CHAPTER VII
MOVIE STUNTS
Jennie Stone slept in Ruth's bed that night because, having been partedsince they were both in France, they had a great deal to say to eachother--thus proving true one of Tom Cameron's statements regarding women.
Jennie was just as sympathetic--and as sleepy--as she could be and she"oh, dear, me'd" and yawned alternately all through the tale of the lostscenario and notebooks, appreciating fully how Ruth felt about it, butunable to smother the expression of her desire for sleep.
"Maybe we ought not to have come on this automobile trip," said Jennie."If the thief just did it to be mean and is somebody who lives around theRed Mill, perhaps you might have discovered something by mingling with theneighbors."
"Oh! Tom did all that," sighed Ruth. "And without avail. He searched theneighborhood thoroughly, although he is confident that a tramp carried itoff. And that seems reasonable. I am almost sure, Heavy, that my scenariowill appear under the trademark of some other producing manager than Mr.Hammond."
"Oh! How mean!"
"Well, a thief is almost the meanest person there is in the world, don'tyou think so? Except a backbiter. And anybody mean enough to steal myscenario must be mean enough to try to make use of it."
"Oh, dear! Ow-oo-ooo! Scuse me, Ruth. Yes, I guess you are right. Butcan't you stop the production of the picture?"
"How can I do that?"
"I don't----ow-oo!----know. Scuse me, dear."
"Most pictures are made in secret, anyway. The public knows nothing aboutthem until the producer is ready to make their release."
"I--ow-oo!--I see," yawned Jennie.
"Even the picture play magazines do not announce them until the firstruns. Then, sometimes, there is a synopsis of the story published. But itwill be too late, then. Especially when I have no notes of my work, norany witnesses. I told no living soul about the scenario--what it wasabout, or----"
"Sh-sh-sh----"
"Why, Heavy!" murmured the scandalized Ruth.
"Sh-sh-sh--whoo!" breathed the plump girl, with complete abandon.
"My goodness!" exclaimed Ruth, tempted to shake her, "if you snore likethat when you are married, Henri will have to sleep at the other end ofthe house."
But this was completely lost on the tired Jennie Stone, who continued tobreathe heavily until Ruth herself fell asleep. It seemed as though thelatter had only closed her eyes when the sun shining into her face awokethe girl of the Red Mill. The shades of the east window had been left up,and it was sunrise.
Plenty of farm noises outside the Drovers' Tavern, as well as a stir inthe kitchen, assured Ruth that there were early risers here. Jennie,rolled in more than her share of the bedclothes, continued to breathe asheavily as she had the night before.
But suddenly Ruth was aware that there was somebody besides herself awakein the room. She sat up abruptly in bed and reached to seize Jennie'splump shoulder. Ruth had to confess she was much excited, if notfrightened.
Then, before she touched the still sleeping Jennie Stone, Ruth saw theintruder. The door from the anteroom was ajar. A steaming agateware canof water stood on the floor just inside this door. Before the bureau whichboasted a rather large mirror for a country hotel bedroom, pivoted thethin figure of Arabella Montague Fitzmaurice Pike!
From the neatly arranged outer clothing of the two girls supposedly asleepin the big four-poster, Bella had selected a skirt of Ruth's and ashirt-waist of Jennie's, arraying herself in both of these borrowedgarments. She was now putting the finishing touch to her costume bysetting Ruth's cap on top of her black, fly-away mop of hair.
Turning about and about before the glass, Bella was so much engaged inadmiring herself that she forgot the hot water she was supposed to carryto the various rooms. Nor did she see Ruth sitting up in bed looking ather in dawning amusement. Nor did she, as she pirouetted there, hear herNemesis outside in the hall.
The door suddenly creaked farther open. The grim face of Miss SusanTimmins appeared at the aperture.
"Oh!" gasped Ruth Fielding aloud.
Bella turned to glance in startled surprise at the girl in bed. And atthat moment Miss Timmins bore down upon the child like a shrike on achippy-bird.
"Ow-ouch!" shrieked Bella.
"Oh, don't!" begged Ruth.
"What is it? Goodness! _Fire!_" cried Jennie Stone, who, when awakenedsuddenly, always remembered the dormitory fire at Briarwood Hall.
"You little pest! I'll larrup ye good! I'll give ye your nevergitovers!"sputtered the hotel housekeeper.
But the affrighted Bella wriggled away from her aunt's bony grasp. Shedodged Miss Timmins about the marble-topped table, retreated behind thehair-cloth sofa, and finally made a headlong dash for the door, whileJennie continued to shriek for the fire department.
