure, help +the Apgars, but it would not be anywhere near enough to save the +place.</p> + +<p>"Well, it certainly is too bad," agreed the manager. "When I see +Squire Blasdell to ask permission to burn the barn, I'll see if he +won't wait a bit about foreclosing. Then perhaps we can think up some +other plan—or we may even help you find the money," he added, +hopefully.</p> + +<p>"There ain't much chance of that," returned Sandy. "We've hunted high +and low for that money, or for any papers to tell where it might be. +As for Squire Blasdell, he's harder than flint. He wouldn't wait a +day after th' money was due. No, we've got to lose the farm."</p> + +<p>Truly there seemed no way out, but Mr. Pertell was not one to give up +easily. He made up his mind that when he got the chance he would see +some of his friends in New York. He might be able to induce one of +them to provide the money, and take up the mortgage, holding it until +it could be paid off gradually. But he said nothing of this now, for +he did not want to raise false hopes.<a name="Page_49" id="Page_49"></a></p> + +<p>"Well, I reckon I'll turn in," announced Sandy, after a bit. "I'm not +used to staying up late. Is everything all right?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, indeed—very nice," replied the manager. "I'm going to +start in planning to-morrow."</p> + +<p>Sandy arose to go in, and, as he did so he peered out toward the +road. The moon had risen and it was quite light. Mr. Pertell saw a +dark figure slouching along the highway.</p> + +<p>"That you, 'Bige?" called Sandy, evidently thinking he saw some +neighbor. But the man in the road did not answer. Instead he broke +into a run, as though frightened.</p> + +<p>"That's queer!" exclaimed Sandy. "I'm going to see who that is."</p> + +<p>"I'm with you!" declared the manager, and they hurried down the +gravel path.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI" ></a><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>THE BUTTING BULL</h3> + + +<p>Speeding to the front gate the theatrical man and the young farmer +darted down the moonlit road. It was a straight highway, and the +white dust added to the effect of the moon, that was now well over +the trees.</p> + +<p>But, to the surprise of the two men, no figure was in sight. As they +reached the highway it was deserted, though it had been but a few +seconds since Sandy had seen and called to the man in the road.</p> + +<p>"He—he's gone!" gasped Sandy.</p> + +<p>"So he is. Must have slipped to one side," agreed the manager. "Do +you want to get him? Who was he?"</p> + +<p>"That's jest what I don't know. First I thought he was 'Bige Tapper, +who lives down th' road a piece. But 'Bige would have answered."</p> + +<p>"But this fellow didn't, so he couldn't have been your friend," spoke +Mr. Pertell. "And <a name="Page_51" id="Page_51"></a>why should he have run when you hailed him?"</p> + +<p>"That's what I can't understand," replied Sandy. "It's sort of +suspicious; ain't it?"</p> + +<p>"It surely is. Come on, let's have a look."</p> + +<p>Together they went down the road in the direction taken by the +mysterious stranger. But, though they looked on both sides, and +peered amid the bushes, they saw no one. They called out, demanding +to know who had gone past the house; but of course, in case the man +was a suspicious character, they could hardly have expected an +answer.</p> + +<p>Their shouts, though, brought out Paul, who had not yet gone to bed, +and he joined in the search.</p> + +<p>"Who do you think he was?" the moving picture actor asked of Sandy, +when they had given up the attempt to find the man.</p> + +<p>"Oh, he might be some tramp. There's been chicken thieves around +lately, and maybe he was lookin' for a chance to sneak into our +hen-house."</p> + +<p>"Well, I guess you've scared him off, at any rate," said the manager.</p> + +<p>"There's an idea for a film," said Paul, with a laugh. "We can have a +chicken-stealing. The thief gets caught in a bear trap, and can't get +loose—farmer comes out with gun—chase over the fields and all +that."<a name="Page_52" id="Page_52"></a></p> + +<p>"Good!" cried Mr. Pertell. "We'll try something of that sort. I'm +glad you mentioned it."</p> + +<p>"Gosh!" exclaimed Sandy, admiringly. "You fellers would make a +picture out of anything, I guess."</p> + +<p>"That's what we would!" laughed Mr. Pertell.</p> + +<p>They came back from the unsuccessful man hunt, and soon quiet settled +down over Oak Farm.</p> + +<p>"I only wish I could help them," mused Mr. Pertell as he retired. Yet +he was destined to help them, and in a most surprising manner.</p> + +<p>Yielding to the wish of Sandy, Paul and the manager said nothing the +next morning of the chase after the man.</p> + +<p>"It might only worry pa and ma," said the kind-hearted but +simple-minded young farmer. "And they've got troubles enough as it +is."</p> + +<p>"They certainly have," agreed Mr. Pertell. "Nothing was disturbed +last night, though; was there?"</p> + +<p>"No, all th' hens seem to be around. I can't imagine who that fellow +was. He must have had a guilty conscience, or he wouldn't have run +when I hailed him," Sandy said.</p> + +<p>The day was given over, on the part of the manager and Russ, to +selecting the most favorable spots for the taking of scenes in the +rural <a name="Page_53" id="Page_53"></a>dramas. A good background, and places where the lighting +effects would be proper for exposing the films, were essentials. Some +scenes were to be laid in the village proper, and when the moving +picture manager and his photographer went about, making notes of +likely spots, they were watched curiously by the village loungers.</p> + +<p>Mr. Pertell paid a visit to Squire Blasdell in reference to getting +permission to burn the old barn on the Apgar place.</p> + +<p>"Well, you can do it if you pay me my price," said the crabbed man, +who was a local judge and lawyer, acting for several clients.</p> + +<p>The price was sufficiently high, Mr. Pertell thought, but he had no +choice.</p> + +<p>"That's a valuable barn!" said the squire.</p> + +<p>"It's only fit for kindling wood," protested the manager. "And that's +what I propose to use it for."</p> + +<p>"Well, it's a sin to burn down a building like that," went on the +squire. "But this is a queer world, anyhow. And I want my money in +advance."</p> + +<p>He was so unpleasant about the matter that, after arranging for the +destruction of the barn, Mr. Pertell left without carrying out his +half-formed resolution of asking for more time for the payment of the +Apgar mortgage.<a name="Page_54" id="Page_54"></a></p> + +<p>"I'd better try to find some other way of helping them," thought the +manager. "If I said they were in hard circumstances the squire might +get suspicious and foreclose at once. Then I would have to take my +company away, and I couldn't get the rural dramas. No, I'll wait a +while. But I would like to help Sandy and his folks."</p> + +<p>During the two days that Mr. Pertell and Russ were mapping out the +locations of the various scenes for the plays, the others of the +company were becoming familiar with Oak Farm, and the delightfully +quaint house where they were to remain all summer.</p> + +<p>There were many little nooks where one could spend a quiet hour with +a book, and there was good fishing in the stream that, in times past, +had furnished power for the old grist mill. The mill was now in +ruins, but it was very picturesque, and Mr. Pertell planned to make +it the scene of several little plays.</p> + +<p>Three days after the arrival at Oak Farm, matters were in readiness +for filming the first play. It was a simple little drama, concerning +a country girl and boy, and Alice and Paul Ardite were the chief +characters.</p> + +<p>This was something of a blow to Miss Laura Dixon, who had counted on +being with Paul in the play. Miss Dixon rather liked Paul, but since +<a name="Page_55" id="Page_55"></a>the advent of Alice he had become more and more interested in the +latter.</p> + +<p>"I don't care!" exclaimed Miss Dixon, as she flounced into the room +she shared with Miss Pennington. "I'm not going to stay with this +company any more, with those two amateurs taking all the best parts."</p> + +<p>"It is a shame," agreed Miss Pennington. "I just can't bear that Ruth +DeVere, with her blue eyes. She can use them very effectively, too."</p> + +<p>"Indeed she can! What do you say if we look for another engagement? I +just hate the country."</p> + +<p>"So do I, with all the bugs and things. But, really, I can't go. I +got Mr. Pertell to give me an advance on my salary, and I can't leave +him now. Besides, other places aren't so easy to get. Look here," and +she held out a copy of a dramatic paper which contained an unusual +number of "cards" of performers who were "at liberty." That is, they +had no work, but were anxious for some.</p> + +<p>"Summer is a bad time for quitting a sure place," went on Miss +Pennington. "We'll just have to stick, Laura."</p> + +<p>"I suppose so. But I can't bear those two girls!"</p> + +<p>"Neither can I!"<a name="Page_56" id="Page_56"></a></p> + +<p>But Alice and Ruth concerned themselves very little with their +jealous rivals, though they were aware of the feeling against them. +Alice and Paul acquitted themselves well in the little play.</p> + +<p>There was only one difficulty—Mr. Bunn, as usual.</p> + +<p>He and Mr. Sneed had been cast as farm hands to fill in the +background of the play. When the former Shakespearean player learned +that he was to wear overalls and carry a hoe over his shoulder, he +rebelled.</p> + +<p>"What! I play that character?" he cried. "A clod—a country bumpkin? +Never! I will go back to New York first!"</p> + +<p>"Very well; go!" exclaimed Mr. Pertell, who occasionally became +exasperated over the actor's objections. "Only don't come back +looking for an engagement with this company."</p> + +<p>Wellington Bunn, striking a tragic attitude, was silent a moment. +Then he said, very quietly:</p> + +<p>"Where is that hoe?"</p> + +<p>With Mr. Sneed it was different. He did not so much care what +character he played, but he was always "looking for trouble." Even in +the simple character of a country farmer he was apprehensive.</p> + +<p>"I don't know how to use a hoe," he protested.<a name="Page_57" id="Page_57"></a> "I'm sure to do the +wrong thing with it. I know something will happen!"</p> + +<p>"How can something happen?" asked Mr. Pertell. "All you have to do is +to stand in a row of corn, and dig up the dirt with the hoe. You're +only in the scene about two minutes. Surely you can hill corn!"</p> + +<p>"I never did it."</p> + +<p>"I'll show you," offered Sandy, good-naturedly.</p> + +<p>"Say!" cried Russ, "why not put Sandy in the picture, too?"</p> + +<p>"Good idea!" exclaimed Mr. Pertell. "Sandy, get a hoe!"</p> + +<p>"What! Me in movin' pictures? Why, I never acted in my life."</p> + +<p>"So much the better. You'll be all the more natural!" said the +manager. "Get in the focus, Sandy!"</p> + +<p>And the young farmer did. The scene seemed to be going very well, and +Paul and Alice in the rôle of country sweethearts made an effective +picture in the green cornfield.</p> + +<p>In the background Mr. Bunn, Mr. Sneed and Sandy were industriously +hoeing corn. Suddenly the "grouchy" actor dropped his hoe, and +pulling up one foot so that he could hold it in his hands, he cried +out:<a name="Page_58" id="Page_58"></a></p> + +<p>"There! I knew something would happen! I cut my foot with that old +hoe!"</p> + +<p>"Cut that out, Russ!" called the manager, sharply. "We don't want +that in the scene."</p> + +<p>"I stopped the camera," answered the operator.</p> + +<p>An examination disclosed the fact that Mr. Sneed was not hurt at all. +His shoe had not even been cut by the hoe, which had slipped off a +stone because of his clumsiness.</p> + +<p>"Go on with the play," ordered Mr. Pertell. "And let's have no more +nonsense."</p> + +<p>Paul and Alice resumed their places. They assumed as nearly as +possible the pose they had when the break occurred. Russ began to +turn the handle of the camera. Sandy had to be excused for a time to +look after some farm work.</p> + +<p>Later, when the pictures would be developed and printed, enough of +the film could be cut out so that the audience, looking at the +screen, would know nothing of what had occurred.</p> + +<p>There are many trick pictures made, and many times little accidents +occur in filming a play. But by the judicious use of the knife, and +the fitting together of the severed film, all pictures not wanted are +eliminated.</p> + +<p>In the case of trick pictures, or when some accident scene is shown, +the camera takes views <a name="Page_59" id="Page_59"></a>up to a certain point with real persons +posing before it. Then the mechanism is stopped, "dummies" are +substituted for real personages, and the taking of the film goes on. +So the little "break" caused by Mr. Sneed could be covered up.</p> + +<p>"But I knew something would happen," he said. "That hoodoo of coming +out on track thirteen is still after us," and he limped along the row +of corn.</p> + +<p>The scene was almost over, when a movement was observed amid the +waving stalks, back of where Paul and Alice were posing.</p> + +<p>"Who's that!" cried Mr. Pertell, sharply, from his place beside Russ +at the camera. "Keep back, whoever you are. Don't get into the +picture—you'll spoil it."</p> + +<p>An instant later there was a bellow, as of a score of automobile +horns, and an immense black bull came rushing through the corn, +heading directly for Paul and Alice.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" screamed Alice, as Paul caught her in his arms.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII" ></a><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>THE PLAY OF THE HOSE</h3> + + +<p>"Russ! Daddy! Somebody save Alice!" cried Ruth, from her place near +the young moving picture operator. "Can't someone do something?"</p> + +<p>"Get a pitchfork!"</p> + +<p>"Go at him with those hoes!"</p> + +<p>"Throw stones at him!"</p> + +<p>This was some of the advice from the others of the moving picture +company, as they stood grouped back of the camera, where they had +been watching the filming of the last scene in the little drama.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, of course, Russ had stopped the camera, for he did not +want to include the bull in the picture, no provision having been +made for the creature by the author who furnished the "scenario," or +"screed."</p> + +<p>The animal had "butted into" the scene in a most uncalled-for manner, +and now was butting its massive head against the frail green stalks +of <a name="Page_61" id="Page_61"></a>corn, knocking them aside, pawing the dirt and shaking its head +at the frightened players.</p> + +<p>For a moment, after their first outcries, the players were silent. +Alice, who had shown just the least inclination to faint, now stood +upright again, and with a vivid blush, released herself from Paul's +arms.</p> + +<p>"I—I'm all right now," she said, softly, straightening out her +shirtwaist.</p> + +<p>"You won't be if that bull comes for us," he answered. "Here, get +behind me. I'll see if I can scare him off."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no! Don't!" she begged. "That might make him worse. See, he is +quiet now."</p> + +<p>And indeed the animal had not moved much beyond the spot where he had +broken through the rows of corn to interrupt the moving pictures.</p> + +<p>"Something's got to be done," said Mr. Pertell, in a quiet voice. "I +think it will be best if none of you moves. Keep your places, and +I'll see if I can't slide out back of Russ, and get help—or at least +a weapon to drive the bull away. A fence rail would do. Russ, stand +still. You make a good screen for me now, and the bull can't see me. +He may make a jump if he sees any of us moving. Such creatures often +do, I understand."</p> + +<p>It seemed the best plan to follow, but there was no need of trying +it, for at that instant Sandy<a name="Page_62" id="Page_62"></a> Apgar, who had returned, and who had +heard the cries, came bursting in on the scene.</p> + +<p>For a moment, at seeing this new figure, and supposing, perhaps, that +it was a more active enemy than the others, the bull made as if to +leap forward, with lowered horns. But, fortunately, the young farmer +had an effective weapon in a pitchfork. Its sharp tines Sandy held +toward the bull, pricking the creature slightly. This was too much +for the beast, and with a bellow of pain, instead of rage, as before, +he turned, and with drooping tail crashed his way through the corn, +as he had come.</p> + +<p>"Pesky gritter!" exclaimed Mr. Switzer, in his strong German accent. +"He nearly gafe me heart disease. Feel how he thumps inside my west," +he appealed to Mr. Sneed.</p> + +<p>"Ha! What do I care about your heart!" exclaimed the "grouch," +inconsiderately. "My foot will be lame for a week where I hit it. +This is getting worse and worse—I suppose you'll be turning wild +tigers and lions loose on us next!" he cried in a highly aggrieved +tone to Mr. Pertell.</p> + +<p>"This wasn't my fault," said the manager. "I did not invite the bull +here."</p> + +<p>"No, I guess nobody did," laughed Sandy. "But I hope he didn't hurt +any of you."<a name="Page_63" id="Page_63"></a></p> + +<p>"No, he only scared us," said Ruth, who had gone to the side of her +sister.</p> + +<p>"I can't understand how he got out," went on the young farmer. "He's +kept in a field with a strong fence, and th' gate is always locked. +Th' hired man knows better than to let him out, too."</p> + +<p>"It might be a good idea to see that he is put back in his +enclosure," suggested Mr. DeVere. "I'm sure we'll all feel safer if +we know he isn't roaming about the place when we pose for more +pictures."</p> + +<p>"Indeed we will," agreed Mr. Pertell. "I can see you all looking +around nervously, instead of paying attention to the play, if that +bull isn't locked up."</p> + +<p>"I'll attend to it right away," promised Sandy. "He's dangerous +enough, but he's afraid of this pitchfork. I can always manage him +with that. I'll go see how he got out. I don't understand it."</p> + +<p>"I'll go with you," volunteered Russ. "We'll have to make the last +bit of this scene over," he went on, to Mr. Pertell.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I suppose so," agreed the manager.</p> + +<p>"And they'll want a little time to get over the scare so they can +pose properly," went on Russ, nodding at Alice and Paul, who, as well +as the others who filled in the background of the picture, were +somewhat disturbed.<a name="Page_64" id="Page_64"></a></p> + +<p>"Yes, it will be just as well to take a breathing space," said Mr. +Pertell. "But don't run into danger, Russ. We've got lots of plays +yet to film."</p> + +<p>"I won't," laughed the young operator, and as he went off after +Sandy, Ruth gazed after him with rather anxious eyes.</p> + +<p>"I knew something like this would happen!" exclaimed Mr. Sneed, +gloomily. "That track thirteen——"</p> + +<p>"Say, if you don't drop that you can look for another place!" cried +the manager, sharply. "Everything that happens you blame on that +silly superstition."</p> + +<p>"And things aren't done happening yet, either," went on the "grouchy" +actor, but he took care not to let the manager hear him.</p> + +<p>"To what low estate have I fallen!" soliloquized Wellington Bunn, +wiping his heated brow. He was wearing a slouch hat, instead of his +beloved silk one, and was attired in shabby garments, as befitted his +character of a farmhand. "The idea of a man who has played the +immortal Shakespearean characters falling so low as to consort with +wild bulls. Ah, it is pitiful—pitiful!" he murmured.</p> + +<p>"You didn't consort mit dat bull very much!" put in Mr. Switzer, with +a cheerful laugh. "I <a name="Page_65" id="Page_65"></a>saw you trying to git behint a corn stalk, to +consort mit 'im alretty yet!"</p> + +<p>"Certainly, I did not wish to be trampled on," replied Mr. Bunn, with +dignity—that is, with as much dignity as he could muster under the +circumstances. "Oh, to what low estate have I fallen! A mere country +bumpkin—I, who once played Hamlet!"</p> + +<p>The others were recovering their spirits, now that the danger was +over. Sandy and Russ followed the trail of the bull through the corn, +and soon they had him before the gate of his own enclosure.</p> + +<p>"That gate is open!" exclaimed the young farmer. "I don't see how it +happened. There is something wrong here."</p> + +<p>The bull was driven in, and then an examination disclosed the fact +that the lock of the gate had been broken; by a stone, evidently, for +a shattered rock lay on the ground nearby.</p> + +<p>"This is strange," murmured Sandy. "Someone has done this on purpose, +I don't like it—after what happened the other night."</p> + +<p>"What was that?" asked Russ.</p> + +<p>"Why, Mr. Pertell and I saw a suspicious-looking man out in the road, +and we chased him," and he told of the circumstance.</p> + +<p>"And you think he broke this lock to let the <a name="Page_66" id="Page_66"></a>bull out?" asked the +moving picture operator.</p> + +<p>"Well, he might have, but I can't think what his object would be, +unless he wanted to spoil some of your moving pictures. Have you got +any enemies?"</p> + +<p>Russ thought of Simp Wolley and Bud Briskett, who had tried to get +his invention, as told in the preceding volume, "The Moving Picture +Girls," but they were in jail, as far as he knew. Clearly there was +some mystery here, but it was not to be solved at once.</p> + +<p>The gate was made as secure as possible, and Sandy said he would get +a new lock that day.</p> + +<p>"I reckon you folks don't want old Nero buttin' in on you again," he +said to Russ.</p> + +<p>"Indeed we don't!" answered the young operator. He was puzzled over +Sandy's suggestion as to whether or not some enemy had loosed the +dangerous animal.</p> + +<p>A little later the end of the interrupted scene was filmed again, and +then the actors and actresses were at liberty for the rest of the +day.</p> + +<p>"I declare, Laura!" exclaimed Miss Pennington, "I'm so nervous about +that bull that I don't want any more farm plays."</p> + +<p>"Me, either," returned her chum. "But really, the summer is a bad +time to change. I think we'll have to stay with Mr. Pertell; but I +can't bear <a name="Page_67" id="Page_67"></a>this company since those DeVere girls came in."</p> + +<p>"Nor can I. They give themselves such airs!"</p> + +<p>Which was manifestly unfair to Ruth and Alice, but neither Miss +Pennington nor Miss Dixon was over-burdened with fairness.</p> + +<p>At first Russ had an idea of speaking to Mr. DeVere about Sandy's +theory concerning who might have let loose the bull; but, on second +thoughts, he decided not to. The actor had not been so well of late, +his voice troubling him considerably, though he managed to go through +his parts with credit.</p> + +<p>"I'd tell Ruth or Alice," reflected Russ, "only I don't like to +bother them. They helped me save my patent, and they know how to do +things in an emergency. But I guess I'll wait."</p> + +<p>For the next day Mr. Pertell had planned a little drama which gave +Mr. Bunn a chance to appear in his favorite roles—some Shakespearean +characters. The plot, or at least the first part of it, had to do +with Mr. Bunn coming up to the farmhouse in a frock coat, and his +favorite tall hat. He was to assume the character of a theatrical +man, who, after obtaining board at a country home, fell in love with +the daughter of the house through teaching her some roles from +Shakespeare's plays, several characters of which Mr. Bunn himself was +to assume.<a name="Page_68" id="Page_68"></a></p> + +<p>All was ready for the first part of the play, and Russ began filming +the initial scene, where the actor comes up the gravel walk leading +to the Apgar farmhouse. Mr. Bunn had given his silk hat an extra +brushing, and it glistened bravely in the sun. To make the scene +contain a little more life, Mr. Pertell had stationed Mr. Switzer at +one of the front flower beds, with a garden hose to spray the blooms.</p> + +<p>Up the walk came the actor, grave and dignified. Russ was grinding +away at the handle of the moving picture camera.</p> + +<p>Suddenly a dog wormed his way in under the hedge from the road, and, +probably meaning no mischief, ran for Mr. Switzer, barking joyously, +and leaping about.</p> + +<p>"Hi dere! Look out, you! Don't you nip my legs!" cried the German. He +sprang to one side, and, naturally, forgot all about the spurting +hose he held.</p> + +<p>In an instant the stream was directed full at Mr. Bunn, deluging him +with water, which descended in a shower on his precious silk hat, the +drops falling from the brim copiously.</p> + +<p>"Here! What—what do you mean? You—you——" began the Shakespearean +actor, and then his words were muffled, for the stream from the hose +struck him full in the mouth!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII" ></a><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>IN THE OLD BARN</h3> + + +<p>"Quick, Russ! Get that!" cried Mr. Pertell, with a laugh. "Don't miss +a single motion."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean it?" cried the astonished operator. He had ceased, for a +moment, to grind on the handle, for he supposed the scene was +spoiled.</p> + +<p>"Surely I mean it!" cried the manager. "I'll change this and make a +comic film of it. Go on, Switzer. Soak him some more! Use that hose +for all its worth!"</p> + +<p>"Vot! You means dot I vet him all ofer?