Ruth leaped out of bed. In her silk pajamas and slippers, and without anywrap, she hurried to reach, and try to separate, the struggling couplenear the door.
Miss Timmins delivered several hearty slaps upon Bella's face and ears.The child shrieked. She got away again and plunged into the can of hotwater.
Over this went, flooding the rag-carpet for yards around.
"Fire! Fire!" Jennie continued to shriek.
Helen dashed in from the next room, dressed quite as lightly as Ruth, andjust in time to see the can spilled.
"Oh! Water! Water!"
"Drat that young one!" barked Miss Timmins, ignoring the flood andeverything else save her niece--even the conventions.
She dashed after Bella. The latter had disappeared into the hall throughthe anteroom.
"Oh, the poor child!" cried sympathetic Ruth, and followed in the wake ofthe angry housekeeper.
"Fire! Fire!" moaned Jennie Stone.
"Cat's foot!" snapped Helen Cameron. "It's water--and it is flooding thewhole room."
She ran to set the can upright--after the water was all out of it. Withoutthinking of her costume, Ruth Fielding ran to avert Bella's punishment ifshe could. She knew the aunt was beside herself with rage, and Ruth fearedthat the woman would, indeed, give Bella her "nevergetovers."
The corridor of the hotel was long, running from front to rear of the mainbuilding. The window at the rear end of it overlooked the roof of the backkitchen. This window was open, and when Ruth reached the corridor Bellawas going head-first through the open window, like a circus clown divingthrough a hoop.
She had discarded Jennie's shirt-waist between the bedroom and the window.But Ruth's skirt still flapped about the child's thin shanks.
Miss Timmins, breathing threatenings and slaughter, raced down the hall inpursuit. Ruth followed, begging for quarter for the terrified child.
But the housekeeper went through the open window after Bella, although ina more conventional manner, paying no heed to Ruth's plea. The frightenedgirl, however, escaped her aunt's clutch by slipping off the borrowedskirt and descending the trumpet-vine trellis by the kitchen door.
"Do let her go, Miss Timmins!" begged Ruth, as the panting woman, carryingRuth's skirt, returned to the window where the girl of the Red Mill stood."She is scared to death. She was doing no harm."
"I'll thank you to mind your own business, Miss," snapped Miss Timminshotly. "I declare! A girl growed like you running 'round in men'soveralls--or, what be them things you got on?"
At this criticism Ruth Fielding fled, taking the skirt and Jennie'sshirt-waist with her. But Aunt Kate was aroused now and the four women ofthe automobile party swiftly slipped into their negligees and appeared inthe hall again, to meet Tom and Colonel Marchand who came from their roomonly partly dressed.
The critical Miss Timmins had darted downstairs, evidently in pursuit ofher unfortunate niece. The guests crowded to the back window.
"Where did she go?" demanded Tom, who had heard some explanation of theearly morning excitement. "Is she running away?"
"What a child!" gasped Aunt Kate.
"My waist!" moaned Jennie.
"Look at Ruth's skirt!" exclaimed Helen.
/> "I do not care for the skirt," the girl of the Red Mill declared. "It isBella."
"Her aunt will about give her those 'nevergetovers' she spoke of,"chuckled Tom.
"_Ma foi!_ look you there," exclaimed Colonel Marchand, pointing throughthe window that overlooked the rear premises of the hotel.
At top speed Miss Timmins was crossing the yard toward the big hay barn.Bella had taken refuge in that structure, and the housekeeper's evidentintention was to harry her out. The woman grasped a clothes-stick withwhich she proposed to castigate her niece.
"The cruel thing!" exclaimed Helen, the waters of her sympathy rising forBella Pike now.
"There's the poor kid!" said Tom.
Bella appeared at an open door far up in the peak of the haymow. The haywas packed solidly under the roof; but there was an air space left ateither end.
"She has put herself into the so-tight corner--no?" suggested the youngFrenchman.
"You've said it!" agreed Tom. "Why! it's regular movie stunts. She's comeup the ladders to the top of the mow. If auntie follows her, I don't seethat the kid can do anything but jump!"
"Tom! Never!" cried Ruth.
"He is fooling," said Jennie.
"Tell me how she can dodge that woman, then," demanded Tom.
"Ah!" murmured Henri Marchand. "She have arrive'."
Miss Timmins appeared at the door behind Bella. The spectators heard thegirl's shriek. The housekeeper struck at her with the clothes stick. Andthen----
"Talk about movie stunts!" shouted Tom Cameron, for the frightened Bellaleaped like a cat upon the haymow door and swung outward with nothing morestable than air between her and the ground, more than thirty feet below!