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly I do. Wet him well!"</p> + +<p>"I—I protest! I shall not permit——" began Wellington Bunn, but +again he was silenced by the volume of water in his mouth. He waved +his arms about wildly. He took off his silk hat, probably intending +to protect it, but Mr. Switzer had now fully entered into the spirit +of the affair, and sent a stream into the hat, filling it as he would +a pail.<a name="Page_70" id="Page_70"></a></p> + +<p>"Oh, this is awful! This is terrible! I must protest——"</p> + +<p>Swish! went the water into his mouth again, and his protest was +silenced.</p> + +<p>"Go on!" encouraged Mr. Pertell. "This is great! This will make a +fine comic film. Soak him thoroughly, Switzer."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yah! Sure, I soak him goot!"</p> + +<p>"And you, Mr. Bunn! Don't get so far over. You'll get out of range of +the camera. Can you film him, Russ?"</p> + +<p>"Surely. I'm getting every bit of it."</p> + +<p>"That's right! We need every move. A little more life in it, Mr. +Bunn! Act as though you didn't like to be soaked!"</p> + +<p>"Like it! Of course I don't like it!" cried the actor. "I—hate it! +And my hat—my silk hat——"</p> + +<p>Again the relentless stream of water stopped him.</p> + +<p>"I'll buy you a new hat!" promised Mr. Pertell, choking with +laughter. "This is worth it! Lively, Mr. Bunn! Jump around a little. +Switzer, don't miss him, but don't wet the camera. And that dog! Get +him in it, too!"</p> + +<p>"Vot! Maybe he bites my legs yet already!" objected the German. "I +likes not dot beast! Und my legs——"<a name="Page_71" id="Page_71"></a></p> + +<p>"Oh, I'll get a doctor if he bites you!" promised the manager. "See +him get into the action! This will be a great picture. I'll have to +get a story that it will fit in."</p> + +<p>But at last even the enthusiastic manager was satisfied with the +water scene, and he allowed the almost exhausted Mr. Bunn a rest.</p> + +<p>"Look at me—look at me!" groaned the actor, as he gazed down at his +suit, which dripped water at every point.</p> + +<p>"Wait now; don't go away!" objected Mr. Pertell. "I want to get you +in another scene now. Come around to the barn."</p> + +<p>"What! Film me in this water-soaked suit!" protested Mr. Bunn.</p> + +<p>"Certainly. I am going to make a whole reel of you."</p> + +<p>"But my hat! Look at my hat! Ruined! Utterly ruined!"</p> + +<p>"All the better. I want you in the character of a broken-down actor +now, and you wouldn't look the part with a new and shiny tile. Put a +couple of dents in it, Mr. Bunn!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, you are heartless! Heartless!" cried the actor, as he completed +the demolition of his cherished headpiece.</p> + +<p>"Isn't it killing, Ruth?" asked Alice, who had come out with her +sister to see the fun.<a name="Page_72" id="Page_72"></a></p> + +<p>"Funny, yes. But I feel rather sorry for Mr. Bunn."</p> + +<p>"Oh, he's getting paid for it. And it's so warm to-day that I almost +wish Mr. Switzer would turn the hose on me!"</p> + +<p>"Alice DeVere!"</p> + +<p>"Well, I do! It is very warm. It must be terrible in the city. Come +on out to the barn, and let's see what the next act will be."</p> + +<p>The next scene, which Mr. Pertell had thought of on the spur of the +moment, required Mr. Bunn to fall into the horse trough, and the +actor, after strenuously objecting, finally yielded. He fell into the +big hollowed-out log that served to hold the water for the farm +animals, making a mighty splash as the camera clicked.</p> + +<p>Then came other scenes that, later, would be added to and made into a +short reel of "comics." Horse-play though it was, the manager knew +that it would at least round out a program, and cause roars of +delight from the children, who must be catered to as well as the +grown-ups.</p> + +<p>"Well, I think that will do for the time being," said Mr. Pertell at +length. "You may go and get dry, Mr. Bunn, and, later, we will film +the original play, where you come to the farmhouse and do the +Shakespearean scenes."</p> + +<p>"That will be a relief from this buffoonery,"<a name="Page_73" id="Page_73"></a> remarked the actor. +"But how am I to do it in—this?" and he held out the silk hat, now +much the worse for what it had gone through.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'll supply a new hat. Trot along and get dried out. I guess +you'll have to have your suit pressed. Possibly there is a tailor in +the village."</p> + +<p>Mr. Bunn went off by himself, rather sulkily. Mr. Switzer was in high +good humor at the fun he had had with the hose.</p> + +<p>"Good joke!" laughed Paul. Then he made his way to the side of Alice, +and made an engagement to walk to the village with her that evening.</p> + +<p>"This is the barn I intend to burn in one of our big rural plays," +said Mr. Pertell to Mr. DeVere, who, with his daughters, had strolled +out to the ancient structure.</p> + +<p>"What sort of a scene will it be a part of?" asked the actor.</p> + +<p>"A rescue. One of the young ladies—or possibly two of them—will be +saved from the burning barn. The play is not completed yet, but I +have that much of it worked out. Let us look at the interior and see +how it is suited to our needs."</p> + +<p>As the little party entered they heard, off in one corner, a noise as +though someone was running across the sagging floor, which contained +many loose boards.<a name="Page_74" id="Page_74"></a></p> + +<p>"Who is there?" called Mr. Pertell, suddenly, while Ruth and Alice +drew back, close to the side of their father.</p> + +<p>There was no answer.</p> + +<p>"I'm sure I heard someone," said Mr. Pertell.</p> + +<p>"So did I," agreed Alice. "Perhaps it was a cow or a horse."</p> + +<p>"No, the old barn is not in use," returned the manager. "I think we +had better tell Sandy——"</p> + +<p>"What is it you want to tell me?" asked the young farmer himself, as +he appeared in the doorway.</p> + +<p>"We heard someone in the barn," explained the manager. "We were +looking at it, to get ready for our moving picture play, and we +evidently surprised someone. Does anyone stay here?"</p> + +<p>"No, and I've told the hired men to keep out, for I thought maybe +they might disturb something, and spoil it for you."</p> + +<p>"And no animals are in here; are they?" asked Mr. DeVere.</p> + +<p>"No, not a one," replied Sandy.</p> + +<p>"But I heard someone!" declared Mr. Pertell. "Hark! There is the +sound again!" he cried, and they all heard a noise as of a heavy body +falling.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX" ></a><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>THE RESCUE</h3> + + +<p>"Over this way!" cried Mr. Pertell, making a leap toward a distant +corner of the barn, which was in deep shadow. "The noise was over +there."</p> + +<p>"I think it was there," exclaimed Sandy, pointing toward the opposite +corner.</p> + +<p>"Come, girls, I think you had better go out," suggested Mr. DeVere to +his daughters. "There may be trouble."</p> + +<p>"I'd like to see it," said Alice, with a laugh.</p> + +<p>"Oh, how can you?" exclaimed Ruth. "Come away, dear!"</p> + +<p>"Well, I suppose I've got to," and Alice actually sighed. Her "bump +of curiosity" was very well developed.</p> + +<p>Following each his own belief as to where the noise had come from, +Mr. Pertell went to one corner, and Sandy to the other. Mr. DeVere +took his daughters outside, and bade them go on toward the house.<a name="Page_76" id="Page_76"></a></p> + +<p>"But where are you going, Daddy?" asked Alice, as he turned back.</p> + +<p>"They may need help," he replied.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I wish we could go!" pleaded Alice. "At least let us stay here +and watch!"</p> + +<p>"Well, not too near," conceded her father.</p> + +<p>But it seemed that the search for the cause of the mysterious noise +was to be fruitless. Neither Mr. Pertell nor Sandy could find any +person or creature, though they looked thoroughly. There were many +nooks and crannies in the old structure, for in its day it had been +the main barn on the farm. But it had fallen into decay and others +had been built.</p> + +<p>There were harness rooms, oat and feed bins, a small room where the +former owner had done his "tinkering and odd jobs," and many other +places where someone might have hidden. But no one could be found. No +farm animal had made the noise, that was evident, for Sandy could +account for all the larger stock on the place, and it must have been +a body of considerable size the fall of which had startled them.</p> + +<p>"Could it have been bats flying about?" asked Mr. DeVere.</p> + +<p>"No bat was heavy enough to make that racket," said Sandy, "though +there are bats in here. I don't know what it could have been."<a name="Page_77" id="Page_77"></a></p> + +<p>"A tramp, perhaps," suggested Mr. Pertell.</p> + +<p>"It might have been," admitted the young farmer, as he thought of the +smashed lock on the bull's enclosure. "We sometimes have them fellers +to bother us; but not so much in summer. They're afraid of bein' put +to work."</p> + +<p>The three men made a more thorough search of the barn, but could find +nothing that looked suspicious.</p> + +<p>"Whoever it was must either be here yet, in hiding, or else they got +away while we were looking around," said Mr. Pertell. "Unless you +believe in ghosts, Sandy."</p> + +<p>"Nope. Not a ghost do I believe in. And I hope this won't spoil the +barn for you folks to get your pictures from."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, it takes more than a noise to scare a theatrical troupe," +laughed the manager. "Well, we'll have to give it up, I suppose."</p> + +<p>There seemed to be nothing else to do, and the party returned to the +house, the girls joining them on the way back.</p> + +<p>"After all, it might have been some loose board, or plank, falling +down. The place is nigh tumblin' t' pieces," declared Sandy. "But +I'll keep a watch around. I don't want any tramps on this place."</p> + +<p>"I might use one in a moving picture," said<a name="Page_78" id="Page_78"></a> Mr. Pertell, musingly. +What he could not use in a moving picture film was small indeed. "I +believe that would make a good scene," he went on. "A tramp comes to +beg at the farmhouse. He is told that he must saw a lot of wood, or +do something like that. Then, let me see—yes, I'll have him eat +first, and then refuse to saw the wood. He thinks the lady of the +house is home alone. But he makes a mistake, for she proves to be one +who has taken physical culture lessons, and she is a match for the +tramp. She stands over him until he saws all the wood.</p> + +<p>"That ought to go. I'll cast Mrs. Maguire for the strenuous lady, and +Mr. Sneed can be the tramp. He has a sour enough face. That's what +I'll do!"</p> + +<p>"I can just imagine Mr. Sneed in that rôle," said Alice to Ruth, with +a laugh. "He won't like that a bit!"</p> + +<p>"I suppose not. Still, we have to do many things in this moving +picture business that we don't like."</p> + +<p>"I like every bit of it!" Alice declared. "I think it's all fun!"</p> + +<p>"I wish I had your happy way of looking at things!" sighed Ruth. "It +is a great help in getting through life."</p> + +<p>"Why don't you practice it?" Alice asked.<a name="Page_79" id="Page_79"></a> "It's easy, once you +start. There are so many funny things in this world."</p> + +<p>"And so many sad ones!"</p> + +<p>"Bosh!" laughed Alice. "Excuse my slang, sister mine, but you ought +to read fewer of those romantic stories, and more joke books. Oh, +there goes Paul, and with a fish pole, too. I'm going with him!"</p> + +<p>"He hasn't asked you!"</p> + +<p>"What of it? I know he'll be glad to have me. Oh, here comes Laura +Dixon after him. I'm going to get there first. Paul! Paul!" Alice +called, "can't I go fishing, too?"</p> + +<p>"Of course!" he cried, his face lighting up with pleasure. "Come +along. I've got an extra line and hooks in my pocket, and we can cut +a pole along the stream. Come along."</p> + +<p>He did not see Miss Dixon, who was behind him, but she saw Alice and +heard what was said. For a minute she paused, and then, with a rather +vindictive look on her face, turned back.</p> + +<p>"Alice!" called Ruth, "I'm not sure father would want you to go. It +is getting near supper time."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you tell him I just had to go, Ruth dear!"</p> + +<p>Mr. DeVere, with Sandy and Mr. Pertell, had gone on ahead.</p> + +<p>Ruth shrugged her shoulders. There was little <a name="Page_80" id="Page_80"></a>she could do with +Alice, once the younger girl had set her mind on anything. And, +really, there was no harm in going fishing with Paul. The favorite +spot was not far from the farmhouse, and within view of it.</p> + +<p>"It's fine of you to come!" said Paul, as he walked along over the +meadow with the laughing, brown-eyed girl. "I'm sure we'll have good +luck."</p> + +<p>"I'm never very lucky at fishing," said Alice. "But I'll watch you."</p> + +<p>"No, you've got to fish, too. I'll cut you a light pole."</p> + +<p>"And will you bait my hook—I don't like to do that."</p> + +<p>"Surely I will."</p> + +<p>They walked on, chatting of many things, and as they reached the +fishing hole—a deep eddy on the overhanging bank of which they could +sit—they saw Russ Dalwood, with his camera, going along the opposite +bank.</p> + +<p>"What are you doing?" called Paul.</p> + +<p>"Oh, just getting some odd scenes here and there of farm work. Mr. +Pertell wants to work them into some of the plays. There are some men +spraying a potato patch over in the next field, to get rid of the +bugs. I'm going to make a scene of that."</p> + +<p>"All right. Good luck!" called Alice, pleas<a name="Page_81" id="Page_81"></a>antly. "And, if you like, +you can take a fishing scene. Paul and I are going to catch some for +supper."</p> + +<p>"All right, I'll film you on the way back," laughed Russ.</p> + +<p>It was a pleasant summer afternoon, and the bank where Alice and Paul +took their places was bathed in the golden light of the setting sun.</p> + +<p>"The fish ought to bite well to-day," observed Paul, when he had +"rigged up" an outfit for Alice.</p> + +<p>"Why is to-day better than any other day?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Because the wind is right. 'When the wind's in the west, the fish +bite best,' is an old saying. Sandy reminded me of it when I started +out to-day."</p> + +<p>They tossed in their hooks, and then waited. The water a little way +below the eddy flowed over white stones, flecked here and there with +green moss. The stream made a pleasant sound, and formed an +accompaniment to the songs of the birds which flitted in and out of +the willow trees that lined the stream.</p> + +<p>At the foot of the bank, on which sat the two fishers, ran the deep +eddy, silent, and whirling about in a circular motion, caused by the +impact of the brook against the shore, the waters being <a name="Page_82" id="Page_82"></a>forced back +on themselves. It was a quiet, and rather still pool, and was reputed +to contain many fine, large fish.</p> + +<p>"I—I think I have a nibble," whispered Alice.</p> + +<p>"Be careful—don't jerk up too soon," warned Paul. "Yes, there is one +after your bait. See your cork float bob up and down."</p> + +<p>"Does that show he's sampling it?"</p> + +<p>"Something of that sort, yes. Now, pull in!"</p> + +<p>Alice was a bit slow about it, for she had not fished much. Paul, +fearing the fish would get away, reached over toward her, and took +hold of the pole himself.</p> + +<p>As he did so he felt the part of the shelving bank on which they were +sitting give away.</p> + +<p>"Look out! Throw yourself back!" he cried to Alice. But it was too +late, and the next instant they both found themselves sliding down in +a little avalanche of earth and stones—into the deep eddy.</p> + +<p>"Hold your breath!" Alice heard Paul cry as a last direction, and she +obeyed.</p> + +<p>The next instant she felt herself in the water, and it closed over +her head.</p> + +<p>Alice could swim, and, after the plunge into the stream, she did not +lose her head. She knew she would come up in a second, even though +hampered by her clothes. Her only fear was lest she <a name="Page_83" id="Page_83"></a>be entangled in +the fish-line. And in another second she knew this was the case. She +could feel her feet bound together. But her hands were free, and she +had seen expert swimmers make their way through the water with their +feet purposely bound.</p> + +<p>She struck out with her hands, and found herself rising. Her lungs +seemed ready to burst for want of air, for she had not had time to +take a full breath.</p> + +<p>Then her head shot up out of water, and she could breathe. She shook +her head to get the water from her eyes, and saw Paul striking out +toward her.</p> + +<p>"I'll get you!" he cried, and then he uttered an exclamation of +horror, for a log of wood, coming down stream, struck Alice on the +head, and all grew black before her.</p> + +<p>She felt herself sinking again, and tried to strike out to keep her +head above the water, but it seemed impossible. Then she felt herself +grasped in a strong arm, and she realized that Paul had come to her +rescue.</p> + +<p>At the same moment she dimly heard, in her returning consciousness, a +voice crying something from the opposite shore.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X" ></a><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>THE BARN DANCE</h3> + + +<p>Alice fought back with all her strength the inclination to faint, and +forced her brain to compel her body to do its work. She did her best +to aid Paul in the rescue, but he was having a hard struggle. For +Alice was rather heavy, and her feet, entangled as they were with the +fish line, were of no aid. Then, too, the blow on her head had not +been a light one, though it developed later that her heavy hair had +prevented the log from bruising her.</p> + +<p>"I have you! Don't worry! I'll save you!" she could hear Paul +murmuring in her ear. Then her head cleared, and she was able to +recognize the voice and make out the words of someone on the opposite +bank, toward which Paul was swimming with his burden.</p> + +<p>For the voice was the voice of Russ Dalwood, and his words sounded +strangely enough under the circumstances.</p> + +<p>"That's it! Come right over here!" the young <a name="Page_85" id="Page_85"></a>moving picture operator +called. "I'm getting a dandy film! That's it, Paul, a little more to +the left! That's the finest rescue scene I ever got! It's great +acting!"</p> + +<p>"Why—why you—you don't mean to say you're <i>filming</i> us!" cried +Paul, for he was now in shallow water and could stand upright, +holding Alice in his arms.</p> + +<p>"Of course I'm filming you!" exclaimed Russ. "Do you think I'd let an +act like this get past me? Not much!" and he continued to grind away +at the crank of his machine, which he had hastily set up on the edge +of the stream, where he commanded a good view of those in the water.</p> + +<p>"But this isn't acting!" said Paul, ready to laugh, now that the +danger was over. "This is <i>real!</i> Alice fell in, and I went in after +her. It's the real thing!"</p> + +<p>"Great Scott!" cried Russ. "I thought you were rehearsing for some +play, and as I came along I thought I might as well get the scene, +even if it was only a rehearsal. For I had plenty of film left, and +sometimes the rehearsal comes out better than the real thing. And so +it was an accident?"</p> + +<p>"Of course it was," answered Paul. "But as long as you've got it on +the film I suppose there's no help for it."<a name="Page_86" id="Page_86"></a></p> + +<p>"It's a fine scene, all right," went on Russ, "and Mr. Pertell can +work it into some of his plays." He ceased operating the camera now, +as Paul and Alice were too close.</p> + +<p>"Are you much hurt?" asked the young rescuer, anxiously, as he looked +for a grassy spot whereon to place his burden.</p> + +<p>"No—no," returned Alice, "I was more frightened than hurt. Will you +please cut that line?" she asked, pointing to the tangle of the fish +cord around her feet.</p> + +<p>In an instant Paul had out his knife, and cut the string.</p> + +<p>"Well, you two are pretty wet," said Russ. "How did it happen?"</p> + +<p>"The bank gave way with us," explained Paul. "It's too bad, Alice. +That dress is spoiled, I'm afraid," he added, ruefully.</p> + +<p>"It doesn't matter," she answered. She could laugh now, but she could +not repress a shudder as she looked back at the deep water of the +eddy. They were on the other side of the stream now.</p> + +<p>"It was an old one, Paul," Alice went on, "and I can save it to do +some more water-scenes with. For probably, after Mr. Pertell hears +that Russ has the basis for a drama with someone in it being saved +from drowning, he'll want the <a name="Page_87" id="Page_87"></a>rest, and we may have to do some more +swimming."</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't mind in the least," he said; "but next time I hope, for +your own sake, you don't get entangled in a fish line."</p> + +<p>"That was pretty risky," said Russ. "But you two had better be +getting back to the farmhouse now, and into some dry things."</p> + +<p>"Indeed, yes," agreed Alice. "I'm sure I must look like a fright. +Papa will be so worried, and Ruth, too. I wish I could slip in the +back way so they wouldn't see me until I had time to change."</p> + +<p>"I'll manage it," spoke Russ. "I'll go on ahead, and if any of our +folks are in the back I'll bring them around to the front and hold +them there while you slip in. I guess, Paul, you don't care to be +seen in that rig; do you?"</p> + +<p>"I should say not! That water was certainly wet!"</p> + +<p>He had taken off his coat and was wringing it out, while Alice +managed to get some of the water from the lower part of her skirts.</p> + +<p>"Then you aren't going to swim back?" asked Russ.</p> + +<p>"I should say not!" exclaimed Paul, with energy. "Isn't there a +bridge somewhere around here, where we can cross?"<a name="Page_88" id="Page_88"></a></p> + +<p>"About half a mile down," answered Russ, "I came that way."</p> + +<p>"Are you sure you're all right, and able to walk, Alice?" Paul +inquired, anxiously. "If not, I could go for a carriage. That is, if +you will wait."</p> + +<p>"Of course I can walk," she answered, promptly, as she tried to +arrange her hair in some sort of order.</p> + +<p>"Don't worry about that," said Paul, quickly. "It looks nicer that +way."</p> + +<p>"As if I would believe that!" she challenged. "Well, if we're going, +let's go. Don't forget, Russ, what you promised about getting us in +the rear entrance. I wouldn't have Miss Pennington and Miss Dixon see +me this way for anything—I'd never hear the last of it!"</p> + +<p>"Does your head hurt?" asked Paul, coming closer to examine the spot +where the floating log had hit Alice.</p> + +<p>"Just a little," she admitted. "It's lucky, though, that my hair is +so thick."</p> + +<p>They set off, Paul and Alice following Russ, who went on ahead with +his moving picture camera.</p> + +<p>"I certainly have a fine film," he said, "but I don't believe I would +have taken it if I had known it was the real thing in the way of a +<a name="Page_89" id="Page_89"></a>rescue. I'd have jumped in and given a hand myself."</p> + +<p>"It was very good of you, Paul," murmured Alice, but when he looked +into her eyes she turned her own gaze away.</p> + +<p>"I—I wouldn't have missed the opportunity of saving you for—for +anything," he said, softly.</p> + +<p>On the way to the farmhouse, over the bridge and along the country +road, a few passing farmers turned to gaze curiously at the two +dripping figures, and one grizzled man, seeing the camera Russ +carried, and knowing moving picture actors were at Oak Farm, said, +loudly enough to be heard:</p> + +<p>"Wa'al, by hickory! Some folks is purtty hard put t' airn a livin' +now-a-days! Jumpin' in th' water t' have pictures made of 'em. G'lang +there!" and he drove on with his bony horse and ricketty wagon.</p> + +<p>"You see, he thought the same thing that I did," laughed Russ.</p> + +<p>The young moving picture operator was able to draw around to the +front of the farmhouse those of the theatrical company who were near +the rear, and he managed to keep them there until Paul and Alice had +a chance to slip in the side door, and get to their rooms unnoticed. +Ruth, <a name="Page_90" id="Page_90"></a>however, saw Alice, just as she entered the apartment they +shared.</p> + +<p>"Oh, my dear girl—you're all wet!" Ruth exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"You generally get that way when you fall into the water," remarked +Alice, calmly. Then she told of the accident.</p> + +<p>"Oh, what a narrow escape!" breathed Ruth, sinking into a chair. "You +quite frighten me!"</p> + +<p>"You need not be frightened—now—it's all over," and Alice was quite +cool about it.</p> + +<p>Nothing worse than a slight headache followed her experience in the +brook, but as much fuss was made over her, and as many kind inquiries +made, after the story became known, as though she had been seriously +injured.</p> + +<p>Mr. Pertell, after duly saying how sorry he was at the occurrence, +expressed his satisfaction over the fact that Russ had made a film of +the happening, and at once set to work to devise a plot and play in +which it would fit. As Alice had guessed, he had to have other water +scenes, and some in which a boat figured, and Paul and Alice were +called on again to go through some "stunts," on the mill stream. Thus +a pretty little play was made out of what had been an accident. And, +more often than once is that really done in the moving picture +world.<a name="Page_91" id="Page_91"></a></p> + +<p>Rather quiet days followed at Oak Farm. A number of rural plays were +acted and filmed, and word came back from New York, where the first +films had been sent for development and printing, that the reels were +most successful. The one where Mr. Bunn was wet with the hose was +particularly good, so said Mr. Pertell's agent.</p> + +<p>"But I'll never go through such a thing again," declared the +Shakespearean actor.</p> + +<p>The affairs of the Apgar family did not improve with time. Squire +Blasdell paid several visits to the farm, and one day, seeing Sandy +looking particularly gloomy, Ruth asked him what the trouble was.</p> + +<p>"The squire is gettin' ready to sell off the farm," he replied. "He's +goin' t' foreclose that mortgage. I've tried all the ways I know to +raise that four thousand dollars; but I can't!"</p> + +<p>"I wish we could help," said Ruth, sympathetically, as she thought of +the days of their own poverty, when everything seemed so black.</p> + +<p>"I don't reckon anyone can help us," said Sandy. "If only we could +find Uncle Isaac's money, and get what belongs to us, we'd be all +right; but I guess we can't."</p> + +<p>Preparations were under way for a barn dance, which was to be part of +a scene in one of the farm plays Mr. Pertell had planned. In order to +<a name="Page_92" id="Page_92"></a>make it as natural as possible a number of the country folk living +near Oak Farm had been asked to take part. Young and old were +invited, and all were delighted to come and "have their pictures +took." Thus the original theatrical company would be much augmented +on this occasion.</p> + +<p>The affair was to take place in the old barn, which, later, would be +burned in the great drama. And this barn was selected as the dance +was to take place at night. For this good illumination would be +needed, and special magnesium lamps were sent out from New York, to +be lighted inside the barn. In order to run no chances of burning one +of the good farm buildings the old one, which now practically +belonged to Mr. Pertell, was taken.</p> + +<p>"That barn dance will be fun," said Alice to Ruth, the evening on +which it was to take place. "There's going to be a country fiddler. +Come on out and let's look at the decorations. Sandy has hung up long +strings of unshelled ears of corn. It looks just like a real country +barn now, for he's moved some of his machinery into it, and there's +going to be a real cow there!"</p> + +<p>"Mercy, I'm not going to take part, then!" cried Ruth, nervously. +"I'm afraid of cows."</p> + +<p>"Silly! This one will be tied. And you've got one of the principal +parts. You're to dance <a name="Page_93" id="Page_93"></a>with the young son of the rich farmer, and +fall in love with him, and I'm to be the jealous one, and all that +sort of thing, you know."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know. Haven't I been studying my part for the last week? But +I know I'll never do that Virginia Reel right. Since we learned the +new dances I've forgotten all the old ones."</p> + +<p>The two sisters went out to the old structure, but it seemed +deserted. They looked in and saw how well Sandy had arranged it to +make an effective picture for the camera.</p> + +<p>"Come on," invited Alice, humming a tune.</p> + +<p>Ruth advanced toward her sister, to take a dancing position, when a +noise startled the girls. It was the same sort of noise they had +heard before, when their father, Mr. Pertell and Sandy had made an +unsuccessful attempt to learn the cause of it.</p> + +<p>"What's that?" gasped Ruth.</p> + +<p>"I—I don't know," whispered Alice. But she did know—it was that +same strange sound, as of a heavy body falling. And this time there +was a groan—the girls were sure of this.</p> + +<p>Without another word they ran out of the barn, hand in hand toward +the farmhouse, intending to give an alarm. And, as they got outside, +they saw, running off in the dusk, across the fields, a man who +limped as he sped onward.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI" ></a><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>THE RUNAWAY MOWING MACHINE</h3> + + +<p>"Look!" gasped Ruth.</p> + +<p>"It was that man—hiding in the barn! Who can he be?" asked Alice, +pausing a moment.</p> + +<p>"Don't stop! Come on!" commanded Ruth, in fear.</p> + +<p>"But we ought to see who it is," insisted the younger girl. "Or at +least watch where he goes. Sandy ought to know."</p> + +<p>"Well, we'll go tell him; but don't stand and watch that man. He +might do you some harm."</p> + +<p>"How could he—away off there; and he's running away, besides," spoke +Alice. "I think I would know him again. I had one glimpse of his +face, as he turned. It was a mean, cruel-looking face, too."</p> + +<p>"It wasn't one of those men who tried to get Russ's patent; was it?" +asked Ruth.</p> + +<p>"No, neither one of them was lame. And they are both locked up, I +think. This is some <a name="Page_95" id="Page_95"></a>other man. There, he's gone—at least I can't +see him any more."</p> + +<p>Either a depression in the field over which he was running, or some +hollow between hummocks, now hid the man from view. Then, too, night +was falling, and the shadows were dusky.</p> + +<p>"We had better go and give the alarm," said Ruth, pulling gently on +her sister's arm, to urge her forward. Together they hastened to the +house, where, pantingly, they told what they had seen and heard.</p> + +<p>"Some tramp, likely," said Sandy, as catching up a club he ran toward +the barn. Russ, Paul, and some of the other male members of the +theatrical company followed. Alice wanted to go also, but Ruth would +not let her.</p> + +<p>Nothing came of the search, however, though it was carried far +afield. The men came back soon.</p> + +<p>"Some tramp, sure," reaffirmed Sandy. "This part of th' country is +getting too thick with 'em. Something will have to be done. But I +don't see where he could have hidden himself. You say the noise was +just like the one you heard before?"</p> + +<p>"The same," answered Alice, "and it sounded in the same place—just +as if someone had fallen, and then came a groan."<a name="Page_96" id="Page_96"></a></p> + +<p>"Maybe the man did fall and hurt himself," suggested Ruth. "And that, +likely, was what made him limp."</p> + +<p>"Well, I wish he'd limp away from here and stay away," complained +Sandy. "I can't see, though, how he managed to hide himself in the +barn. There's something strange about that place."</p> + +<p>There was, but even Sandy had no suspicion of how very strange the +matter was connected with the old structure.</p> + +<p>"Oh dear!" exclaimed Ruth, when the chase for the man was over, "I'll +be afraid to go to that barn dance now."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense!" said Alice. "We'll all be there—and so will Russ," she +added with a sly laugh.</p> + +<p>"As if that made any difference!" answered Ruth, quickly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it <i>might</i>," and Alice seemed very innocent, but there was +laughter in her eyes.</p> + +<p>In spite of the fact that there were many men and boys at the barn +dance, Ruth could not help looking around nervously now and then +during the course of the little play, several scenes of which took +place in the old building. But there was no further alarm, and no +unbidden guests were discerned in the bright glare of the powerful +lights.<a name="Page_97" id="Page_97"></a></p> + +<p>The scenes went off very well, especially the dancing ones, but the +"city folks," as the farmer lads and lassies spoke of the members of +the theatrical company, were at rather a disadvantage when it came to +doing some of the old-fashioned dances. They had not practiced them +in years, particularly Miss Dixon and Miss Pennington.</p> + +<p>"The idea of doing the old waltz and two-step," complained Miss +Pennington. "It's like running a race."</p> + +<p>"Indeed it is, my dear," agreed her chum. "Why can't he let us do the +Boston Dip, at least; or the one-step glide. I hate the continuous +waltz."</p> + +<p>"So do I. Let's try it, when you and I dance together."</p> + +<p>"We will!"</p> + +<p>But Mr. Pertell, who was overseeing the carrying out of the barn +dance, at once cried sharply:</p> + +<p>"Hold on there with that camera, Russ! That won't do, Miss +Pennington—Miss Dixon. We don't want the new dances here. Not that +there is anything the matter with them," he hastened to add, as he +saw the defiant looks on the faces of the two former vaudeville +players; "but this is supposed to be an old-fashioned country dance, +<a name="Page_98" id="Page_98"></a>of the style of about twenty-five years ago, and it would look queer +in the films to see the dip and one-step introduced.</p> + +<p>"Now do that part over, and keep on with the Virginia Reel. Go ahead, +Russ. And everybody get a little more life into this thing. Be +lively! Hop about more! Shout and sing if you want to—it won't hurt +the film. Go ahead, fiddler!"</p> + +<p>Once more the violin wailed out its tune, and the play went on.</p> + +<p>"I wonder what I'll have to do next?" complained Wellington Bunn. +"This is getting worse and worse. I've had to dance with a big +country girl, and every time I take a step she comes down on my foot. +I'll be lame for a week."</p> + +<p>"It's awful—this moving picture work," agreed Mr. Sneed, who seemed +never to get over his "grouch." Then he went on: "It's dangerous, +too. Suppose this barn should catch fire? What would happen to us?"</p> + +<p>"Ve vould get out quick-like, alretty!" said Carl Switzer, as there +came a lull in the dance. "Isn't dot der answer?"</p> + +<p>"I wasn't asking a riddle," grunted Mr. Sneed. "But something will +happen; you mark my words."</p> + +<p>"Yah, I hope it happens dat ve haf chicken <a name="Page_99" id="Page_99"></a>for dinner on Sunday!" +laughed the German, who always seemed good-natured.</p> + +<p>Some other scenes for the play, in which the background of the barn +was needed, were made, and then work was over for the evening.</p> + +<p>Some of the young persons from neighboring farms asked to be allowed +to stay and dance more, and this was allowed. Ruth and Alice, with +Russ and Paul, also remained and had a jolly good time, making +friends with some of the country girls and boys.</p> + +<p>"I've got something new for you, Miss Alice," said the moving picture +manager a day or so later, coming up to Ruth and her sister as they +sat on the farmhouse porch. Mr. Pertell had some typewritten pages in +his hand, and this generally meant that he was getting ready for a +new play.</p> + +<p>"What is it this time?" asked Alice. "Have I got to fall overboard +out of any more boats?" for that had been one of her recent "stunts."</p> + +<p>"No, there's no water-stuff in this," answered the manager with a +smile. "But can you drive horses?"</p> + +<p>"Mercy, no!" cried Alice.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't mean city horses. I mean these gentle country ones about +the farm."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I've driven the team Sandy uses to take <a name="Page_100" id="Page_100"></a>the milk to the dairy," +confessed Alice. "I could manage them, I suppose."</p> + +<p>"Those are the ones I mean," went on the manager. "In this play you +are supposed to be a country girl. Your father falls ill and can't +cut the hay. It has to be cut and sold to pay a pressing debt, and no +hired men can be had in a hurry. So you hitch up the horses to the +mower and drive them to cut the grass. It's only for a little while. +Think you can do it?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I never drove a mowing machine; but I can try. I don't know +about hitching up the horses, though."</p> + +<p>"Better practice a little with Sandy, then," the manager advised. +"He'll show you how."</p> + +<p>He gave Alice some written instructions, and then went over Ruth's +part in the play. Alice, resolving to learn how to hitch up a team, +went out to find Sandy.</p> + +<p>It was much easier than she had expected to find it, to attach the +slow and patient horses to the mowing machine, and the young farmer +took her for a turn with it about the barn yard, so she would be +familiar with its operation.</p> + +<p>"I think I can do it," said Alice, and two days later, the rehearsals +were ended and all was in readiness for making the film of the new +rural play.<a name="Page_101" id="Page_101"></a></p> + +<p>Alice took her place on the seat of the machine, and began to guide +the horses around the edge of the hay field. The mower has a long +knife extending out from one side, and as the machine is driven along +the wheels work the mechanism that sends this knife—or, rather a +series of knives—vibrating back and forth inside a sort of toothed +guard, thus cutting the hay or grain.</p> + +<p>"All ready, now," called Mr. Pertell to Russ, who was at the camera.</p> + +<p>"Go 'long!" cried Alice to the horses, and the animals began their +slow walk. For a time all went well, and then a dog, coming from no +one knew where, ran at the heels of the horses, barking and worrying +them. In an instant one of the steeds leaped forward in fright and +the other caught the alarm.</p> + +<p>"Hold them in, Alice!" cried Russ. But it was too late, and the +horses started to run away, dragging with them the frightened girl on +the seat of the mowing machine.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII" ></a><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h3>THE MAN WITH THE LIMP</h3> + + +<p>For a moment those watching the making of the moving picture stood as +if paralyzed. The horses, frightened out of their usual calmness by +the barking dog, were rushing madly down the field, the mowing +machine clicking viciously.</p> + +<p>"Hold them in! Hold them in! Pull on the lines!" cried Sandy, who was +the first to spring to action. He set off on a run toward the horses.</p> + +<p>Russ, too, leaping aside from his camera, started off to the rescue, +and the others followed. Mr. DeVere was not in this play, and had +remained at the farmhouse.</p> + +<p>Ruth, however, not being required in this particular scene, though +she would come in the film later, had strolled down the meadow toward +a little stream, to gather some flowers.</p> + +<p>It was in her direction that the frightened horses were running, and +as Ruth heard the <a name="Page_103" id="Page_103"></a>shouts, and caught the sound made by the clicking +machine, she looked up. Then she saw her sister's danger, and without +a thought of her own stepped directly in the path of the oncoming +animals, waving up and down, frantically, a bunch of flowers she had +gathered.</p> + +<p>"Don't do that! Jump to one side!" cried Sandy, who was now nearer +the mowing machine. "Look out, Miss DeVere!"</p> + +<p>"But I want to stop the horses!" Ruth cried. "I must save Alice!"</p> + +<p>"You can't do it that way! They'll run you down, or if they don't the +knives will cut you! Jump to one side—I'll try and catch them!"</p> + +<p>Ruth had the good sense to obey. She did not really mean to make a +grab for the horses, but to stand in their path as long as she could, +hoping to make them slacken speed. But she had forgotten about the +projecting knives, which, even in their sheath of steel, might +seriously injure her.</p> + +<p>Alice, white-faced, but still keeping her wits about her, tried to +follow the shouted directions, and pull on the reins. But either the +horses had the bits in their teeth, or her strength was not enough to +bring them to a stop. On they raced, and, as the meadow was a large +one, they had plenty of room. Alice might be able to <a name="Page_104" id="Page_104"></a>guide them +until they tired themselves out, but there was danger that they would +turn into a fence, or that the machine would overturn and crush her +under it.</p> + +<p>She had half a notion to leap from the iron seat, and trust to +falling on the soft earth. But she feared she might become entangled +in the reins, or that she would slip, and fall under the flying feet +of the horses, or even on the clattering set of knives. And of these +last she well knew the danger, for Sandy had warned her of them. So +she decided she would keep her seat as long as she could.</p> + +<p>Sandy was racing up behind her. Above the thud of the horses' hoofs, +and the shrill sound of the clicking knives, Alice could hear him +coming on, trying to save her. And how she prayed that he would be in +time.</p> + +<p>The mowing machine was opposite Ruth now, who had stepped back out of +the way of harm. And as Alice passed her sister in the machine the +latter cried:</p> + +<p>"Oh, Alice! If you should be hurt!" There was the sound of tears in +her voice.</p> + +<p>Alice did not answer. She had all she could do to look after the +plunging horses.</p> + +<p>Sandy was not at such a disadvantage in his race as at first it would +seem. He was light on <a name="Page_105" id="Page_105"></a>his feet, and a good runner, though much +tramping over plowed fields and rough hills had given him a rather +clumsy gait in walking.</p> + +<p>But the horses were not built for racing, either, and they were +dragging a heavy machine on soft ground. The iron wheels of the +reaper were made with projections, to enable them to bite deeper into +the earth, and thus turn the gears that operated the knives. And +these iron wheels were a heavy drag.</p> + +<p>So it is not surprising that, after a comparatively short run, the +horses slackened their pace.</p> + +<p>"Sit down! I'm comin'!" cried Sandy, and now Alice could hear him +panting behind her.</p> + +<p>In another instant she felt a jar on the machine, and then someone +reached over her shoulder, and took the reins from her hands.</p> + +<p>"I'll pull 'em down!" cried Sandy, balancing himself on a part of the +machine, back of the seat on which Alice was riding.</p> + +<p>The young farmer sawed hard on the lines and this, added to the fact +that they had had enough of the hard run, caused the animals to +slacken speed. They slowed down to a trot, and then to a walk, +finally coming to a halt. And just in time, too, for right in front +of them was a big stone fence, into which they might have crashed.<a name="Page_106" id="Page_106"></a></p> + +<p>"Oh! Oh dear!" gasped Alice. "I—I think I'm going to faint!"</p> + +<p>"Don't! Please don't, Miss!" begged Sandy, more frightened at that +prospect, evidently, than he had been at the runaway. "I—I don't +know what to do when ladies faint. Really I don't I—I never saw one +faint, Miss. Please don't!"</p> + +<p>"All right—then I won't," laughed Alice, by an effort conquering her +inclination. But she felt a great weakness, now that the strain was +over, and she trembled as Sandy helped her down from the machine. In +another moment Ruth and the others came up, and Ruth clasped her +sister in her arms.</p> + +<p>"You poor dear!" she whispered.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm all right now," said Alice, bravely. "Perhaps there wasn't +as much danger as I imagined."</p> + +<p>"There was a plenty," spoke Sandy, grimly.</p> + +<p>The dog, the cause of all the mischief, had disappeared. The horses +were now quiet enough, though breathing hard, and soon they began to +nibble at the grass.</p> + +<p>"Well, my dear girl, I'm sorry this happened!" exclaimed Mr. Pertell, +as he came running up. "I never would have let you go through that +scene if I had dreamed of any danger."</p> + +<p>"No one could foresee that this was going <a name="Page_107" id="Page_107"></a>to happen," returned +Alice, who was almost herself again. "I'm all right now, and we'll +finish the act, if you please."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no!" cried Mr. Pertell. "I can't allow it. We'll substitute some +other scene."</p> + +<p>"No," insisted Alice. "I'm not afraid, really, and I think the +picture will be a most effective one. Besides, it is almost finished. +We can go on from the point where the horses started to run; can't +we?" she asked Russ.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," he agreed, with a look at the manager, "but——"</p> + +<p>"Then I'm going to do it!" laughed Alice, gaily. "I'm not going to +back out just because the horses got a little frisky. They will be +quiet now; won't they, Sandy?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"I think so, Miss—yes. That run took all the tucker out of 'em. +They'll be quiet now," and he rather backed away from Alice, as +though he feared she might, any moment, put into execution her threat +to faint.</p> + +<p>"Alice, I'm not sure you ought to go on with this," spoke Ruth in a +low voice. "Papa might not like it."</p> + +<p>"He wouldn't like me to begin a thing and not finish it," was the +younger girl's answer. "I'm not afraid, and I do hate to spoil a +film. Come, we'll try it over again," and she pluckily <a name="Page_108" id="Page_108"></a>insisted on +it until, finally, Mr. Pertell gave in.</p> + +<p>The horses were driven back to the place from which they had bolted +and Alice again took her place on the seat of the mowing machine, +while Russ worked the camera. This time everything went well, but +Sandy Apgar was near at hand, though out of sight of the camera, to +be ready to jump on the instant, if the horses showed any signs of +fright.</p> + +<p>Paul Ardite, too, was on the watch, Ruth noticed. However, there was +no need of these precautions. The horses acted as though they had +never had any idea of bolting, and the film was finished.</p> + +<p>Mr. DeVere looked grave when told of the accident, and after a moment +or two of thought remarked:</p> + +<p>"I wonder if I had better let you girls keep on with this moving +picture work? It is much more dangerous than I supposed. I am worried +about you."</p> + +<p>"You needn't be, Daddy dear!" exclaimed Alice, slipping her arm about +his neck. "Nothing has happened yet, and I'll be real careful. I +should be heartbroken if we had to give it up now. I just love the +work; don't you, Ruth?"</p> + +<p>"Indeed I do; but twice lately, danger has come to you."<a name="Page_109" id="Page_109"></a></p> + +<p>"Well, I'll have one more near-accident and then the 'hoodoo' will be +broken, as Mr. Sneed would say. Three times and out, you know the old +saying has it."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Alice!" cried Ruth. "Do be sensible!"</p> + +<p>"Can't, dear! I leave that to you. But, Daddy, you mustn't think of +taking us out of moving pictures. Why, some of the best and most +important of all the farm dramas are to come yet. There's the one +with the burning barn—I wouldn't miss that for anything! Please, +Daddy, let us stay. You want to; don't you, Ruth?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, of course. Only there seems to be so many dangers about a +farm. I used to think a country life was calm and peaceful, but +things happen here just as in a city."</p> + +<p>"Indeed they do," laughed Alice, "only such different things. It's +quite exciting, I think. Mayn't we stay, Daddy?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I suppose so," he consented, rather grudgingly. "But take no +more chances."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I didn't take the chances," laughed Alice. "The chances took +me."</p> + +<p>During the next few days several farm scenes were filmed by Russ, and +a number of partly finished plays were completed, the reels being +sent to New York for development. Word came <a name="Page_110" id="Page_110"></a>back that everything was +a success, only a few minor errors being made, and these were easily +corrected. A few scenes had to be done over.</p> + +<p>"But I'm glad it wasn't the one with the hose," said Mr. Bunn, with a +sigh. "Really I'd never go through that again."</p> + +<p>"Ha! I vould like dot—if I vos on der right side of der hose!" +exclaimed Mr. Switzer.</p> + +<p>The day had been a busy one, filled with hard work for all before the +moving picture camera. When evening came the players were glad of the +chance to rest.</p> + +<p>"Let's walk down the road," suggested Alice to Ruth. "It is so pretty +and restful on the little white bridge, just before you come to the +red schoolhouse."</p> + +<p>They walked down, arm in arm, talking of many things, and soon were +standing on the white bridge that spanned a little stream, which +flowed between green banks, fragrant with mint. Here and there were +patches of green rushes and beds of the spicy water cress.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's just lovely here!" sighed Ruth. "It is too beautiful. I +wish we could share it with some one."</p> + +<p>"Here comes someone now, to share it with—a man," spoke Alice, +motioning down the road, which was shaded with many trees, through +<a name="Page_111" id="Page_111"></a>which the moon was now shining, making patches of light and shadow.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it is some of our friends," murmured Ruth. "I believe Russ +and Paul started out for a walk before we did."</p> + +<p>"That's not two persons; it's only one," declared Alice as she +continued to look at the advancing figure. "And see, Ruth, he—he +limps!"</p> + +<p>She caught her sister's arm as she spoke, and the two girls drew +closer together. The same thought came to both.</p> + +<p>Was this the man who had run out of the barn?</p> + +<p>"I believe it's the same one," whispered Ruth.</p> + +<p>"And I'm perfectly positive," answered Alice. "Oh, Ruth, now is our +chance!"</p> + +<p>"Chance! Chance for what?"</p> + +<p>"I mean we can find out who he is, and perhaps solve the mystery."</p> + +<p>"Alice DeVere! We're going to do no such thing! We're going to run +back home—that man is coming straight toward us!" cried Ruth, and +she began to drag Alice away from the bridge.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the limping figure continued to come along the road, going +alternately from bright moonlight to shadow as he passed clumps of +trees.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII" ></a><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<h3>ON GUARD</h3> + + +<p>Perhaps Alice really intended to do as she had intimated, and seek to +learn, through a direct question, the identity of the mysterious man +who seemed to have some object in remaining about Oak Farm. Then, +again, she may not. I believe it may not have been altogether clear +in her own mind.</p> + +<p>At any rate, once Ruth began to show the white feather, and to insist +that Alice come away—then, if ever, the younger girl made up her +mind that she would do as she had said—really interview the +stranger—for, be it known, Alice was rather headstrong when opposed.</p> + +<p>But she had no chance to carry out her resolution, for the simple +reason that the man himself acted to prevent it.</p> + +<p>"Come, Alice! Please come!" pleaded Ruth, almost in a frenzy of fear.</p> + +<p>And then the man, catching sight of the girls, <a name="Page_113" id="Page_113"></a>who were in bold +relief in the gleam of the moonlight, on the white bridge, and +hearing their voices, stood still for a moment in a light patch. Then +he turned and went rapidly down the road, limping as he hurried +along.</p> + +<p>So Alice had no chance to do as she had said she would.</p> + +<p>"There he goes!" she exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"So I see," responded Ruth with a sigh of relief. "Oh, I'm so glad!"</p> + +<p>"I'm not!" declared Alice, and she really thought she meant it. +Perhaps she did.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Alice!" exclaimed Ruth. "Suppose he had kept on?"</p> + +<p>"Just what I wanted him to do. There's nothing very harmful in one +man, particularly as there are two of us, and we are so near the +house, and on a public road. Oh, it was the best chance we've yet had +of finding out who he is, and what he wants around here. And he had +to go and—spoil it!" Alice acted as though really grieved.</p> + +<p>"We had better go back and tell Sandy or his father," suggested Ruth. +"They may want to chase him."</p> + +<p>"Not much chance of catching him," replied Alice, ruefully. "See him +go, even if he is lame." The man was really making rapid prog<a name="Page_114" id="Page_114"></a>ress +down the road in spite of his halting gait. "But come on," Alice +resumed, "we'll tell the men, and they can do as they like."</p> + +<p>The two sisters hurried back to the farmhouse, and the message they +delivered caused some excitement. For all were more or less +interested in the mysterious man.</p> + +<p>Sandy, Russ and Paul at once hurried out, and went in the direction +where Alice and Ruth had last seen the man. The girls, including Miss +Pennington and Miss Dixon, also went out to see what success should +attend the efforts of the young men. But it was the same as +before—there was no sign of the man. This was not strange, though, +considering that he might have slipped off at either side of the +road, and gone into hiding in the fields, or in a patch of woodland +nearby.</p> + +<p>"Guess we'll have to give it up," said Russ, as he and the others +turned back. "I'd like to find out who he is, though."</p> + +<p>"Do you suppose he could be one of those men who tried to get your +patent?" asked Alice. "I mean, he might be disguised."</p> + +<p>"I hardly think so," was the answer of the young moving picture +operator. "Besides, my patent is fully protected now. They couldn't +make anything out of that."<a name="Page_115" id="Page_115"></a></p> + +<p>"Then he must be after something on the farm," suggested Paul, who +was walking beside Alice.</p> + +<p>"There ain't nothin' valuable lyin' aroun' here loose," said Sandy, +with a short laugh. "I only wish there was. I'd get it myself an' pay +off th' mortgage. More likely that fellow is after some of your +movin' pictures. Aren't those reels, as you call 'em, valuable?"</p> + +<p>"That's so!" exclaimed Paul. "I never thought of that. Maybe he is +after some of our films, Russ! We'd better speak to Mr. Pertell about +it."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps we had. There are some moving picture men mean enough to try +to take the ideas of other folks, and they might not be above taking +the reels of exposed films, too. We've got some good ones on hand."</p> + +<p>Mr. Pertell was a little skeptical about the matter when it was +mentioned to him, but he agreed that there was something in the idea, +after all, and that it was rather odd for the mysterious man to +remain so long in the vicinity of Oak Farm, without disclosing his +errand.</p> + +<p>"He's a stranger—that's sure," said Mr. Apgar, Sandy's father. "He's +a stranger here, for none of th' farmers in these parts know him.<a name="Page_116" id="Page_116"></a> +I've heard one or two mention seein' a lame feller going about, as if +he had plenty of spare time. It must be this man. But, as Sandy says, +we ain't got nothin' he can git. It all belongs t' Squire Blasdell," +he added with a rueful laugh. "Or it will after th' mortgage is +foreclosed," he finished with a sigh.</p> + +<p>The old man looked over at his wife, who was seated in a rocking +chair, mending stockings. She was a good sewer, and members of the +theatrical troupe had her do work for them, thus enabling her to earn +a little money, for which she was very grateful.</p> + +<p>The plight of the old people was really pitiful, with the dark shadow +of losing their home ever looming nearer. Sandy tried to be cheerful, +and several times said that perhaps at the last minute a way might be +found to save the farm. But he was not very hopeful. He worked +hard—doubly hard, since his father was able to do very little. This +made it necessary to hire help, and that left so much less profit on +the gathered crops.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it wouldn't be a bad idea to keep watch to-night," suggested +Mr. DeVere, when the matter of the mysterious man was being +discussed. "That fellow may have designs on some of your farm +buildings, Mr. Apgar."<a name="Page_117" id="Page_117"></a></p> + +<p>"That's so, he might," agreed the farmer. "Barns has been sot afire +afore this."</p> + +<p>"Don't talk that way, Father, you'll scare the young folks," chided +his wife gently, as she looked at Ruth and smiled reassuringly. +"That'll never happen," she added, for, at the mention of the word +"fire," Ruth had glanced nervously at the door, as though the limping +man stood on the other side of it.</p> + +<p>"I'll keep an eye open to-night," said Sandy. "If that fellow comes +around I'll be ready for him."</p> + +<p>"I'll help you," volunteered Russ, and Paul, too, said he would help +in standing guard.</p> + +<p>It was arranged that the three men should take turns in keeping +watch, and, during the night, patrol the barns and other buildings +occasionally, to watch for any signs of the stranger.</p> + +<p>At first the girls, and even Mrs. Maguire, were a bit nervous, and +this made little Tommy and Nellie, the latter's grandchildren, +somewhat timid. Then Mr. Pertell suggested that they all consider +their parts in a new drama that was to be started next day, as that +would take their minds off the scare.</p> + +<p>Save for the occasional barking of a dog, who bayed at the moon, and +the lowing of the cattle, there was scarcely a sound, except those of +the <a name="Page_118" id="Page_118"></a>night insects. The night passed quietly, and there was no sign +of the mysterious man.</p> + +<p>"I guess you girls scared him away for good," remarked Paul, at the +breakfast table.</p> + +<p>"I hope so," murmured Alice. "I had one look at his face, and if ever +I saw a hard and cruel one I saw it then."</p> + +<p>Work and rehearsals of the new play occupied all for the next two +days. Several new things in the way of properties were needed, and +this kept Pop Snooks busy. One of the things he had to provide was a +rickety two-wheeled cart, that was to be hitched to a donkey, one of +the farm animals.</p> + +<p>"Who's going to ride in that cart?" asked Mr. Bunn, as he strode +about the place with the new silk hat which, true to promise, Mr. +Pertell had purchased to replace the water-soaked one.</p> + +<p>"I think I'll cast Ruth DeVere to ride in the cart," said the +manager. "Someone will have to ride the mule, though, and as I want a +tall man for that act I think I'll take you, Mr. Bunn. You will black +up as a colored man, and——"</p> + +<p>"Stop! Stop where you are!" cried the Shakespearean actor, in +stentorian tones. "I shall do nothing of the sort. You may consider +that I have resigned!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV" ></a><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<h3>AN UPSET</h3> + + +<p>Perhaps Wellington Bunn was disappointed that Mr. Pertell did not at +once beg him to reconsider his resignation, and to stay his parting +steps, for the actor had turned aside after issuing his defiance, and +started toward the house, as though to carry out his threat, pack up +and go back to New York.</p> + +<p>But the manager did not call after Mr. Bunn to stay. All he said was:</p> + +<p>"Very well, Mr. Bunn, if you resign now, without the two weeks' +notice called for in your contract, you need not expect another +engagement with me, nor with any of the moving picture associations +with which I am connected. I am not asking you to do anything very +difficult."</p> + +<p>"But to ride a mule! Great Scott! I can't do that, my dear sir!"</p> + +<p>"You told me you could ride."</p> + +<p>"Yes, a horse, perhaps; but not a mule. Why, a mule kicks!"<a name="Page_120" id="Page_120"></a></p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't believe this one will kick," replied the manager. +"Anyhow, I want you to ride him. There is to be a comic part to this +play, and I look to you to provide it. You will blacken your face +and——"</p> + +<p>"Black up and take the part of a colored man—me, Wellington +Bunn—who has played the classic Shakespeare—do blackface? Never!"</p> + +<p>"You forget that Shakespeare's Othello was a colored man, I guess," +laughed Mr. Pertell, "and you told me you had played that character."</p> + +<p>"So I have, but Othello was a Moor—not a common black-faced +comedian. He was brown, rather than black."</p> + +<p>"Well, we'll go a few shades darker, and be real black, in your +case," suggested Mr. Pertell. "And you'll have to ride the mule. It +is necessary to make the scene a success."</p> + +<p>Wellington Bunn sighed, as he answered:</p> + +<p>"Very well. But when this engagement is over no more moving pictures +for me! I am through with them!"</p> + +<p>"We'll see," replied the manager, as he went on with his preparations +for the new play. Nearly the whole company were to take part in this, +and Tommy and Nellie had parts that pleased them very much.</p> + +<p>"I'm to drive a little goat cart!" exclaimed <a name="Page_121" id="Page_121"></a>the small lad, "and +you're to ride with me, Nellie."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that will be fun!" she cried, clapping her hands. "But your goat +won't bite; will he?"</p> + +<p>"I won't let him bite you, anyhow," promised Tommy, kindly.</p> + +<p>Although Mr. Bunn had tacitly agreed to ride the mule, he had many +misgivings on the subject, and several times he might have been seen +standing near the animal, carefully studying it, as though it were a +piece of complicated machinery that had to be mastered in detail.</p> + +<p>"Is it a—er—a gentle beast?" the actor asked of Sandy.</p> + +<p>"Allers has been," replied the young farmer. "'Hee-haw,' as we call +him, ain't never done no harm to speak of."</p> + +<p>"He may begin on you," predicted Pepper Sneed, gloomily.</p> + +<p>"I wish you wouldn't say such things!" exclaimed the other actor, +testily. "You are always looking for trouble."</p> + +<p>"Well, you'll get some without looking for it, if you ride that +mule," declared the "grouch," as he walked off.</p> + +<p>"Yes, and if anything happens, I suppose you'll say 'I told you so!'" +remarked Mr. Bunn, with a gloomy countenance.<a name="Page_122" id="Page_122"></a></p> + +<p>Preparations for the play went on, and rehearsals were in order. +Without blacking his face, which could be done when the play was +actually filmed, Mr. Bunn gingerly rode the mule. He made as much of +a success of it as was possible. And certainly Hee-haw showed no +signs of obstreperousness.</p> + +<p>Ruth rode in the curious old cart, which Pop Snooks had made from +material found about the farm. She was to represent a country maid of +a generation past—and very pretty she looked, too, in her wide +skirts and poke bonnet, covered with roses. Quite in contrast to the +long and lanky figure Mr. Bunn, who in a nondescript suit, rode the +mule that drew the cart, after the fashion of an English postillion. +The play was a comic one without much rhyme or reason, but it was +found that audiences occasionally liked things of that sort, so the +films were made.</p> + +<p>The day for the humorous film had arrived, and all went well until +the scene came with the mule. Even the first part of that was +successfully taken, though Mr. Bunn kept muttering to himself over +the fact that he had to blacken his face.</p> + +<p>But he rode the beast, which certainly did nothing out of the +ordinary, though Mr. Sneed, with his usual gloomy forebodings, +confided to Pop <a name="Page_123" id="Page_123"></a>that the beast had a wicked look in his eyes.</p> + +<p>Ruth had ridden in the cart along the country road and had alighted +from the vehicle, her part being over. Then, just as Mr. Bunn was +about to get off the mule's back a bee, or some other insect, stung +the animal.</p> + +<p>With a "Hee-haw!" worthy of his name the mule lashed out with his +hind feet and, in an instant, the frail cart that Pop Snooks had +constructed was kicked to bits. It was lucky that Ruth was out of it.</p> + +<p>As for Wellington Bunn, he fell forward on the mule's back when the +animal kicked out, and there, holding on tightly, the actor clung, +while the beast dashed off down the road, dragging behind him the +shafts and a small part of the cart.</p> + +<p>"There he goes! I knew something would happen to him!" cried Mr. +Sneed. "To-day is Friday!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, he'll be hurt—maybe killed!" cried Ruth, for, in spite of his +rather too-tragic airs, Mr. Bunn was liked by all.</p> + +<p>"I guess he won't get hurt much!" exclaimed Sandy. "Hee-haw never +runs far, an' he never did such a thing before."</p> + +<p>However, all the men ran down the road to see the outcome of the +happening to Mr. Bunn, and to lend help, if necessary.<a name="Page_124" id="Page_124"></a></p> + +<p>On ran the mule, seemingly not slackening speed, and to his neck, so +that he should not fall off, clung the actor. His long legs flapped +up and down, and swayed from side to side, while his cries of wild +distress floated back to his friends.</p> + +<p>"Stop him! Don't let him run! Grab him, somebody!" pleaded Mr. Bunn. +But there was no one who could stop the animal.</p> + +<p>However, the ride was not destined to be a long one. The mule ran +along the highway, leaped a roadside ditch, and then stopped short in +front of a grassy bank. So sudden was the halt that Mr. Bunn shot +over the animal's head, his hold around the neck being broken, and he +was thus neatly upset, coming down amid the luxurious growth of +grass.</p> + +<p>He sat there dazed for a moment, his face being now curiously +streaked, for some of the powdered carbon had rubbed off on the +mule's neck. As for Hee-haw, he began quietly cropping the grass, as +if he had done his part of the entertainment.</p> + +<p>"Oh, if I had only been able to get that on the film!" cried Russ, as +he and the others ran up. "Maybe we can get him to do it over again, +Mr. Pertell."</p> + +<p>"What—do that again! Never! I resign here <a name="Page_125" id="Page_125"></a>and now!" exclaimed the +actor. "I am through with the moving picture business forever!"</p> + +<p>But as he had often said that before, and as he was in the habit of +resigning at least once every day, no one took him seriously.</p> + +<p>"Are you hurt, my dear sir?" asked the manager, solicitously, as he +reached Mr. Bunn's side.</p> + +<p>"If I am not, it is not due to you," was the retort. "But I believe I +have escaped with my life."</p> + +<p>He arose gingerly, and discovered that he had not even a scratch. The +soft grass had saved him from everything but a jolt.</p> + +<p>"I never knew Hee-haw to act so before," said Sandy, as he came up +and took charge of the mule.</p> + +<p>"Well, he'll never get the chance to act so with me again," declared +Mr. Bunn, with great decision. "Now, as soon as I get this detestable +black from my face, I am going to New York. I am through with moving +pictures."</p> + +<p>Mr. Pertell did not attempt to argue with the actor, well knowing +that the threat would not be carried out. Nor was it. A little later, +when clothed in his accustomed garb, with his tall hat, which he +seldom omitted from his costume, Mr. Bunn walked out, studying a new +part that he was to take in the next play.<a name="Page_126" id="Page_126"></a></p> + +<p>But for several days after that, if anyone said "mule" to him, or +even imitated the braying of that beast, Mr. Bunn scowled fiercely +and strode off.</p> + +<p>In one of the scenes Mr. Pertell needed a number of farm hands to +pose in the background, representing a scene in a wheat field, that +was being mowed with the old fashioned scythes. Sandy undertook to +get the characters, and a number of rather shy and awkward young men +presented themselves at Oak Farm one morning.</p> + +<p>"Now we'll try this," said the manager, when all was in readiness. +"You young farmers are supposed to be working in the wheat field. +Just act naturally—as if you were working. Don't pay any attention +to the camera. Talk among yourselves, and swing your scythes. My +actors will do the main work in front of you. But I want a truly +artistic background for the film.</p> + +<p>"Now, Mr. Sneed, you and Miss Pennington are the main characters in +this scene. You, Mr. Sneed, are supposed to be one of the reapers, +and Miss Pennington comes out to bring the workers a jug of lemonade. +She also has a letter for you to read. You lean on your scythe as you +read it—you know, a nice, graceful pose."</p> + +<p>"I know," answered the actor.<a name="Page_127" id="Page_127"></a></p> + +<p>"And you, Miss Pennington, you are supposed to be in love with one of +the young farmers."</p> + +<p>"Me! Me!" cried several of the lads Sandy had engaged.</p> + +<p>"Now, not all at once, please!" begged Mr. Pertell, with a smile. "I +appreciate your interest in Miss Pennington, but this must be worked +out according to the scenario."</p> + +<p>He went on to explain how he wanted the action carried out, and Russ +was ready with the camera.</p> + +<p>"Attention!" called the manager, as he stepped back to get a general +view of the scene. "That will do, I think," he added. "Go!" he cried, +and the action of the play was on, Russ clicking away at the camera.</p> + +<p>First the reapers were shown, swaying as they walked along, each one +cutting his "swath," or path, through the standing grain. Mr. Sneed +was one of these. Then the view changed, so as to show Miss +Pennington, dressed as a country lass, coming along with a jug on her +shoulder, and a letter in her hand.</p> + +<p>She reached the scene of the mowing, and there was a little +"business," or acting, as she handed over the letter. Some of the +farmers drank from the jug, and all of them had hard work to keep +their eyes from the camera.<a name="Page_128" id="Page_128"></a></p> + +<p>"Not that way! Not that way!" cried the manager, as one young reaper +took a position directly in front of the clicking machine and stared +straight into the lens. "You're not posing in a beauty contest. Go on +with your reaping, if you please, young man!"</p> + +<p>"I can cut a foot or so out," said Russ. "That won't spoil the film."</p> + +<p>"Now then, Mr. Sneed, lean your arm on the scythe, and read your +letter," directed the manager. "Miss Pennington, you stand off a +little to one side, and talk to one of the reapers. The rest of you +swing your scythes."</p> + +<p>The action went on, and Mr. Sneed, taking as graceful an attitude as +was consistent with his character, began to read the missive, which +would be photographed, much enlarged, later, and thrown on the screen +for the audience to read.</p> + +<p>Made nervous by something to which they were unaccustomed, the +farmer-actors were perhaps a little self-conscious. One of them, +swinging his scythe, came too near Mr. Sneed. In an instant he had +knocked from under the actor's arm the crooked scythe handle on which +Mr. Sneed was leaning, and the next instant the "grouch" went down in +a heap, fortunately falling in such a way that he was not cut by the +sharp blade.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV" ></a><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<h3>THE LONELY CABIN</h3> + + +<p>"Stop the reel! Hold that, Russ! Everyone keep position! We don't +want that spoiled!" cried Mr. Pertell, when he had seen, at a glance, +that Mr. Sneed was not hurt. "Hold your positions, everybody!"</p> + +<p>This is an order frequently given during the taking of moving +pictures, when any accident happens. Often the film will break, while +the exposures are being made, and if the actors keep to the places +and positions they had when the break occurred, the film can be +threaded up again, and mended. Then, later, undesireable parts can be +cut out of the exposed part, so that no great harm is done.</p> + +<p>For a moment the little accident rather upset the crowd of farm lads, +who were not used to such happenings. But the moving picture actors +themselves were not unduly alarmed. Russ had stopped operating his +camera.<a name="Page_130" id="Page_130"></a></p> + +<p>"You're not hurt; are you, Mr. Sneed?" asked the manager.</p> + +<p>"Hurt—no! But I might have been! I was sure something would happen +to-day, for I saw a black cat as I got up. Well, it's lucky it's no +worse. But I wish you'd make those fellows with their big cutters +keep farther back, Mr. Pertell. They might slice my legs off. I know +some serious accident will happen before the day is over."</p> + +<p>"Oh, cheer up!" laughed Russ.</p> + +<p>The actor arose, Mr. Pertell cautioned the young farmers about coming +too close with their keen, swinging scythes, and the moving picture +play went on.</p> + +<p>Ruth and Alice DeVere had parts in the little drama, but they were to +enact them with a different background, and when Russ finished +filming the scenes in the wheat field he went back to the farmhouse +to get other pictures.</p> + +<p>There appeared to be something unusual going on, for out in the road +stood two carriages, and on the porch could be seen Mr. and Mrs. +Apgar, and Sandy, with two men. The moving picture actors and +actresses who had not gone to the field were also there.</p> + +<p>"I wonder what is going on?" said Mr. Pertell.<a name="Page_131" id="Page_131"></a></p> + +<p>"Something has happened!" exclaimed Mr. Sneed. "I knew it would—I +told you so!"</p> + +<p>Hurrying to the porch where the group was, Mr. Pertell heard one of +the strangers saying:</p> + +<p>"Well, we've got to do it whether you like it or not, Mr. Apgar. +Squire Blasdell wants the money on that mortgage, and the only way he +can get it is to foreclose. So I've got to post the notices of the +sale."</p> + +<p>"To think that I should live to see this day!" sighed Mr. Apgar. "My +farm to be sold under foreclosure!"</p> + +<p>"It is hard, Pa, dreadful hard," said Mrs. Apgar. "But we are honest. +We'd pay if we could."</p> + +<p>"If only I could find Uncle Isaac's money," sighed Sandy. "Couldn't +you give us a little more time, Sheriff Hasell?"</p> + +<p>"No, I'm sorry; but I can't," replied the official. "You see this +isn't actually selling the farm. We're only going to post notices +that it will be sold. That has to be done, according to the law here. +It'll be some time though, before the farm is auctioned off to the +highest bidder."</p> + +<p>"And we can stay here until then; can't we?" asked Sandy.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, sure, and for a little while after. You see these things +take time," the sheriff re<a name="Page_132" id="Page_132"></a>turned. "It's too bad—I'm sorry, but me +and my deputy has to do our duty."</p> + +<p>"Go ahead, then," said Sandy, and there were tears in his eyes. "We +won't stop you, but it's hard—it's terrible hard—to lose the place +we worked so long for, an' all because of some mistake. Uncle Isaac +would want us to have that money paw lent him, but he died afore he +could tell where he hid it."</p> + +<p>The sheriff and his man then went about the farm, posting several +notices of the sale on the different buildings. This gave Russ an +idea, and he suggested it to Mr. Pertell.</p> + +<p>"Why not make a film of this," said the young operator. "Old +couple—going to be turned off their farm—foreclosure of +mortgage—posting the notices—the cruel creditor—the sheriff and +all that. We could make up a good play."</p> + +<p>"So we could!" cried the manager. "A good idea, and I'll pay Mr. and +Mrs. Apgar for posing for us. It'll give 'em a little extra money."</p> + +<p>At first the aged couple would not hear of posing before the camera, +but Sandy explained matters to them, and told them they could easily +do it. Mr. Pertell promised to pay well, and this finally won them +over. The sheriff and his deputy good-naturedly agreed to do their +tacking up of the notices in front of the camera, and so an +<a name="Page_133" id="Page_133"></a>unexpected film was obtained. It is often that way in making moving +pictures. The least germ of an idea often leads to a good play.</p> + +<p>The other scenes in "The Loss of the Farm," as the play was to be +called, would be made later. For the present it was necessary to go +on with the scenes of the drama, part of which had been laid in the +wheat field.</p> + +<p>Russ put some fresh film in his camera and was ready for Ruth and +Alice, who had some pretty little scenes together.</p> + +<p>The day was hot, the work was exacting, and when it was over everyone +was ready to rest. Russ was perhaps busier than any, for he had to +prepare the films to be sent in light-tight boxes to New York for +development, arrangement, and printing.</p> + +<p>"Let's go off to the woods," suggested Alice to her sister, when they +had changed their costumes for walking dresses of cool brown, with +white waists. "I declare I just want to get under a tree and lie down +on the soft green moss."</p> + +<p>"So do I, dear. We'll go up to that little dell which is so +pretty—the one where we got the lovely flowers. It is so restful +there."</p> + +<p>Together the sisters set off, walking slowly, for the air was sultry.</p> + +<p>"Don't you want to come, Daddy?" called<a name="Page_134" id="Page_134"></a> Ruth to her father, who was +sitting on the farmhouse porch.</p> + +<p>"No, thank you," he answered. "I have some letters to write."</p> + +<p>His voice had grown somewhat stronger under the influence of the +pure, country air, and from the fact that he used it very little. But +still it was not clear enough to enable him to go back into +legitimate theatrical work. And, truth to tell, he rather preferred +the moving pictures now. It was easier, even if there was no audience +to applaud him.</p> + +<p>Ruth and Alice soon reached the edge of the cool woods, and then they +strolled slowly along until they came to a little dell—a nook they +had discovered one day when out walking.</p> + +<p>"Oh, this is delightful!" exclaimed Alice, as she sank down on a bed +of moss.</p> + +<p>"Yes, it is very soothing to the nerves," agreed Ruth. "Oh, dear!" +she suddenly cried, leaping to her feet.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" demanded Alice.</p> + +<p>"A bug walked right over my shoe!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, mercy me!" mocked her sister. "Are you so scared that even a bug +can't look at you, sister mine? Why, it's only a lady-bug—very +proper to have on one's shoes, I'm sure," she added, as she saw the +harmless insect.<a name="Page_135" id="Page_135"></a></p> + +<p>"I don't care! I just hate bugs!" cried Ruth. "I wish I had a rug to +sit on."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you were never meant for the country!" laughed Alice. "Come, sit +down, I'll keep the bugs away from you," and she pulled a big fern, +which she used as a fan.</p> + +<p>The sisters sat and talked of many things, speculating on the +identity of the mysterious man and wondering if the Apgars would ever +discover Uncle Isaac's missing money and so save the farm.</p> + +<p>The day was drawing to a close, and the girls felt that they must +soon return to the farmhouse.</p> + +<p>"Hark! What's that?" asked Alice, suddenly, after a period of +silence. A distant rumble came to their ears.</p> + +<p>"Wagon going over a bridge, I should say," replied Ruth.</p> + +<p>"More like thunder," Alice went on. "It <i>is</i> thunder," she said a +moment later, as a sharp clap reverberated through the still air. +"Come on, Ruth, or we'll be caught."</p> + +<p>They scrambled up from the mossy bed, and hurried from the little +glen. But the storm came on apace, and before they were half-way out +of the woods there was a sudden flurry of wind, and then came a +deluge of rain, ushered in by vivid lightning, and loud thunder.<a name="Page_136" id="Page_136"></a></p> + +<p>"Oh, Alice, we'll be drenched—and our new dresses!" cried Ruth.</p> + +<p>"Let's get under a tree," suggested the younger girl. "That will +shelter us."</p> + +<p>"And get struck by lightning! I guess not!" protested Ruth. "Trees +are always dangerous in a thunder storm."</p> + +<p>"But we must find shelter!" said Alice, as they ran on.</p> + +<p>They came to a little clearing in the woods, and pausing at the edge +saw a lonely cabin in the midst of it.</p> + +<p>"Come on over there!" cried Alice. "They'll take us in, whoever they +are, until the shower is over."</p> + +<p>Seizing Ruth's hand she darted toward the cabin. Then both girls saw +a man open the door and stand in it—a man at the sight of whom they +drew back in alarm.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI" ></a><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<h3>THE MAN AND THE UMBRELLA</h3> + + +<p>For a moment the man stood in the doorway of the cabin, staring at +Ruth and Alice standing there in the drenching rain. They had +recognized him at once as the man whom they had seen run out of the +old barn—the limping man who had fled down the moonlit road when he +espied them on the bridge.</p> + +<p>Whether or not he knew the girls, they did not stop to consider. +Certainly they were dressed differently than on either of the +occasions they had encountered him; but that might not obviate +recognition.</p> + +<p>"Come—come on back to the woods," whispered Ruth. "We—we don't want +to meet him, Alice."</p> + +<p>"No, I suppose not," agreed Alice, "and yet," and she seemed to +shiver, "we ought not to stand out in this storm when shelter is so +near, no matter who that man is."<a name="Page_138" id="Page_138"></a></p> + +<p>"Oh, Alice!" exclaimed Ruth.</p> + +<p>"Well, I mean it! I am soaked, and you are, too. Besides, that +lightning is awful—and the thunder! I can't stand it—come on. I'm +sure he won't eat us!"</p> + +<p>But the girls were saved any anxiety by the action of the strange +man. Alice was trying to draw her sister toward the cabin, and Ruth, +torn between a desire to get under shelter, and fear of the man, was +hardly able to decide, when the stranger darted back into the cabin, +and came out with an umbrella.</p> + +<p>"Oh, he's going to offer it to us!" exclaimed Alice. "That is good of +him."</p> + +<p>But, to her surprise, no less than that of Ruth, the man called out:</p> + +<p>"Come in, and welcome, young ladies. You may stay in this cabin as +long as you like. The roof leaks in one place, but otherwise it is +dry. I have to go away. Come in!"</p> + +<p>And with that he put up the umbrella and hurried off, limping through +the rain, but never once glancing back at the girls.</p> + +<p>For a moment Alice and Ruth did not know what to do or think. The +action was certainly strange. And why had not the man come to meet +them with the umbrella, while he was about it? There was some little +distance to go, from <a name="Page_139" id="Page_139"></a>the fringe of trees where the two girls stood, +to the cabin, and this space was open; whereas, by keeping under the +leafy boughs they were, in a measure, protected from the pelting +rain.</p> + +<p>"What shall we do, Ruth?" asked Alice. She wanted to defer to the +older judgment of her sister. But Ruth answered:</p> + +<p>"I don't know, dear. What had we better do? I'm afraid——"</p> + +<p>"And so am I afraid—but I'm more afraid of this thunder and +lightning, to say nothing of the rain, than I am of what may be in +that cabin, now that the man has so kindly left it to us. I'm going +in there, Ruth, and stay until the storm is over."</p> + +<p>With that, picking up her skirts, Alice sped across the open space, +leaving Ruth to do as she pleased. And, naturally, Ruth would not +stay there to be drenched alone.</p> + +<p>"Wait for me, Alice—wait!" she pleaded. But there was no need for +Alice to delay, since she would only get the wetter, and Ruth was in +no danger.</p> + +<p>"Come along," called Alice over her shoulder, and Ruth came. The +sisters reached the cabin just as a brilliant flash of lightning, +with almost simultaneous thunder, seemed to open the clouds, and the +rain came down in a veritable flood.<a name="Page_140" id="Page_140"></a></p> + +<p>"Just in time!" cried Alice. "We would have been drowned if we had +stayed out there. That man has some good qualities about him, at any +rate. He was nice enough to give us the use of this place."</p> + +<p>"And maybe we're wronging him," panted Ruth, out of breath after her +little run, and her hair all awry. "He may be all right, and it is +foolish to suspect him of something we know nothing about."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," admitted Alice. "But there is a look in his face I do not +like. I can't explain why, but he looks, somehow—oh, I can't explain +it, but he looks as if he had been in prison—or some place like +that."</p> + +<p>"What a strange idea," responded Ruth. "I can't say I think that of +him, but I agree with you that there is something repulsive about +him. And that seems a mean thing to say, after he has given us the +use of the cabin."</p> + +<p>"How do we know it was his?" asked Alice. "It doesn't appear to me to +belong to anybody. Certainly it isn't very sumptuously furnished!" +and she looked about the place in considerable curiosity.</p> + +<p>It was devoid of anything in the way of furniture, and only a few +rough boxes were scattered about. On a stone hearth were the gray +and<a name="Page_141" id="Page_141"></a><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142"></a><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143"></a> blackened embers of a fire, and in one corner was a broken +chair.</p> + +<p>"It seems to have been deserted a long time," said Alice. "I guess +that man was passing and took shelter in here, just as we intended +to. But there's another room. We may as well inspect that, and +there's another upstairs. That may be a little better. We'll look, +Ruth."</p> + +<p>"We'll do nothing of the kind!" exclaimed Ruth. "We'll just stay +right by the door where we can run, in case—in case anything +happens," she finished, rather falteringly.</p> + +<p>"Silly!" exclaimed Alice. "There is no one in this place."</p> + +<p>"But that man might come back."</p> + +<p>"Not likely. Besides, don't you know that it's the worst thing in the +world to stand in an open doorway, before a fireplace or in a draft +of any kind when there's lightning. Lightning is always attracted by +a draft, or a chimney, or something like that."</p> + +<p>"Oh, why do you always think of such nervous, scary things?" cried +Ruth.</p> + +<p>"Because they're true," answered Alice. "And I want to get you into +the other room. We might find out something. And if you won't come +upstairs, I'll go alone."</p> + +<p>"And leave me down here? I'll not stay!"<a name="Page_144" id="Page_144"></a></p> + +<p>"Then come along. We'll investigate. We may find a clue, as they say +in books."</p> + +<p>Alice drew back from the open door, and started for the inner room. +Ruth stood for a moment, uncertain what to do. She looked across the +glade, but the strange man was not in sight. He and his umbrella had +disappeared into the depths of the woods.</p> + +<p>Just then there came another vivid flash of lightning, and such a +startling clap of thunder that Ruth, with a little scream, darted +back, and, springing across the room, clutched Alice by the arm.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm so frightened!" she gasped.</p> + +<p>"We'll be all right now—in the back room," soothed the younger girl. +"Oh, look! I believe that man does live here after all!"</p> + +<p>For the room was furnished with some chairs, a table, and in one +corner was a cot bed, with the clothes tossed aside as if someone had +lately been sleeping there. There was a small stove in the room, and +pots, pans and dishes scattered about, as if meals had been recently +cooked. A cupboard gave hint of things to eat.</p> + +<p>All this the girls took in by means of the rapid flashes of +lightning, for it was growing too dark to see well inside the cabin, +which was of logs, and with only small windows.<a name="Page_145" id="Page_145"></a></p> + +<p>"Yes, he must live here," agreed Ruth. "Oh, I hope he doesn't come +back before the storm is over, so we can get away. You'll not go +upstairs now; will you, Alice, dear?" Ruth looked pleadingly at her +sister.</p> + +<p>"No, I guess not," was the answer. "We couldn't see much, anyhow. And +if that man really lives here it wouldn't be exactly polite to go +about his place without a better invitation than we have. He spoke +truly when he called this his cabin."</p> + +<p>"Unless he just found it empty and took the use of it without asking +the owner," suggested Ruth. "I wish we knew more about him."</p> + +<p>"So do I," agreed Alice. "I wonder if he really had to go away in the +storm, or whether he knew we would not come in the cabin while he was +here, and so made an excuse to leave it to us alone?"</p> + +<p>"If he did that it certainly was very kind of him," said Ruth.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps he is bashful and shy," observed Alice. "He ran before, when +he saw us on the bridge, and now he runs away and leaves us his +house—such as it is. Clearly there is some mystery about him. Oh, +listen to the rain!"</p> + +<p>Indeed the storm was at its height now, and the girls were glad of +the shelter of the cabin.<a name="Page_146" id="Page_146"></a> As the man had said, there was a leak +somewhere in the roof, and they could hear the steady drip, drip of +water falling. But they did not see it, and the cabin seemed quite +dry. It was a shelter from the wind, too, which was now blowing +fiercely, bending the trees before the might of its blast.</p> + +<p>But, like all summer showers, this was not destined to last long. Its +fury kept up a little longer, and then began to die away. Gradually +the lightning grew less vivid, and the flashes were farther apart. +The thunder rumbled less heavily and the rain slackened. The girls +went to the entrance room and gazed out.</p> + +<p>"We can start soon," spoke Ruth. "It may sound a selfish thing to +say, but I wish that man had left us his umbrella. We'll get quite +wet going home, for the water will drip from the trees for some +time."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps he'll come back and offer us the use of it," suggested +Alice.</p> + +<p>"Don't you dare say such a thing!" exclaimed her sister. "Oh, I wish +we were home! I'm afraid daddy will worry."</p> + +<p>"I wish there was a fire in that stove," spoke Alice, musingly. "I'd +make some coffee, if I could find any. I'm quite chilly. We are wet +through, and can't be made much worse by not <a name="Page_147" id="Page_147"></a>having a umbrella. I'm +going to look and see if I can find some coffee."</p> + +<p>"Alice, don't!" objected Ruth, but her sister was already in the rear +room, and, not wanting to be left alone, Ruth followed. But, before +either of the girls had time to look about and see if it were +possible to kindle a blaze in the old stove, they heard a noise in +the room they had just left. It was the patter, as of bare feet, on +the wooden floor. Startled, the two gazed at one another. Then they +clasped their arms about each other's waists.</p> + +<p>"Did—did you hear that?" whispered Ruth.</p> + +<p>Alice nodded, and looked over her sister's shoulder toward the door +between the two rooms.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the pattering footfalls in the other apartment continued. +They seemed to be coming nearer, and there was a panting, as though +someone had run far, and was breathing hard.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII" ></a><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<h3>IN THE WOODS</h3> + + +<p>"What—what can it be?" faltered Ruth, as she clung to her sister.</p> + +<p>"I—I don't know," answered Alice, and her voice was far from steady. +"I wish we hadn't come in here."</p> + +<p>"So do I!" Ruth confessed.</p> + +<p>Nearer and nearer came the footfalls. Now the girls were able to +distinguish that they were made by some four-footed beast, and not by +a human being, for the sound came in a peculiar rhythm that was +unmistakable. Also there could be heard a panting, sniffing sound, +that could only be made by some beast.</p> + +<p>"Oh, if it's a <i>bear</i>!" gasped Ruth.</p> + +<p>"Silly!" chided Alice. She was less nervous now, for she realized, +with Ruth's remark, that there were no savage beasts in that part of +the country.</p> + +<p>"Maybe it's only a cat," Alice suggested, after a moment.<a name="Page_149" id="Page_149"></a></p> + +<p>"It's too big and heavy for a cat," objected Ruth. "Oh, there it is!" +she suddenly cried, pointing to the doorway between the two rooms, +and, looking, Alice saw a tawny animal standing looking at them in +the fast falling darkness.</p> + +<p>"It's only a dog!" cried Alice, in joyous relief. "A fine dog! Come +here, sir!" she called, for Alice could make friends with almost any +animal.</p> + +<p>But this dog, though he barked in a friendly fashion, and wagged his +tail as a flag of truce, would not come nearer. He sniffed in the +direction of the girls and then, with another bark, turned and ran +out toward the entrance door.</p> + +<p>"Come on!" called Alice. "It has stopped raining, Ruth, and maybe +that dog will follow us home. He'll be fine protection!"</p> + +<p>Ruth was not at all averse to having some sort of guardian on the +walk through the lonely woods, but when she and Alice reached the +outer room the dog, with a last look back, and a farewell bark, +trotted off across the glade in the direction taken by the strange +man with the umbrella.</p> + +<p>"He's gone!" exclaimed Alice, in disappointment. "Come back!" she +invited. "Come back, sir!" and she whistled in boyish fashion. But +<a name="Page_150" id="Page_150"></a>the dog was not to be enticed, and was soon lost in the woods.</p> + +<p>"Maybe he belonged to that man," suggested Ruth, "and came here +looking for him. What sort of a dog was it, Alice?"</p> + +<p>"A collie. The same kind Mrs. Delamont lost in the train wreck, you +know."</p> + +<p>"Oh, maybe it was her prize animal, Alice!"</p> + +<p>"How could it be? He was lost a good way from here. But it looked to +be a fine dog. Shall we go home, now?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," agreed Ruth. "We can't get much wetter, and I don't want to +stay here any longer. I know daddy will be worried about us."</p> + +<p>With a last look about the cabin, wondering what could be the +business of the man who stayed there, the girls started off. But they +had not taken three steps before they saw, coming toward them from +the other side of the clearing, two figures.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" cried Ruth, drawing back. "There comes that man, and he's got +someone with him."</p> + +<p>Alice, too, was startled and a little bit afraid, but a moment later +there came a cheerful hail.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's Russ and Paul!" Alice cried. "They have come for us!"</p> + +<p>"Thank goodness!" exclaimed Ruth, and a <a name="Page_151" id="Page_151"></a>few seconds later the four +young people were together, making mutual explanations.</p> + +<p>Mr. DeVere had indeed become worried about his daughters, when the +storm arose, and, as they had left word whither they were going, Russ +and Paul volunteered to go after them, taking raincoats and +umbrellas.</p> + +<p>"And here we are!" exclaimed Russ, as he helped Ruth on with her +garment.</p> + +<p>"And we were never so glad to see anyone in all our lives; were we?" +went on Alice, who, in spite of her brave nature, had been +considerably unnerved by the events of the last few minutes.</p> + +<p>The young men were much surprised when told about the strange man and +the dog, and they at once wanted to make an inspection of the cabin.</p> + +<p>"Who knows what we might find!" exclaimed Russ.</p> + +<p>"Wait until later, then," suggested Ruth. "Please take us home now."</p> + +<p>Russ and Paul had no choice, after that, but to take the girls back +to Oak Farm.</p> + +<p>The rain was over, but the trees still dripped with moisture and the +raincoats and umbrellas were very useful. Paul walked with Alice, +while Russ kept pace at the side of Ruth. And as the <a name="Page_152" id="Page_152"></a>four walked +together they talked of the recent happenings, speculating as to the +meaning of them all.</p> + +<p>Back in the comfortable farmhouse, clothed in dry garments, Ruth and +Alice were inclined to laugh at their scare, which, at the time, had +seemed very real.</p> + +<p>"I think that man was real kind," said Mrs. Apgar, as she heard the +story. "To leave his cabin that way."</p> + +<p>"He was, unless he had some object in view," said Sandy. "I'd like to +know what his game is. He's got some object hangin' around here, and +I'm goin' to find out what it is."</p> + +<p>"Was that his cabin?" asked Ruth.</p> + +<p>"No, that's an old shack that really belongs on this place," +explained Mr. Apgar, "but there's a dispute as to the title, so no +one really knows who owns it. 'Tain't much 'count, anyhow. But you +say he was livin' in it?"</p> + +<p>"He had it partly furnished, at any rate," said Alice. "It could be +fixed up and made into a lovely little bungalow."</p> + +<p>"Well, you folks kin do that if you like," offered Sandy. "I kin have +it fixed so that fellow won't stay there. He's got no rights: only a +squatter."</p> + +<p>"I think we'd feel safer here," returned Ruth, <a name="Page_153" id="Page_153"></a>with a smile. "That +man might come back unexpectedly."</p> + +<p>"I think I'll go up there to-morrow and have a look around," +suggested Russ. "I'd like to see more of that cabin by daylight."</p> + +<p>"And I'll go with you," offered Sandy. "I'm gittin' real interested +in this chap."</p> + +<p>But when they went up early next morning they found the place +deserted, and no signs of the strange man. There was evidence that he +had packed up some of his things, for the bed clothing was gone, with +some of the cooking utensils the girls had seen in the kitchen.</p> + +<p>"He's stolen a march on us," declared Paul, grimly.</p> + +<p>"Probably took fright because the girls located his hiding place," +said Russ.</p> + +<p>"And I reckon he is in hidin' for some reason or other," remarked +Sandy. "I wish I could have him arrested!"</p> + +<p>"What for?" Russ wanted to know. "I'm afraid you'd have hard work to +make a charge that would hold. So far he hasn't done anything that we +know of."</p> + +<p>"He could be held as a trespasser," spoke Paul. "He was in the Apgar +barn; wasn't he?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I suppose so."</p> + +<p>"That fellow's up to more than jest tres<a name="Page_154" id="Page_154"></a>passin'," declared Sandy. +"He's got some motive, and I'm goin' to find out what it is."</p> + +<p>But for the present this was out of the question. The man was gone, +and none at Oak Farm knew his whereabouts. The only thing they could +do was to wait until he showed himself again.</p> + +<p>"But having a dog was a new one," said Russ. "That is, if it was his +the girls saw."</p> + +<p>But even on this point they could not be sure. They returned to the +house, for Russ had to make several films that day.</p> + +<p>Several acts of one of the plays were to take place in the woods, and +Russ had found a spot, not far from the lonely cabin, where there was +the proper background of trees and hills.</p> + +<p>Thither the company went that afternoon, and after a little +rehearsal, Mr. Pertell gave the word for the real action of the drama +to begin.</p> + +<p>Miss Pennington and Miss Dixon were in this, as were Ruth and Alice. +There was to be a picnic scene, with a campfire at which a meal was +to be cooked, and real food had been prepared for the act.</p> + +<p>"All ready!" called the manager, when he had looked over the little +company, and seen that they were all in their proper positions. "Go +ahead, Russ!"<a name="Page_155" id="Page_155"></a></p> + +<p>For a time all went well, and then came a scream from Miss Dixon, who +jumped up with such suddenness that she upset a pitcher of lemonade +over Mr. Switzer.</p> + +<p>"Cut that out, Russ!" called the manager, sharply. "We seem to be +having all sorts of accidents of late."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm so sorry!" apologized the actress. "But I—I saw a bug!"</p> + +<p>"You usually do in der voods, my dear young lady!" said Mr. Switzer, +as he sopped up the lemonade from his trousers with his handkerchief. +"Und, if it iss all der same mit you, I vould like to have my oder +lemonade on der insides of me und not on der outsides, ef you pliss!"</p> + +<p>It took some little time to get matters straightened out, so that the +making of the film could proceed. Several scenes were successfully +made, and they were ready for the final one, when this time Miss +Pennington screamed.</p> + +<p>"Another bug?" asked Mr. Pertell, and he was a bit sarcastic over it, +for several little things had bothered him that day.</p> + +<p>"No, it's a snake! A snake! See, he's coming right for me!" and +deserting the scene Miss Pennington made for a broad stump, upon +which she jumped, screaming.<a name="Page_156" id="Page_156"></a></p> + +<p>"Snake! Call that a snake!" cried Russ, as he picked up a rather +large and squirming angleworm.</p> + +<p>"Oh, put it down—the horrid thing!" begged Miss Dixon, who had +joined her friend on the stump.</p> + +<p>"Poor little thing!" laughed Russ, as he tossed the worm into a clump +of leaves. "Go home and tell your folks you scared two brave young +ladies!"</p> + +<p>"Smarty!" exclaimed Miss Pennington, with a vindictive look at the +moving picture operator, who had left his camera when the scene was +broken up.</p> + +<p>Once again matters were arranged and the taking of the film went on +as before. But that was a day destined to be fraught with adventures +of more or less moment.</p> + +<p>In one scene Mr. Sneed had to pose as a wood chopper, and, to make it +more realistic he was to fell a small tree. This action on his part +had cost him no little time and trouble, for he was not proficient in +the use of the axe. For several days the actor had had Sandy +"coaching" him until he could do fairly well.</p> + +<p>"We'll try that tree-cutting scene now," said Mr. Pertell, after a +bit. "Get ready for that, Russ. And, whatever you do, Mr. Sneed, +don't <a name="Page_157" id="Page_157"></a>have the tree fall on the camera. I don't want all the film +spoiled."</p> + +<p>Soon all was in readiness for the final act of the day. Mr. Sneed +swung his axe with vigorous strokes and the keen weapon bit deep into +the wood. Alice and Ruth, who were acting with him, went through +their parts in the little play.</p> + +<p>At times Mr. Sneed would pause to go through some other "business," +and then resume his chopping.</p> + +<p>"Look out," warned Sandy Apgar, who was one of the characters in the +act. "She'll fall in a minute."</p> + +<p>"Yes, get from under," advised Russ. "I'll get a good picture of the +tree coming down."</p> + +<p>Mr. Sneed ran out of the way, as a cracking warned him that the tree +was going to fall. It was not a large one, but it had very heavy and +thick foliage.</p> + +<p>Crash! Down came the tree, and then followed a cry of alarm.</p> + +<p>"Ach! I am killet! I am caught under der tree!"</p> + +<p>"Great Scott! Another accident!" groaned Mr. Pertell. "This certainly +is a hoodoo day!" and they all ran to where Mr. Switzer had been +pinned.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII" ></a><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + +<h3>GOING TO SCHOOL</h3> + + +<p>Fortunately for the German actor, he had been far enough away when +the tree came down, so that only the top part of it, consisting of +little branches and leaves, fell on him. In fact, he was not even +knocked down by the impact, but stood up right in the midst of the +foliage, his frightened blue eyes and rumpled light hair standing out +from amid the maze of green in a curious fashion.</p> + +<p>"Vot for you do dot to me?" demanded Mr. Switzer of the grouchy actor +who had chopped the tree. "Dot vos not in the act; vos it, Mr. +Pertell?"</p> + +<p>"No, but as long as you're not hurt we'll leave it in. It will make a +little variety. Why didn't you get out of the way?"</p> + +<p>"Nobody tolt me to. I t'ought Herr Sneed knowed vot he vos doin' by +der tree yet! Vhy shoult I get der vay oudt?"<a name="Page_159" id="Page_159"></a></p> + +<p>"Well, I knew something would happen when I tried to chop a tree," +grumbled the author of the mischief.</p> + +<p>"As long as it's nothing very bad we'll forgive you," went on the +manager.</p> + +<p>"Und I forgif him, too," spoke the German. "Only he must now use his +axe again und get me out of dis. I am helt fast yet!"</p> + +<p>This was true enough, for the branches, though not heavy enough to +have caused any injury, were quite thick, and fairly hemmed Mr. +Switzer in.</p> + +<p>"Better let me lop off a few," suggested Sandy, and they agreed that +as the chopping would have to be done quite close to the imprisoned +one, a more expert hand had better do it.</p> + +<p>Sandy quickly had cut a way so the actor could emerge, and at Mr. +Pertell's suggestion Russ made moving pictures of it.</p> + +<p>"I'll have a new scene written in the play to fit this," the manager +said. "Mr. Bunn, I think you might climb that tree over there," and +he indicated one within range of the camera.</p> + +<p>"Climb a tree! Me!" exclaimed the actor. "What for, pray?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I'll have a scene fixed up to indicate that the party gets +lost in the woods, and you climb a tree to see if you can spy any +landmarks <a name="Page_160" id="Page_160"></a>to lead them out of their plight. Just shin up that tree, +if you please, and put your hand over your eyes when you get up high +enough to see across the tops of the other trees. You know—register +that you are looking for the path."</p> + +<p>"I refuse to do it!" cried Wellington Bunn. "To climb a tree is +beneath my dignity."</p> + +<p>"Then climb a tree and get above it," suggested the manager, drily. +"You've got to climb; I want you in this scene."</p> + +<p>The tall actor groaned, but there was no help for it. Up he went, not +without many misgivings and grunts, for he was not an athlete.</p> + +<p>"I say!" he cried, when part way up, "if I fall and get hurt you'll +have to pay me damages, Mr. Pertell."</p> + +<p>"You won't get hurt much," was the not very comforting answer. "And +you won't fall, if you keep a tight hold with your arms and legs. But +if you do, there's lots of soft moss at the foot of the tree."</p> + +<p>"Oh, this life! This terrible life!" groaned Mr. Bunn. "Why did I +ever go into moving pictures?"</p> + +<p>No one answered him. Perhaps they thought the reason was that he had +outlived his drawing powers in the legitimate drama.</p> + +<p>Finally he reached the top of the tree, and<a name="Page_161" id="Page_161"></a><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162"></a><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163"></a> pretended to be +looking for a path for the lost ones, while Russ, always at the +camera, successfully filmed him.</p> + +<p>"That's enough—come on down," ordered Mr. Pertell. Mr. Bunn came +down more quickly than he went up, and the last few feet he slid down +so rapidly that he scratched his hands, and tore his trousers.</p> + +<p>"You'll have to pay for them," he said, ruefully, as he looked at the +rent.</p> + +<p>"Put it in your expense bill," suggested the manager. "We'll do +anything in reason. And now let's get back before anything else +happens. Is to-day Friday, the thirteenth?" he asked with a smile, +for really a number of occurrences out of the ordinary had taken +place. Fortunately, however, none of the accidents was serious, and +no films were spoiled.</p> + +<p>Several days passed, one or two of them rather lazy ones, for the +weather grew hotter and Mr. Pertell did not want to overburden his +players. Russ and Paul took advantage of the little holiday to pay +several visits to the cabin in the woods, but they saw no traces of +the mysterious man.</p> + +<p>"I have something new for you to-day," remarked the manager one +morning to the actors and actresses.<a name="Page_164" id="Page_164"></a></p> + +<p>"Water scenes?" asked Russ, with a sly glance at Alice.</p> + +<p>"No, this is on dry land. You're going to school for a change."</p> + +<p>"Going to school!" they all echoed.</p> + +<p>"Yes. I've a new play, and some of the scenes take place in a school +room. I'll only want the younger ones in this, though. Miss Ruth and +Miss Alice, Paul and Tommy and Nellie."</p> + +<p>"Only the younger ones! Well, I like that!" sniffed Miss Pennington, +powdering her nose. "As if we were old maids!"</p> + +<p>"The idea!" gasped Miss Dixon. "Those DeVere girls think they are the +whole show!"</p> + +<p>"I should say they did!"</p> + +<p>But it was not the fault of Alice and Ruth that they were young and +pretty.</p> + +<p>"It won't be a very large class—with just us five in it," remarked +Paul.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm going to use some of the regular school children," said the +manager. "I've made arrangements with the teacher. We're to go to the +schoolhouse this afternoon. Here are your parts—it's a simple little +thing," he added, as he distributed the typewritten sheets. "Study +'em a bit, we'll have a little rehearsal, and then we'll film it."<a name="Page_165" id="Page_165"></a></p> + +<p>It was not as easy as Mr. Pertell had thought it would be to get the +little scenes in the country school. His own players were all right, +but the regular school children were either too bashful or too +bold—particularly some of the boys. And, just as one side of the +room would get quiet, and Russ would be ready to grind out the film, +the other side would break out into disorder caused by some +mischievous boy.</p> + +<p>The children did not really mean to cause trouble, but it was a new +thing for them to be made subjects for moving pictures. They would +persist in staring straight at the camera, instead of pretending to +study their lessons as they should have done.</p> + +<p>But finally they were induced to go properly through their little +scene, and the action of the play began. At one part Alice was to go +to the blackboard to do a sum in arithmetic, and Paul was to pass her +a little love note. This was to be intercepted by Ruth, and then the +trouble began—trouble of a jealous nature, all being woven into a +little country romance that had its start in the schoolhouse.</p> + +<p>All was going well, and Russ was clicking merrily away at the camera, +when suddenly one of the real pupils—a red-haired boy—cried at the +top of his voice:<a name="Page_166" id="Page_166"></a></p> + +<p>"Bees! Look out for the bees! There's a swarm of bees headed this +way!"</p> + +<p>And through the open windows of the school there came a curious +humming sound.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX" ></a><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2> + +<h3>FILMING THE BEES</h3> + + +<p>There was an instant scramble on the part of the school children. +They made a rush for the door.</p> + +<p>"Stop! Keep still—you're spoiling the scene!" cried Mr. Pertell, +fairly hopping about in his excitement.</p> + +<p>The humming sound came nearer, and there was more haste on the part +of the youngsters to leave the schoolroom. The players, on the other +hand, seemed to feel no alarm; but there was no use in going on with +their parts if the others did not carry out the scene.</p> + +<p>"Stop! Stop!" cried the manager. "There's no danger!"</p> + +<p>"No danger!" cried the red-haired boy who had given the alarm. "What +d'ye call that! Wow!" and he slapped the back of his neck vigorously.</p> + +<p>"I'm stung!" he yelled.<a name="Page_168" id="Page_168"></a></p> + +<p>"So'm I!" cried a girl near him.</p> + +<p>"Me, too!" exclaimed another boy.</p> + +<p>The humming sound was much louder now, and several small insects +could be seen flying about the room.</p> + +<p>"I guess we'd better get out of this!" cried Russ, as he prepared to +abandon his camera.</p> + +<p>"It would be best," advised the teacher. "There is a swarm of bees +outside, and some of them are in here. They may sting all of us."</p> + +<p>"Well, this is a new one—a moving picture spoiled by bees!" cried +Mr. Pertell. "I never——"</p> + +<p>"One got me!" interrupted Mr. Sneed. "I knew something would happen. +If there's anything going I get it—from bulldogs to bees!"</p> + +<p>He began rubbing vigorously at his cheek, where a bee had saluted him +too ardently.</p> + +<p>"Come on—everybody out!" ordered Mr. Pertell, making slaps at a bee +that was buzzing angrily around his head. There was no need to give +this direction to the school children, for they were already outside, +and now the teacher hastened out, while the moving picture players +lost no time in following her example.</p> + +<p>"Ouch! One got me that time!" cried Paul, who was hurrying out at the +side of Alice.</p> + +<p>"Did it hurt much?" she asked.<a name="Page_169" id="Page_169"></a></p> + +<p>"Not much now; but it will more, later," he said, as he examined his +wrist to see if the bee's sting had been left in, as that would make +an ugly sore. "I've been stung several times before, and when it +swells up, and itches, then it's really bad. Let's go find a mud +puddle."</p> + +<p>"What in the world for?" she asked curiously.</p> + +<p>"Mud is the best thing for a bee sting when you can't get ammonia," +Paul explained. "Just plaster some mud on, and it draws out the pain. +I don't know the theory, except that when a bee stings you he injects +some sort of acid poison under the skin. Mud and ammonia are +alkalies, and are opposed to acid, so the chemists say."</p> + +<p>"Then I'll help you look for a mud puddle," she said.</p> + +<p>There was considerable excitement now, for a number of the school +children had been stung, and one or two of the players.</p> + +<p>"That's the idea—mud!" cried Sandy, as he saw what Paul was doing. +"Bring the children over here, Miss Arthur," he said to the pretty +school teacher, "and we'll help doctor 'em."</p> + +<p>"Oh, thank you," she answered. "Here, children, over this way."</p> + +<p>Soon a number of the little tots were gathered about her, and Ruth +and Alice, who offered to help doctor their stings. Miss Pennington +and<a name="Page_170" id="Page_170"></a> Miss Dixon, who had come to watch the film being made, had, at +the first alarm, gone far enough off so that they were in no danger +of being stung.</p> + +<p>The bees, in a big cloud, were flying slowly about the school, only a +comparatively few having entered the window to rout the pupils. +Suddenly Russ darted back into the building.</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do?" asked Mr. Pertell, who was fretting over +the spoiling of the school scene film.</p> + +<p>"I'm going to get my camera," he called back over his shoulder. "I'm +going to make a film of this. Look, there comes the bee man after his +swarm."</p> + +<p>Across the field came running several men, and one of them carried a +dishpan on which he was vigorously beating with an iron spoon.</p> + +<p>Another had a dinner bell which he clanged constantly.</p> + +<p>"Great Scott!" cried Mr. Pertell, "What does all this mean?"</p> + +<p>"They're trying to make the swarm settle, so they can put 'em back in +a hive," explained Sandy. "You see, a swarm of bees is valuable this +time of year. There's an old saying, 'a swarm of bees in May is worth +a load of hay; a swarm of bees in June is worth a silver spoon; but a +swarm in July ain't worth a fly.' That means a swarm in<a name="Page_171" id="Page_171"></a> May will +make enough honey to be worth a load of hay, more or less, but in +July th' season is so far gone that th' bees won't make more than +enough for themselves durin' th' winter."</p> + +<p>"I see!" said Mr. Pertell. "Well, I guess Russ has a good idea—we'll +get a moving picture of them hiving the swarm. But what do the men +make all that noise for?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, there's a notion that bees will settle down in a bunch around +th' queen, and not fly away if they hear a racket. I don't know +whether it's true or not. Some folks spray 'em with water, and that +usually fetches 'em."</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Russ came out with the camera and began taking pictures of +the odd scene. First he got pictures of Ruth, Alice and the teacher +applying mud to the stings of the children.</p> + +<p>"Well, we'll get a good film out of it, after all," said Mr. Pertell. +"And we can do the school room scene over again after the excitement +calms down."</p> + +<p>Then Russ began taking pictures of the men making a noise to try and +induce the bees to settle. The men themselves seemed to enjoy being +filmed. They wore veils of mosquito netting, draped over their +broad-brimmed hats, for they approached close to the bees, which were +now flying low.<a name="Page_172" id="Page_172"></a></p> + +<p>"I'd like to get a near view of these bees," said Russ, "but I don't +fancy getting too close. It's no fun to be stung eight or ten times."</p> + +<p>"I'll lend you my hat," offered one of the men and, thus protected, +Russ moved his camera closer and got a fine view of the swarm of +honey-making insects as they alighted on the low branch of an apple +tree.</p> + +<p>"Git the hive, now, sir!" called another of the men, and while the +hive was brought up, to receive the bunch of bees when they should be +knocked into it, with their queen, about whom they were clustered, +Russ got a fine film of that.</p> + +<p>Afterward Sandy explained how bees swarm. A colony of bees will +permit but one queen in a hive. Sometimes, when a new one is hatched, +the swarm divides, part of the bees going off with the new, or +sometimes the old queen, to form a new colony.</p> + +<p>This is called "swarming," and the idea is to capture the new swarm, +and so increase your number of colonies. Sometimes the bees will go +off to the woods, and make a home for themselves in a hollow tree, +being thus lost to the keeper. A swarm of bees will make in a season +many pounds of honey more than they need to feed themselves during +the winter.</p> + +<p>Sandy explained how faithful and devoted a <a name="Page_173" id="Page_173"></a>colony of bees is to +their queen, which is the bee that lays eggs out of which are hatched +drones, or male bees, and the workers. There is a peculiar kind of +honey called "queen bread," and sometimes, it is said by some, when a +queen bee dies, the workers will select a "cell" containing an egg +that will eventually hatch, and surround this egg with queen bread so +that when the insect develops enough, it can feed on that instead of +on ordinary honey.</p> + +<p>This is said to change the character of the insect and make a queen +of it to replace the one that has died. Or, if this is not done the +queenless colony may merge with another that has a queen.</p> + +<p>In order to prevent the hatching of too many queens the bee keeper +will examine his hives frequently, and cut out all the "queen cells," +thus preventing them from hatching and so causing the bees to swarm +frequently.</p> + +<p>They all watched while the men shook the cluster of bees into the new +hive, and carried them away, Russ, meanwhile getting a fine film of +the operation. Later this film was shown with much success in New +York, so that, after all, the interruption of the school scene had a +happy outcome. Later the little play was finished.</p> + +<p>"Whew!" exclaimed Paul, when it was all <a name="Page_174" id="Page_174"></a>over. "That was some going +on, all right!"</p> + +<p>"Does your sting hurt much?" asked Alice, solicitously.</p> + +<p>"I think it would be better for some ammonia," he replied.</p> + +<p>"I'll put some on for you when we get back to the house," she +offered, "and some witch hazel, too."</p> + +<p>"It feels better already—just with the thought of that," he answered +gallantly.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX" ></a><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2> + +<h3>THAT MAN</h3> + + +<p>"Well, ladies and gentlemen, we will now get ready for our big play," +announced Manager Pertell to his company of actors and actresses one +morning. "It will be the biggest farm drama we have yet attempted. +One scene will include the burning of the barn, and the rescue of one +of you ladies from the structure."</p> + +<p>"Not any of that for mine," remarked Miss Pennington, pertly. "I'm +not going to run any chances in a burning building."</p> + +<p>"There won't be any chances," returned Mr. Pertell, quietly. "I will +have everything arranged in advance so that there will be no danger. +That is why I want to start in plenty of time. We will have a number +of rehearsals. I am going to have part of the roof of the barn cut +away before we start the fire."</p> + +<p>"What for?" asked Russ.</p> + +<p>"So there will be no danger of anyone getting <a name="Page_176" id="Page_176"></a>caught in the burning +structure. The cut-out section can be placed back again, after it is +sawed, or chopped out, and it will not show in the picture. But it +will be a measure of safety. Now, Russ, you come out with me and +we'll figure on the best position to get the pictures, and the best +part of the roof to cut away."</p> + +<p>"Who's going to be rescued?" asked Miss Dixon. "If it's all the same +to you I'd rather not be one of those characters."</p> + +<p>"You won't be," replied Mr. Pertell, with a laugh. "I have cast Alice +and Ruth for that. There'll be a double rescue scene."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't know that I can do it very well," said Ruth, quickly, +though she did not say she was afraid.</p> + +<p>"You can do it all right," declared Mr. Pertell, confidently. "In +fact, you won't have to do anything, except allow yourself to be +carried down a ladder. You see, you and your sister will pretend to +be caught in the burning barn. The only way to get you out is through +the roof.</p> + +<p>"Paul Ardite, as a farmer's son, goes up a ladder and chops a hole in +the roof. But the roof will be sawed away beforehand. You see, I want +no delay with you inside the burning structure. Then Paul carries you +down the ladder, and Mr. Sneed will rescue Alice.<a name="Page_177" id="Page_177"></a></p> + +<p>"That will be fine!" cried Alice, in her lively manner. "I've always +wanted to be carried down a ladder. You won't mind; will you, Daddy?" +and she appealed to Mr. DeVere.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I guess not, if the ladder is good and firm," he replied in his +husky voice.</p> + +<p>"That's just the point; it won't be!" predicted Mr. Sneed in his +usually gloomy manner. "It's bound to break!"</p> + +<p>"Comforting; isn't he?" laughed Alice. "I'm not afraid, Mr. Sneed."</p> + +<p>"No, but I am," he went on. "I don't want that part, Mr. Pertell."</p> + +<p>"You'll have to take it," said the manager, decidedly. "I have no +other one I can cast for the part."</p> + +<p>"Can't you give it to Mr. Bunn?" asked the "grouch."</p> + +<p>"Eh? What's that? Me carry someone from a burning building? Not +much!" exclaimed the tragic actor. "I resign right now."</p> + +<p>"Well, I must say neither of you is very gallant," laughed Alice. +"Paul, I guess you'll have to rescue both of us!"</p> + +<p>"I'd be pleased to do it!" he retorted, gaily.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I suppose I can manage it," grumbled Mr. Sneed, fairly shamed +into taking the part.</p> + +<p>"Good!" exclaimed the manager. "Mr. Bunn, <a name="Page_178" id="Page_178"></a>you will be one of the +fire-fighters in the bucket brigade. You'll help pass the buckets of +water along to put out the fire."</p> + +<p>"What? I become a country fireman?" demanded the tall-hatted actor.</p> + +<p>"Certainly."</p> + +<p>"I refuse! I will take no such part. I cannot lower myself to it."</p> + +<p>"Very well," said Mr. Pertell, calmly. "You may resign, but you know +what it means—no more engagements."</p> + +<p>"Oh, give me the screed," returned the actor, petulantly. "I'll do +it!"</p> + +<p>Preparations for the rural play went on apace. The barn-burning scene +was only one of many, though it was the climax. Rehearsals began and +Russ and Mr. Pertell decided on the barn incidents and the place +where the roof was to be cut.</p> + +<p>A carpenter had been engaged to do this properly, so that it would +not show in the moving picture that the roof had been fixed in +advance.</p> + +<p>In order to have the big play a success Mr. Pertell allowed the +players to rehearse leisurely and at considerable length. There was +plenty of rest for all. On one afternoon Paul and Russ, when there +was nothing to do, paid another visit to the cabin in the woods, to +see if there were any signs of the mysterious man. But he was not +<a name="Page_179" id="Page_179"></a>there, nor was there any evidence that he had returned to the place. +Nor had he been seen about the farm since. He and his dog, if it was +his, seemed to have disappeared.</p> + +<p>The summer was now passing, and the character of work on the farm +changed with the advancing season. Threshing time came, and several +good films were obtained of the men at work at the big machine which +went from farm to farm to thresh the grain.</p> + +<p>Mr. Pertell built a little play about the work, the principal scene +in one being where the threshers were at work, and afterward they +were shown at dinner in the open air. And such appetites as those men +had! A number of Mrs. Apgar's neighbors came over to help her cook, +as is usually the case when the threshers come, so altogether some +good films were obtained of this phase of rural life.</p> + +<p>Getting in the hay was another occasion for making some interesting +pictures, and Alice, as she had longed to do, was allowed to ride in +on one of the big loads. Afterward, when it was put into the barns +she jumped into the soft and fragrant pile of the mow, and was filmed +that way, the scene to be used in one of the many rural dramas.</p> + +<p>In fact, all sorts of scenes about the farm were <a name="Page_180" id="Page_180"></a>caught on the +films, to be used later as plays should develop. The farm animals, +too, made up some of the pictures, and the mule which ran away with +Mr. Bunn was used for some comic pictures. Mr. Pertell, however, did +not ask anyone to ride him, as he wanted no accidents. In fact, it is +doubtful if he could have gotten any of his company to try this, even +through fear of discharge.</p> + +<p>"We'll have a rehearsal of the barn-burning scene to-day," announced +Mr. Pertell one morning. "It has gone off pretty well so far, and if +there is no hitch to-day we'll film it to-morrow and get the real +picture. Everybody ready, now."</p> + +<p>"Are we to be carried down the ladders?" asked Ruth, for the former +rehearsals had not included this.</p> + +<p>"I think so," answered the manager. "The carpenter promised to be +here to cut the roof, too, so we may be able to go through the whole +scene just as we will in the play. Russ, you come out and watch, and +select the best places for your camera, so there will be no hitch +to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"I hope that ladder will be good and strong," remarked Mr. Sneed. "I +wouldn't want it to break with me on it."<a name="Page_181" id="Page_181"></a></p> + +<p>"Nor would I," laughed Alice. "Still, that might make a funny picture +for you, Mr. Pertell."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Alice!" chided Ruth.</p> + +<p>"The ladder is all right—it's a new one," said Paul. "I've seen it, +and given it a trial. It would even hold Pop Snooks, and he's our +heavy-weight."</p> + +<p>"I made that ladder myself," said the property man.</p> + +<p>"I hope it isn't like the imitation fence you made once, that came +down with Mr. Switzer," said Ruth.</p> + +<p>"Ach, himmel! I hopes not!" exclaimed the German actor. "Dot voult be +too bad. It vos bad unough to fall on der fence, but a latter—ach!"</p> + +<p>"Don't worry," said Pop. "The ladder will hold an elephant. I have +tried it a dozen times."</p> + +<p>The moving picture players were gathered about the barn, and the +preliminary scenes were rehearsed. The carpenter had come and as soon +as he had made the cut in the roof, the more important parts of the +play would be gone through with.</p> + +<p>The ladder had been tested and found to be perfectly secure, so that +any little fear Mr. De <a name="Page_182" id="Page_182"></a>Vere may have had for the safety of his +daughters was dispelled.</p> + +<p>"Well, now we're ready for the main scene, I think," said Mr. +Pertell. "Carpenter, you can get busy while we take a rest."</p> + +<p>As Ruth and Alice, with Paul and Russ, were walking off toward a +little clump of trees, to sit down in the shade, Alice, glancing +across the fields, saw a figure that caused her to cry out:</p> + +<p>"That man! That lame man! There he is!"</p> + +<p>"And this time he doesn't get away from us!" cried Paul, as he darted +toward the mysterious stranger.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI" ></a><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2> + +<h3>A CHASE</h3> + + +<p>The unknown interloper pursued his usual tactics. That is, he turned +and fled as soon as he saw Paul coming toward him. And he went +surprisingly fast for a lame man. Alice was the first to notice this.</p> + +<p>"Look!" she cried. "That man limps hardly at all now."</p> + +<p>"That's so," agreed Ruth. "Perhaps he only did that as a disguise."</p> + +<p>"Excuse me!" called Russ. "I've got to get in on this chase," and he +left the two girls, and ran after Paul, who had started ahead of him.</p> + +<p>"Oh, please be careful!" cried Ruth, nervously.</p> + +<p>"Does that mean Paul—or Russ?" asked Alice, mischievously.</p> + +<p>"Both!" said Ruth, with decision. "That man may be a desperate +character."</p> + +<p>"He doesn't act so," declared Alice, with a laugh. "See, he is +running away."<a name="Page_184" id="Page_184"></a></p> + +<p>"Yes, but if the boys catch him he may turn on them—and he may—he +may have a weapon, Alice."</p> + +<p>"Don't be silly, Ruth. Paul and Russ are able to look out for +themselves. But how fast that man can run!"</p> + +<p>The stranger was indeed making good time across the fields, and Russ +and Paul did not seem to be catching up to him very fast. He had had +a good start.</p> + +<p>The other members of the company had gone in a different direction, +and as the chase had started behind the old barn, neither Mr. Pertell +nor any of the others could see what was taking place.</p> + +<p>"What had we better do?" asked Ruth, with much anxiety.</p> + +<p>"I don't see that we can do anything," replied Alice. "We certainly +can't join in the pursuit."</p> + +<p>"No, but we might tell someone—give an alarm," went on Ruth.</p> + +<p>"No," decided Alice, after a moment of thought. "I think Russ and +Paul can do better alone. We don't know what that man has done, if +anything, and perhaps when the boys catch up to him he may be able to +offer a perfectly good explanation. Then, in case we had set others +after him, it would not be fair to him. Besides, <a name="Page_185" id="Page_185"></a>if you think there +is danger you oughtn't to want any more to share it."</p> + +<p>"That is so," agreed Ruth. "Perhaps it will be better to let them try +by themselves."</p> + +<p>But Paul and Russ evidently were going to have no easy task in +capturing the mysterious man. He was running well now, and limping +scarcely at all. Either he had feigned it before, or had, in the +meanwhile, recovered from his injury.</p> + +<p>The two girls watched the chase until a depression in the fields hid +the three from sight.</p> + +<p>"We'd better go back," suggested Ruth, after a bit.</p> + +<p>"Yes," agreed Alice, "but we won't tell the others what has +happened."</p> + +<p>As it turned out, however, the girls were not able to carry out this +intention. For Mr. Pertell had a new idea in regard to some of the +scenes, and wanted to consult with Russ about it.</p> + +<p>"Where is he?" the manager asked, coming from the farmhouse with a +bundle of papers in his hand, after having called a rest period in +the barn-burning rehearsals.</p> + +<p>"He's after—that man," replied Alice, hesitatingly, and then she +told what had happened.</p> + +<p>"That man again!" cried Sandy Apgar, who overheard what was said. +"He'll not get away this time. I'm goin' after him on a hoss!"<a name="Page_186" id="Page_186"></a></p> + +<p>He hurried to the stable, and leaped on the back of one of the +lighter farm animals, not even stopping for a saddle.</p> + +<p>"Which way was he headed?" he asked the girls.</p> + +<p>Ruth and Alice showed him, and Sandy set off over the fields in a +strange cross-country run, with a man-hunt at the end of it.</p> + +<p>There was nothing for the company of players to do but await the +outcome, while the chase was kept up.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, what of Russ, Paul and the mysterious man?</p> + +<p>When Paul turned around, after being on the chase for a little time, +and saw Russ coming toward him, he stopped to allow the young moving +picture operator to come up to him. For he saw that the pursuit was +to be a long one, and the man had such a start of him that a few +seconds' delay would make no difference.</p> + +<p>On and on over the fields went the stranger, until he was headed down +a highway.</p> + +<p>"When he gets on that it will be easier going," remarked Russ.</p> + +<p>"Yes, for both of us," agreed Paul. "I wonder what in the world his +game can be, anyhow?"</p> + +<p>"We'll find out—if we ever get him," panted<a name="Page_187" id="Page_187"></a> Russ. "Come on! This is +going to be 'some run,' as the poets say."</p> + +<p>The man gained the highway, and raced along that for some distance. +Paul and Russ tried to take a short cut across the field to reach the +same road, but they got into a marshy place and sank in, nearly up to +their knees.</p> + +<p>"He knew this was here!" cried Russ, as he drew himself out of a +sticky place.</p> + +<p>"He evidently did, and avoided it," agreed his friend. "And we +blundered into it—worse luck!"</p> + +<p>They had considerable difficulty in reaching the road, and by that +time the mysterious man was even further in advance. But they +pluckily kept to the chase.</p> + +<p>"There he is!" cried Russ, as they came to a turn in the road, and +saw a straight stretch before them. "He hasn't gained so very much."</p> + +<p>The man was running well, and there seemed to be no return of his +lameness.</p> + +<p>The neighborhood was a lonely one, and there were no houses in sight. +Nor had the young men engaged in the chase met any persons since +starting out.</p> + +<p>Doggedly they kept on.</p> + +<p>"This would make a good picture film!" exclaimed Russ.<a name="Page_188" id="Page_188"></a></p> + +<p>"It sure would," agreed Paul. "Only we haven't time to do it. Say, he +can run some; can't he?"</p> + +<p>"He sure can. Oh, look at that, would you!" cried Russ.</p> + +<p>They had now come in sight of a white house, standing back a little +from the road. And in front of the house stood an automobile +runabout.</p> + +<p>What caused Russ to cry out was the sight of the mysterious man +leaping into the auto, the engine of which had evidently been left +running. In another moment he was off down the road, going at the +limit of speed of the machine.</p> + +<p>"Well, we might as well give up now," said Paul, coming to a stop. +"I'm done up, anyhow."</p> + +<p>"Same here," agreed Russ. "That is, unless we can find another auto."</p> + +<p>They saw a man run from the farmhouse from in front of which the auto +had been so audaciously taken. He was a physician, it appeared.</p> + +<p>"The idea! The idea!" he cried. "That perfect stranger ran up and +took my auto. Was he a friend of yours?" he asked as Russ and Paul +came up. He looked at them suspiciously.</p> + +<p>"A friend! No indeed!" exclaimed Paul. "We want to catch him; but we +can't do it now."</p> + +<p>They heard the sound of hoofbeats in the road behind them, and, +turning, they saw Sandy com<a name="Page_189" id="Page_189"></a>ing along on the farm horse. He had taken +a short cut, guessing or hoping that the chase would lead that way.</p> + +<p>"Where is he?" cried the young farmer, as he galloped up.</p> + +<p>"Gone!" replied Paul.</p> + +<p>"In an auto," added Russ.</p> + +<p>"My auto," corrected the doctor. "The impertinent chap had the nerve +to take my machine, and I need it, too."</p> + +<p>"I'll get him!" cried Sandy, as he clapped his heels to the side of +his panting horse.</p> + +<p>"You can never get him while he's in that machine!" called Paul.</p> + +<p>"Maybe the auto will have a break-down!" the young farmer answered +over his shoulder. "Such things have happened."</p> + +<p>"Indeed they have—to me often enough," remarked the doctor. "I have +had more break-downs in that car than I like to remember. But just +when we want one, so we may be able to catch that scoundrel, it may +not happen."</p> + +<p>"If Mr. Sneed was here he'd be sure to cause something to happen," +remarked Russ, jokingly. Sandy galloped on down the road after the +mysterious man in the automobile he had so daringly taken.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII" ></a><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2> + +<h3>CAUGHT</h3> + + +<p>There was considerable excitment about Oak Farm when Russ and Paul +returned from their unsuccessful chase after the mysterious man, +leaving Sandy to continue the hunt. All the players, and a number of +the hired men, were discussing the occurrence, and eagerly +questioning Ruth and Alice as to what they knew and had seen. This +was little enough, however.</p> + +<p>When Russ and Paul came up, still breathing hard after their run, +they added what they knew.</p> + +<p>"Vy shouldn't ve make ourselves yet into a committee und all go after +him?" asked Mr. Switzer. "Dot feller ought to be caught."</p> + +<p>"That's true enough," agreed Mr. Pertell; "but we're here to make +moving pictures, and we can't do it if the whole company chases after +that fellow."</p> + +<p>"Besides, something might happen," remarked Mr. Sneed, gloomily. "He +might have a gun and shoot us."<a name="Page_191" id="Page_191"></a></p> + +<p>"Then I'm glad you girls didn't keep on after him," said Mr. DeVere +in his hoarse voice. "I wish you would take no further part in this +affair, Ruth and Alice," and he spoke earnestly.</p> + +<p>"Don't worry, Daddy," laughed Alice. "I'm sure, after all, that the +man isn't dangerous. He wouldn't hurt us, that's certain, for he +loaned us the use of his cabin, and he was very polite about it."</p> + +<p>"He doesn't seem to care about us," added Ruth. "For he runs every +time he sees us. Is there anything peculiar about us?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Russ, "there is."</p> + +<p>"What?"</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you—some other time," he informed her, and Ruth grew rosy +red.</p> + +<p>"Well, I suppose we could go on with the barn-burning scene," said +Mr. Pertell, when the chase had been discussed in all its phases. "I +did want Sandy on hand, though, as representing his father, the owner +of the farm, in case anything happens."</p> + +<p>"I won't own the farm much longer," said Felix Apgar sadly. "The sale +will come off next week, and then I s'pose we'll be turned out bag +and baggage, Mother."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Pa, I hate to hear you talk that way," she said, as she put her +trembling hand in his.<a name="Page_192" id="Page_192"></a> The old couple made a pathetic picture as +they stood together on the porch of the white house—the house that +had been their home so many years, but out of which they were soon to +be turned by a cruel shift of fate.</p> + +<p>"Cheer up!" said Pop Snooks, who had a leisure hour. "It's always +darkest just before dawn, you know. Something may happen to save the +farm for you."</p> + +<p>"I'm too old to believe in miracles," replied Mr. Apgar, with a shake +of his head. "Come on in the house, Mother, and we'll begin to pack. +They can't take our things from us, anyhow, though where we'll go the +Lord only knows."</p> + +<p>"Why, you won't have to move out, even after the mortgage was +foreclosed," said Alice, as she slipped her arm about the waist of +the trembling old lady. "I heard the sheriff say you could stay on +for some time yet."</p> + +<p>"I know, dearie, but it wouldn't be <i>our</i> farm, and Pa and me +wouldn't feel like stayin' when Squire Bladsell owns it. It would be +like livin' on charity. No, we'll go as soon as the sale is over. But +you're a dear, good girl to try and help us."</p> + +<p>"They have helped us a lot, Mother—all of 'em!" exclaimed Mr. Apgar. +"You movin' picture folks have been real kind to us, and the <a name="Page_193" id="Page_193"></a>money +you paid for the use of the farm come in mighty handy, seein' that +some of the crops wasn't over and above good. Yes, we'll never forget +you—never."</p> + +<p>He and his wife turned into the house, and the hired men went about +their tasks.</p> + +<p>"I suppose we'll have to wait until Sandy comes back," spoke Mr. +Pertell. "I don't want to set the barn afire until he's here. For, +not only do I want him on hand, as I said, to represent his father, +but I'm depending on him to lead his men, and some of the others, in +an attempt to put out the fire. I want plenty of action in this +scene. So we'll wait."</p> + +<p>"I wonder what has happened to him?" mused Ruth. But no one knew.</p> + +<p>The carpenter Mr. Pertell had hired to cut away part of the roof +asked if he should set about his task.</p> + +<p>"No, I think we'll wait until Sandy comes back," replied the manager. +"You can get all ready, though. Russ, I suppose your camera is in +shape?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes. In fact I've got two—one for emergencies."</p> + +<p>"That's good. Plenty of film on hand?"</p> + +<p>"All we'll need, I think."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, the only thing to do is to wait."<a name="Page_194" id="Page_194"></a></p> + +<p>Meanwhile Sandy was keeping on after the daring and mysterious +fugitive. Fortunately for the young farmer his horse was a +comparatively fleet one, or he would have lost sight of the auto soon +after the strange race began. As it was he managed to keep the +doctor's car in sight for a considerable distance.</p> + +<p>And then, so suddenly that it seemed like a trick of fate, something +occurred which completely turned the tables in favor of Sandy. The +fleeing man in the auto found himself behind a load of hay, that +occupied a considerable part of the road. Sandy was close enough to +hear the frantic tooting of the horn, but either the driver of the +hay wagon did not hear, or he had a constitutional objection to +autoists, for he did not pull out.</p> + +<p>Thus the strange man was obliged to turn to one side and, unluckily +for him, but luckily for Sandy, there was a roadside ditch at that +point. Into this the wheels of the auto went and as it was sticky and +soft the car came to such a sudden stop that the man was pitched out +over the glass wind-shield, landing in the ditch.</p> + +<p>"Now I've got you!" cried Sandy, and clapping his heels to the sides +of his panting horse the young farmer rode up alongside the prostrate +man.<a name="Page_195" id="Page_195"></a></p> + +<p>"I've got you! Surrender!" commanded the young farmer, leaping down, +and grabbing the man, who was now sitting up a dazed look on his +face. "I've got you, and I arrest you in th' name of th' law!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I see you've got me," replied the man, slowly. "But on what +charge do you arrest me?"</p> + +<p>Sandy was puzzled for a moment, and scratched his head. He had not +thought of this.</p> + +<p>"You have no right to arrest me," the man went on. "I have done +nothing to you."</p> + +<p>"I don't know whether you have or not," Sandy said. "I think you've +been tryin' to, but couldn't do it. I'm suspicious of you. That's +it—I arrest you on suspicion!"</p> + +<p>"That's no charge," cried the man, struggling to his feet and trying +to break away. But Sandy held him firmly. "Besides, you are not an +officer, and have no warrant."</p> + +<p>"I don't need any!" cried Sandy, who had that point clear enough in +his mind. "Any citizen of the United States can make an arrest if he +wants to, and I'm a citizen. So I arrest you, whatever your name is, +on suspicion."</p> + +<p>"Suspicion of what?"</p> + +<p>Again Sandy was puzzled.</p> + +<p>"I don't just know," he confessed. "I'll leave <a name="Page_196" id="Page_196"></a>that to Squire +Blasdell. He's th' law-court around here—and he's a hard one, too. +I'll take you afore him. So come along. You've been trespassin' on +our place, anyhow, and I can make that a charge if I can't any other. +Come along."</p> + +<p>Sandy was young, strong and vigorous, and the man, though almost his +equal, was tired out from his long run before he had taken to the +auto. Besides he was badly jolted up by the sudden and unceremonious +manner in which he left the car.</p> + +<p>"All right, I s'pose I've got to come," the man admitted in a sullen +manner.</p> + +<p>"You'd better," observed Sandy, grimly. "And there's another charge, +too. You took th' doctor's automobile."</p> + +<p>To this the man answered nothing. He probably knew that this was a +serious enough charge on which to hold him.</p> + +<p>"We'll jest go back in th' car, too," went on Sandy, "since you know +how to run 'em. But, mind you! No monkey tricks! Don't you try to run +away with me."</p> + +<p>"All right—get in," said the man, shortly. "I'll see if I can get +her out of the ditch. You wouldn't have gotten me if that man with +the hay had given me my share of the road."<a name="Page_197" id="Page_197"></a></p> + +<p>"Maybe not," admitted Sandy, grimly, "but I <i>have</i> got you, jest th' +same. Come on."</p> + +<p>Sandy left his horse cropping the grass at the roadside, and got into +the auto with his prisoner. After a few attempts, the machine was +gotten out of the ditch, and the start back was begun. Sandy saw a +farmer whom he knew, and asked him if he would bring the horse back +to Oak Farm.</p> + +<p>"And now we'll 'tend to your case," the young farmer remarked to the +man in the auto. "I don't believe you told me what your name was," he +added significantly.</p> + +<p>"No, I didn't, and I don't intend to," snapped the stranger. "You can +find out any way you like."</p> + +<p>"Oh, we'll find out, all right," Sandy returned. "Drive on."</p> + +<p>The man did not speak as he drove the car forward. They reached the +house where the physician had been, and found him waiting; a very +angry medical man indeed.</p> + +<p>"So you got him; eh?" he called to Sandy.</p> + +<p>"That's what I did. And I'd like to borrow your car to take him to +jail, if you don't mind."</p> + +<p>"I don't mind a bit, and I'll go along to lodge a charge against him. +There's a state law against anyone taking another person's automobile +with<a name="Page_198" id="Page_198"></a>out permission. Who is he, anyhow, Sandy?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know, and he won't tell."</p> + +<p>The man maintained a sullen silence during the remainder of the trip, +and when the office of Squire Blasdell was reached he was led inside +by Sandy.</p> + +<p>"I've got a prisoner here for you, Squire," announced the young +farmer. "I don't know what his name is, and I don't exactly know what +charge we can make against him. But he's been hanging around Oak Farm +for some time, and he runs whenever anyone comes near him, and if +that ain't suspicion I don't know what is."</p> + +<p>"You're right there, Sandy," said the squire, who, in spite of the +fact that he was about to foreclose on Oak Farm, was not on bad terms +with the Apgars. The truth of the matter was that the squire only +acted as agent for others whose money he put out on mortgages. +Personally he was sorry for the Apgars.</p> + +<p>"Now then, Mister whatever-your-name-is," began the squire, "what +about you?"</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you nothing," said the man. "You have no right to hold +me."</p> + +<p>"He took my auto," broke in the doctor.</p> + +<p>"Then we'll hold him on that charge, and we'll call him John Doe," +decided the squire. "Maybe he'll change his tune after a bit. Lock +him up,"<a name="Page_199" id="Page_199"></a> he ordered the constable in charge, and the mysterious man, +as mysterious as ever, was led away.</p> + +<p>"I'd like to ask one favor," he declared, halting a minute.</p> + +<p>"You can ask, but I don't know as we'll grant it," spoke the squire.</p> + +<p>"I've left a dog up in the old cabin," the man went on. "I guess you +know the place," he said to Sandy. "It's the cabin where the girls +took shelter from the rain. There's a dog tied there and he might +starve to death. I wish you'd feed him."</p> + +<p>"I'll do that," responded Sandy, quickly. "I'll look after him, too. +He's entitled to some consideration, even if you ain't."</p> + +<p>The man said nothing.</p> + +<p>"Is it your dog?" asked the squire.</p> + +<p>"I—I found him," answered the man, hesitatingly, "and he likes me. I +wouldn't want to see him starve."</p> + +<p>"He shan't!" promised Sandy.</p> + +<p>Then, as the queer character was locked up, Sandy started back for +Oak Farm, puzzling over the mysterious man and his object.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII" ></a><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2> + +<h3>THE MONEY BOX</h3> + + +<p>"What did he say?"</p> + +<p>"Who was he?"</p> + +<p>"What was his object?"</p> + +<p>These, and a dozen other questions like them, were showered on Sandy +Apgar when he arrived at the farm, some little time later, after +having seen the mysterious man safely locked up in the town jail.</p> + +<p>"Now there's no use askin' me who he is, or what he wants," declared +the young farmer. "All I know is that I caught him. He won't talk."</p> + +<p>"You did a good piece of work," declared Mr. Pertell, "and a day or +so of jail food may make the fellow change his mind. Well, it's too +late to do any moving pictures to-day. We'll put off the barn-burning +until to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"Well, there's one thing we can't put off until to-morrow and that is +looking after that dog,"<a name="Page_201" id="Page_201"></a> remarked Sandy. "The poor fellow may be +frantic by now."</p> + +<p>"May we go with you?" asked Alice.</p> + +<p>"Surely," answered Sandy.</p> + +<p>"Come along, Ruth—and anybody else who wants to," she added.</p> + +<p>"Count me in!" exclaimed Paul.</p> + +<p>"The same here," laughed Russ.</p> + +<p>So the five set off for the lonely cabin.</p> + +<p>"I can't understand how the dog came to be there, though," mused +Russ, as they walked on through the woods. "That fellow wasn't at the +cabin the last time we looked."</p> + +<p>"But that was several days ago," Paul reminded him. "He may have been +staying there ever since, thinking we had given up going there. +That's very likely it."</p> + +<p>And this proved to be the case. The man had apparently moved back +into the cabin. The room was arranged about as it had been the day +the girls took shelter in the place, but there was this change—that +a fine collie dog was chained near the big fireplace.</p> + +<p>And if ever a dog was glad to see anyone it was that same collie. He +jumped about, barking joyfully, but was held back by a strong chain, +fastened to his collar.</p> + +<p>"Poor fellow!" exclaimed Sandy kindly, and <a name="Page_202" id="Page_202"></a>the dog wagged his tail +in friendly greeting.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I wish we could keep him!" exclaimed Alice, who loved animals.</p> + +<p>"I guess we'll have to—until that feller gits out of jail," spoke +the young farmer. "They won't allow no animals in the lockup. We'll +take him to the farm."</p> + +<p>The dog made friends at once, and seemed particularly fond of Alice. +She was patting him, when she happened to turn his collar around. A +brass plate came into view and as the girl read something on it she +uttered a cry of surprise.</p> + +<p>"Look!" she exclaimed. "This is the lost dog!"</p> + +<p>"What lost dog?" asked Russ.</p> + +<p>"Don't you remember—the one Mrs. Delamont lost when we were in the +wreck, coming up here. See, there is his name—Rex III. We have found +him for her. How glad she will be!"</p> + +<p>"You're right!" exclaimed Paul, after examining the collar. "Here are +the initials 'H. A. D.' Weren't those hers?" he asked of Ruth.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I have her name and address," replied the girl. "We must send +her word at once."</p> + +<p>"I don't understand how the man got the dog," observed Russ.</p> + +<p>"He might have been at the scene of the wreck, and when he saw the +chance he slipped into the <a name="Page_203" id="Page_203"></a>baggage car and took Rex," explained +Paul. "I suppose he'll tell about that, if he ever confesses. It's a +queer business all around."</p> + +<p>The fine dog seemed to like his new friends, and skipped and frisked +about them as they went back to Oak Farm. And there the dog made his +home, though it would not be for long, since Mrs. Delamont would be +sure to send for her prize pet when she learned where he was.</p> + +<p>"Oh, but I shall hate to let you go!" cried Alice, as she put her +arms about the neck of Rex.</p> + +<p>"Well, I hope there won't be no more interruptions or delays," +remarked Mr. Pertell the next day. "We must get that barn-burning +film sure, for I have some other plans to carry out, with winter +coming on."</p> + +<p>"You don't mean to say you're going to keep on in this moving picture +business all winter, do you?" asked Mr. Sneed.</p> + +<p>"I certainly do," remarked the manager.</p> + +<p>"Well, all I've got to say is that we'll freeze to death," went on +the "grouch" in gloomy tones. "You can count me out of it," he added. +"I'm not going to freeze for anybody."</p> + +<p>"No one asked you to," replied the manager. "Come now, everyone get +ready for the fire scene. We'll go over it once more, to be sure +<a name="Page_204" id="Page_204"></a>we're all right for the final. The roof will be cut and then we'll +touch off the place.</p> + +<p>"Sandy, see to it that there are plenty of pails of water for the +bucket brigade. Mr. Bunn, you're to be one of that crowd, you +remember."</p> + +<p>"Yes," responded the actor, with a heavy sigh. "I suppose I must +lower my art to the level of the movies. Oh, why did I ever get into +this wretched business?"</p> + +<p>Ruth, Alice and the others went out to the old barn. All was in +readiness for the big scene. The ladder for the rescue of the moving +picture girls was in readiness, and Paul and Mr. Sneed made sure that +it was safe.</p> + +<p>"Now then, carpenter, up on the roof with you, and cut out that +section so there won't be any doubt but what it will come loose +readily when Paul chops at it with his axe," ordered the manager.</p> + +<p>The carpenter began his work. He ascended to the roof by the ladder, +and was soon cutting and sawing away. The others watched him, half +idly, little prepared for the dramatic scene that was to follow. Mr. +and Mrs. Apgar had come out to witness the making of the fire film.</p> + +<p>"I'll sort of hate to see the old barn go, useless as it is," said +the farmer. "It was one of the first buildin's on the farm, and Uncle +Isaac <a name="Page_205" id="Page_205"></a>used to be terrible fond of stayin' out here. In fact before +he died he spent a lot of time out here after th' accident, sittin' +all by himself, and sometimes talking a lot of nonsense. His mind was +goin' then, I reckon, only none of us knowed it. Yes, poor Uncle +Isaac was terrible fond of this old barn, and I sure will hate to see +it go up in smoke."</p> + +<p>"I wish Uncle Isaac had been fonder of business, an' had left some +word where his money went—and ours, too," observed Sandy. "I don't +want to blame him for what he couldn't help, but it sure is hard for +us!"</p> + +<p>The carpenter was chopping away, taking off a section of the roof, to +afford easy egress for Ruth and Alice when the time should come. +Suddenly he uttered a cry of surprise.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter—cut yourself?" called Sandy.</p> + +<p>"No, but I've cut into something queer. Better come up here and see +what it is—I don't want to touch it."</p> + +<p>"I hope it isn't a hornet's nest!" exclaimed Sandy.</p> + +<p>"No, it isn't that."</p> + +<p>The others wondered what the queer find might be, as Sandy and Russ +hurried up the ladder.</p> + +<p>As they reached the roof, which at this point <a name="Page_206" id="Page_206"></a>was nearly flat, they +saw that the carpenter, in taking off a section, had uncovered what +proved to be a small secret room. It was built into the barn in such +a manner, between false walls, that its existence had never in the +past been suspected.</p> + +<p>It was a small place, just large enough to contain a table and a +chair, and there were no openings or windows on the sides. It must +have been a dark place, but there was an old lantern on the table, +showing that the occupant, whoever he had been, was not left in the +gloom.</p> + +<p>But there was something else on the table besides the lantern. This +was a large tin box, the sort that valuable papers are usually kept +in, and at the sight of it, as Sandy gazed down into the secret room, +through the hole in the roof, the young farmer cried:</p> + +<p>"There it is! There's Uncle Isaac's money box! The lost is found, and +now, if there's only the money and papers in it we'll not lose our +farm after all! The Lord be praised! If only the money is there!"</p> + +<p>"You can soon tell!" remarked Russ. "Drop down in there and take a +look."</p> + +<p>"What is it? What have you found?" called Mr. Pertell from the +ground. "We want to get the pictures."<a name="Page_207" id="Page_207"></a></p> + +<p>"Wait a minute!" Sandy begged. "We've found——"</p> + +<p>"Wait, don't tell them yet," suggested Russ. "It won't do to raise +the hopes of the old people, and then disappoint them. The box may be +empty."</p> + +<p>"That's right," agreed Sandy. "I'll soon know, though." He hung by +his hands to the edge of the opening, and then dropped down into the +secret room, so strangely revealed.</p> + +<p>"The box is locked!" he cried.</p> + +<p>"Here's my hatchet—break it open," suggested the carpenter.</p> + +<p>"Guess I might as well—no telling where the key would be," said +Sandy. With the hatchet he soon had lifted the cover of the box. Then +he gave a joyful cry.</p> + +<p>"It's here!" he shouted. "It was Uncle Isaac's box, all right, and +the money's here—quite a lot of it, and some valuable papers worth +more. Hurray! The farm is saved, after all! Tell pop and mom!"</p> + +<p>"No, we'll let you tell them," said Russ. "Come and tell them +yourself."</p> + +<p>"How'm I goin' t' git up?" asked Sandy, trembling with excitement and +new hope, as he fingered the dusty bills that would mean so much to +him and his parents.<a name="Page_208" id="Page_208"></a></p> + +<p>"Here's a rope," suggested the carpenter, for he had been using one +at his work. "We'll drop it down to you, and you can tie it to the +box. Then you can come up on the rope yourself."</p> + +<p>This was soon done, and a little later Sandy was standing beside his +aged parents, showing them the find.</p> + +<p>"It's money—real money!" he cried. "The money Uncle Isaac owes us. +Now we can pay off the mortgage on the farm. You won't have t' move +off th' farm!—Pop—Mom! You can stay here!"</p> + +<p>"Praise the Lord!" cried the farmer, reverently. "My prayer has been +granted; I can die on the old place!"</p> + +<p>"Why, Pa, don't talk about dyin' now!" protested Mrs. Apgar, through +her tears. "We're goin' t' live—live on th' old place!"</p> + +<p>"That's what we be!" he cried.</p> + +<p>A close examination of the contents of the box disclosed the fact +that it contained considerable wealth. There were some bonds and +stocks, as well as a large sum in cash. At least five thousand +dollars of this belonged to the Apgars, representing the loan they +had made to Uncle Isaac. And as he left no other heirs, eventually +the entire wealth would come to the farmer.</p> + +<p>"This has been a lucky day for us!" exclaimed<a name="Page_209" id="Page_209"></a> Sandy, as he put the +wealth in a secure place in the house.</p> + +<p>"Well, it will be an unlucky one for us, if we don't get this fire +film," remarked Mr. Pertell, half humorously.</p> + +<p>"Just so," returned Russ.</p> + +<p>There was much discussion over the find, and then an examination was +made of the secret room. From within the sliding panel door, by which +entrance was gained, could easily be seen. But outside, it was so +well hidden that it is doubtful if anyone but one who knew the trick +could have found it.</p> + +<p>Mr. Apgar recalled that the barn stood on the farm when he had +purchased the estate years before. It had belonged to an eccentric +man, and there was little doubt that he had built the secret room for +his own use—though what it was could only be guessed.</p> + +<p>"And Uncle Isaac must have discovered the hidden door when he was out +here in the barn so much," said Sandy. "Lunatics are cunning, +sometimes, I've heard. He probably found th' place and kept it to +himself, as a good place to hide his valuables.</p> + +<p>"That's why he spent so much time out here. I used to wonder +sometimes, at having him appear from inside the old barn, when I +never sus<a name="Page_210" id="Page_210"></a>pected he was on hand. He was in this room, all right."</p> + +<p>"It certainly was a good hiding place," agreed Mr. Pertell. "It was +lucky he did not shut himself up and die in here, or you would never +have known where to look for him. He must have left his money box +here one day, closed the place up and then came his unfortunate loss +of mind, after he was hurt. He forgot all about where he had left the +wealth, and of course he couldn't tell anyone. Well, I'm glad you've +got it back."</p> + +<p>"So am I!" chuckled Sandy. "Now if we only had some explanation as to +why that queer chap was always hanging about this farm we'd be all +right."</p> + +<p>"Maybe he knew your Uncle Isaac," suggested Ruth.</p> + +<p>"No, that man's a stranger around here," declared Sandy.</p> + +<p>After some little further talk about the queer find, Mr. Pertell +again suggested that the taking of the picture be resumed.</p> + +<p>Sandy seemed to hang back and the manager asked him:</p> + +<p>"Do you want to give up your part in it, now that you have your money +again? Don't you want the barn burned?"<a name="Page_211" id="Page_211"></a></p> + +<p>"Oh, yes; it ain't that!" the young farmer hastened to assure the +manager. "It's a good thing we didn't burn the barn before we found +the money. I was only wishin' I could send word of it to Squire +Blasdell, so he could call off the foreclosure. I hate to see them +signs up."</p> + +<p>"Then you go and tell him the good news," suggested the manager, +generously. "We've had so many delays on this thing that a little +more won't hurt. Go tell the squire."</p> + +<p>So Sandy went off, and the players had an unexpected rest.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV" ></a><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2> + +<h3>EXPLANATIONS</h3> + + +<p>Sandy found Squire Blasdell having an interview with the strange +prisoner.</p> + +<p>"I'm putting him on the grill, and trying to find out something about +him, but it's hard work," the Squire said to the young farmer.</p> + +<p>"Yes, you might as well save your time," spoke the man. "I'll tell +you nothing!"</p> + +<p>"I've got news for you, Squire," said Sandy, a little later when the +constable had been called in to take the stranger back to his cell.</p> + +<p>"Looks like good news, by your face, Sandy," the lawyer replied. "You +haven't been finding money for the mortgage; have you?"</p> + +<p>"That's just what I have, Squire!" Sandy cried. "We just found Uncle +Isaac's money box!"</p> + +<p>"You did! 'Gosh all Hemlock' as the boys used to say. How was it?"</p> + +<p>"We found the money box—with a lot of <a name="Page_213" id="Page_213"></a>cash and papers in a secret +room in the old barn we're goin' to burn for movin' pictures. We +found the money box, all right."</p> + +<p>There was a sound from the room where the prisoner sat. He started to +his feet, and stepped to the grating which separated the cell from +the apartment in which Sandy and the Squire were.</p> + +<p>"You say you found Isaac Apgar's hidden wealth?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes—but what is that to you?" inquired the Squire.</p> + +<p>"A lot to me. The game is up now, and I'll confess everything. I've +been keeping still, hoping I could get out and find that box myself. +That's what my object has been in hanging around your farm," he went +on. "I was looking for that box myself. I—I thought maybe I might +get a reward if I located it."</p> + +<p>This statement might be doubtful, but there was no way of disproving +it. The man might have been hoping only for a reward; but, on the +other hand, if he had found the wealth he might have kept it all for +himself.</p> + +<p>"How did you come to know about this?" asked Squire Blasdell, +curiously. "Did you ever know Isaac Apgar?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't know as you could exactly call it 'knowing' him," was +the slow answer, "see<a name="Page_214" id="Page_214"></a>ing that he didn't know anybody himself, of +late years. I may as well tell you the whole story. My name is Monk +Freck, and I used to be a keeper in the state lunatic asylum where +Isaac Apgar was confined. That's how I knew him. I was his keeper!"</p> + +<p>This was strange and startling news, but it explained many things.</p> + +<p>"Go on," urged the Squire. "What about looking for his money?"</p> + +<p>"That's it," added Sandy.</p> + +<p>"I'll come to that. Though few folks knew it, Mr. Apgar had some +lucid moments during his insanity. He was as right as anyone at +times, but maybe only for a half hour or so at a stretch. And it was +in those times that he'd talk about the wealth he had hidden.</p> + +<p>"I tried to get him to tell me just where it was, for I had heard +rumors that he had hidden quite a pile before he went crazy. But he +was either too cunning to tell me, or his mind failed him at the +critical moment. All I could learn was that it was hidden somewhere +about the corner of the old barn on the Apgar place.</p> + +<p>"Well, he kept on getting worse until he died, and I made up my mind +to have a try for the money box. I gave up my job in the asylum, and +came here. And since then I've been looking <a name="Page_215" id="Page_215"></a>around, trying to make +the discovery, and claim a reward.</p> + +<p>"I spent a good deal of time in the barn, but I never thought there +could be a secret room. I thought it might be buried somewhere around +the place. I didn't have much chance to hunt, though, after the +moving picture people got here," he added.</p> + +<p>"And was it you who made the queer noises in the barn, and scared the +girls?" asked Sandy.</p> + +<p>"It was. I didn't mean to scare 'em, though. I was trying to crawl up +between two beams one day, when I slipped and fell. I rattled some +loose boards where I had lifted some up to have a place to hide. I +hurt myself, too, and I guess I groaned. The fall made me lame for a +while."</p> + +<p>"That accounts for your limp," said Sandy. "How did you come to go to +the cabin?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I wanted some place to stay near your barn, and as no one used +the cabin, I took up my quarters there. Before that I often used to +sleep in a secret place in your old barn. But I didn't mean any harm. +Of course I didn't want it known who I was, for if it was learned +that I had been Mr. Apgar's keeper in the asylum everybody would have +guessed my object. So I ran whenever I saw anybody from Oak Farm. But +you finally caught me. I'm not sorry, for I was getting <a name="Page_216" id="Page_216"></a>tired of the +game. And so you found the hidden box? Well, I wish it could have +been me."</p> + +<p>"Did you steal that dog, too?' asked Sandy.</p> + +<p>"No, I did not. I found him wandering about and took a notion to him. +I guess maybe he had been stolen, but I didn't do it. If I had known +who he belonged to I might have got a reward from them."</p> + +<p>"The owner is known," Sandy said, "and she may reward you. I feel so +happy that I don't wish anybody bad luck. Now Squire, I suppose the +foreclosure is off; ain't it? I've got more than the four thousand +dollars."</p> + +<p>"The old farm is safe, Sandy," the Squire answered, "and I'm glad of +it, for your sake. You may have thought me hard and grasping, but I +had to do the business for my clients. Now we'll have to decide what +to do with this man. I reckon we can let him go, seeing that he +didn't really do anything except take the auto, and I guess the +doctor won't press that charge."</p> + +<p>This proved to be the case, and that day Monk Freck was released. +Mrs. Delamont was to over-joyed to get her dog back that she gave +Freck a substantial reward, for the former asylum keeper had been +kind to Rex III, and insisted that he had found him after the dog had +gotten away from the real thief.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV" ></a><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217"></a>CHAPTER XXV</h2> + +<h3>THE FIRE FILM</h3> + + +<p>"All ready now, Russ!"</p> + +<p>"All ready, Mr. Pertell."</p> + +<p>"Then start off. Be ready with the torch there, Sandy, and touch off +the pile of hay and straw inside the barn when I give the word. Then +come out for the bucket brigade."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>It was the day after the finding of the money box, for there had been +so much excitement attending that episode, that Mr. Pertell thought +it wise to postpone the fire scene. But now all was in readiness for +it.</p> + +<p>"All ready now!" called the manager, and the play began. There were +several preliminary scenes before the final one of the burning barn, +and these were successfully run off, Russ filming them one after the +other.</p> + +<p>There was no hitch, so well had the play been rehearsed. Now came the +time when Ruth and<a name="Page_218" id="Page_218"></a> Alice were to take refuge in the barn, the action +being supposed to occur after a chase when they wished to escape from +a rascally guardian.</p> + +<p>The firing of the barn (in the play) was supposed to be done by an +enemy of the farmer, and was not done to entrap the girls, of whose +presence the incendiary supposedly knew nothing.</p> + +<p>But the girls were locked in the barn when the fire broke out, and +necessarily must be rescued.</p> + +<p>"Touch her off!" cried the manager at the proper point, and Sandy set +fire to a pile of hay and straw inside the barn. This would make +considerable smoke, and smoke always shows up well in moving +pictures.</p> + +<p>"Get ready with the water now!" called Mr. Pertell. "I want a lively +bucket brigade scene here!"</p> + +<p>Sandy and his force, of whom Wellington Bunn was one, ran back and +forth from the water barrel, carrying the filled buckets and +splashing the contents on the flames.</p> + +<p>The fire was now at its height.</p> + +<p>"All ready for the rescue!" ordered the manager. "Up with the ladder +and get after the girls, Paul. Mr. Sneed, you're in on this."</p> + +<p>Up the ladder climbed Paul, and with an axe he began chopping away at +the roof. This was the place prepared beforehand, and Ruth and<a name="Page_219" id="Page_219"></a> Alice +were to be drawn up through the hole that went down into the secret +room where the money box had been found.</p> + +<p>"Quick!" cried Paul, as he made the splinters fly. This was only for +the effect, as the section on the roof was all ready to come away. +"Hurry up, Sneed!" called the young fellow. "It's getting pretty hot +here. We'll have to follow each other closely down the ladder."</p> + +<p>"We can't get away from here any too soon for me," the other +answered. "This is the worst yet."</p> + +<p>In another moment the secret room was exposed. Ruth and Alice were in +it, a little afraid, after all, that something might happen.</p> + +<p>"Come on!" cried Paul reaching down his hands. Alice climbed up on a +chair in the room, and Paul lifted her out on the roof. Then Mr. +Sneed did the same for Ruth.</p> + +<p>Putting the girls over their shoulders, in the manner in which +firemen make rescues, the two started down the ladder.</p> + +<p>In spite of Mr. Sneed's fear, nothing happened. The rescue went off +finely, and even those not taking part in it applauded as it came to +a close and Ruth and Alice, who were supposed to have fainted, were +revived.</p> + +<p>Then their parts ended, for that particular <a name="Page_220" id="Page_220"></a>scene, but the barn +continued to burn, as was intended, and soon it was a glowing heap of +embers and ashes. The work of the bucket brigade had not been +successful, nor had it been intended that it should be.</p> + +<p>The final scenes of the play—away from the fire—were made, and then +the players could rest.</p> + +<p>"I hope it's a success," said the manager, with a sigh. "We have +worked hard enough over it."</p> + +<p>And a few days later word came back from New York, whither the film +had been sent, that it was a great success, and one of the best +dramas the Comet Company had ever put over. The scenes where Alice +and Ruth were rescued were particularly fine.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"Well, I wonder what sort of 'stunts' we'll have to do next, Ruth?" +remarked Alice as they were in their room in the old farm house one +morning, about a week after the barn fire.</p> + +<p>"There is no telling," was the answer. "Mr. Pertell has some plans, +but I don't believe they are ready yet."</p> + +<p>"Yes they are, my dears!" exclaimed Mr. DeVere, as he entered the +room. "We have just received word that the entire company will spend +some months in the backwoods, getting pictures of winter scenes."<a name="Page_221" id="Page_221"></a></p> + +<p>"Oh, the woods in winter!" cried Alice. "I'll just love that; won't +you, Ruth?"</p> + +<p>"I think I shall. But I do hope we won't have so much excitement as +we've had here."</p> + +<p>Whether they did or did not may be learned by reading the next volume +of this series, to be called: "The Moving Picture Girls Snowbound; +Or, the Proof on the Film."</p> + +<p>Happy days followed at Oak Farm, for after the hard work of the +season Mr. Pertell decided to give his company a little vacation. And +the Apgars were happy, too, for the foreclosure proceedings were +stopped by the satisfying of the mortgage with Uncle Isaac's money.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Delamont sent on for Rex III, and Alice bade the fine animal +good-bye rather sadly, for she had grown very fond of him.</p> + +<p>"Come on," said Paul to her one day, "we'll take a walk, and maybe we +can find another dog."</p> + +<p>"Not like Rex, though," laughed Alice, as she set off with the young +fellow. And now, for a time, we will take leave of the Moving Picture +Girls.</p> + + +<p>THE END</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_JANICE_DAY_SERIES" id="THE_JANICE_DAY_SERIES" ></a><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222"></a>THE JANICE DAY SERIES</h2> + +<h3>By HELEN BEECHER LONG</h3> + + +<p><i>12 mo, cloth, illustrated, and colored jacket</i></p> + + +<p>A series of books for girls which have been uniformly successful. +Janice Day is a character that will live long in juvenile fiction. +Every volume is full of inspiration. There is an abundance of humor, +quaint situations, and worth-while effort, and likewise plenty of +plot and mystery.</p> + +<p>An ideal series for girls from nine to sixteen.</p> + +<p> +JANICE DAY, THE YOUNG HOMEMAKER<br /> +JANICE DAY AT POKETOWN<br /> +THE TESTING OF JANICE DAY<br /> +HOW JANICE DAY WON<br /> +THE MISSION OF JANICE DAY<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_NAN_SHERWOOD_SERIES" id="THE_NAN_SHERWOOD_SERIES" ></a><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223"></a>THE NAN SHERWOOD SERIES</h2> + +<h3>By Annie Roe Carr</h3> + + +<p><i>12 mo, cloth, illustrated, and colored jacket</i></p> + + +<p>In Annie Roe Carr we have found a young woman of wide experience +among girls—in schoolroom, in camp and while traveling. She knows +girls of to-day thoroughly—their likes and dislikes—and knows that +they demand almost as much action as do the boys. And she knows +humor—good, clean fun and plenty of it.</p> + +<p> +NAN SHERWOOD AT PINE CAMP<br /> +or The Old Lumberman's Secret<br /> +<br /> +NAN SHERWOOD AT LAKEVIEW HALL<br /> +or The Mystery of the Haunted Boathouse<br /> +<br /> +NAN SHERWOOD'S WINTER HOLIDAYS<br /> +or Rescuing the Runaways<br /> +<br /> +NAN SHERWOOD AT ROSE RANCH<br /> +or The Old Mexican's Treasure<br /> +<br /> +NAN SHERWOOD AT PALM BEACH<br /> +or Strange Adventures Among the Orange Groves<br /> +<a name="Page_224" id="Page_224"></a></p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS AT OAK FARM***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 19969-h.txt or 19969-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/9/9/6/19969">http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/9/6/19969</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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