CHAPTER III
AT THE RED MILL
Helen, greatly excited, stood on the seat of the tonneau and cheered herbrother on at the top of her voice. That, in her excitement, she thoughtshe was "rooting" at a basket-ball game at Briarwood, was not to bewondered at. Ruth heard her chum screaming:
"S.B.--Ah-h-h! S.B.--Ah-h-h Sound our battle-cry Near and far! S.B.--All! Briarwood Hall! Sweetbriars, do or die---- This be our battle-cry---- Briarwood Hall! _That's All!_"
At the very moment the excited Helen brought out the "snapper" of therallying cry of their own particular Briarwood sorority, Ruth let the limbgo, for Tom had seized the sinking actress by the shoulder.
"He's got her!" the men shouted in chorus.
"And that's all those fellows were," Ruth said afterwards, in somecontempt. "Just a _chorus_! They were a lot of tabby-cats--afraid to wettheir precious feet. If it hadn't been for Tom, Miss Gray would have beendrowned before the eyes of that mean director and those other imitationmen. Ugh! I de-_test_ a coward!"
This was said later, however. Until they drew Tom and his fainting burdenashore, neither Ruth nor Helen had time for criticism. Then they bundledHazel Gray in the automobile rugs, while Tom struggled into an overcoatand cranked up the machine. The director came to inquire:
"What are you going to do with that girl?"
"Take her to the Red Mill," snapped Ruth. "That's down the river, oppositethe road to Cheslow. And don't try to see her before to-morrow. No thanksto _you_ that she isn't drowned."
"You are a very impudent young lady," growled the director.
"I may be a plain spoken one," said Ruth, not at all alarmed by the man'smanner. "I don't know how you would have felt had Miss Gray been drowned.I should think you would think of _that_!"
But the man seemed more disturbed about the delay to the picture that wasbeing taken.
"I shall expect you to be ready bright and early in the morning, MissGray!" he shouted as the automobile moved off. The young actress, halffainting in the tonneau between the Briarwood Hall girls, did not hearhim.
It was several miles to the Red Mill, and Ruth, worried, said: "I'm afraidTom will catch cold, Helen."
"And--and this po--poor girl, too," stammered Tom's sister, as the carjounced over a particularly rough piece of road.
Hazel Gray opened her eyes languidly, murmuring: "I shall be all right,thank you! Just drive to the hotel----"
"What hotel?" asked Ruth, laughing.
"In Cheslow. I don't know the name of it," whispered Hazel Gray. "Is theremore than one?"
"There is; but you'll not go all the way to Cheslow in your condition,"declared Ruth. "We're taking you to the Red Mill. Now! no objections,please. Hurry up, Tommy."
"But I am all wet," protested the girl.
"I should say you were," gasped Helen.
"Nobody knows better than I," said Ruth, "that the water of the Lumanoriver is at least _damp_, at all seasons."
"I will make you a lot of trouble," objected Miss Gray.
"No, you won't," the girl of the Red Mill repeated. "Aunt Alvirah willsnuggle you down between soft, fluffy blankets, and give you hot bonesettea, or 'composition,' and otherwise coddle you. To-morrow morning youwill feel like a new girl."
"Oh, dear!" groaned Miss Gray. "I wish I _were_ a new girl."
A very few minutes later they came in sight of the Red Mill, with therambling, old, story-and-a-half dwelling beside it, in which JabezPotter's grandfather had been born. Although the leaves had long sincefallen from the trees, and the lawn was brown, the sloping front yard ofthe Potter house was very attractive. The walks were swept, the last deadleaf removed, and the big stones at the main gateway were dazzlinglywhite-washed.
The jar and rumble of the grist-mill, and the trickle of the water on thewheel, made a murmurous accompaniment to all the other sounds of lifeabout the place. From the rear of the old house fowls cackled, a mule senthis clarion call across the fields, and hungry pigs squealed their prayerfor supper. A cow lowed impatiently at the pasture bars in answer to thequerulous blatting of her calf.
Tom was going on home to change his clothes; but when Ruth saw the fringeof icicles around the bottoms of his trouser legs, she would not hear toit.
"You come right in with us, Tom. Helen will drive the car home and get youa change of clothing. Meanwhile you can put on some of Uncle Jabez's oldclothes. Hurry on, now, children!" and she laughingly drove Tom and HazelGray before her to the porch of the old house, where Aunt Alvirah, havingheard the automobile, met them in amazement.
"What forever has happened, my pretty?" cried the little old lady, whosebent back and rheumatic limbs made her seem even smaller than shenaturally was. "In the river? Do come in! Bring the young lady right intothe best room, Ruthie. You strip off right before the kitchen fire, MasterTom. I'll bring you some things to put on. There's a huck towel on thenail yonder. Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!"
Thus talking, Aunt Alvirah hobbled ahead into the sitting room. The girlwho had fallen into the river was now shivering. Ruth and the old ladyundressed her as quickly as possible, and Aunt Alvirah made ready the bedwith the "fluffy" blankets in the chamber right off the sitting room.
"Do get one of your nighties for her, my pretty," directed Aunt Alvirah."She wouldn't feel right sleepin' in one o' _my_ old things, I know."
Ruth was excited. In the first place, as to most girls of her age, a "reallive actress" was as much of a wonder as a Great Auk would have been;only, of course, Hazel Gray was much more charming than the garfowl!
Ruth Fielding was interested in moving pictures--and for a particularreason. Long before she had gained the reward for the return of the pearlnecklace to Nettie Parsons' aunt, Ruth had thought of writing a scenario.This was not a very original thought, for many, many thousand other peoplehave thought the same thing.
Occasionally, when she had been to a film show, Ruth had wondered why shecould not write a playlet quite as good as many she saw, and get money forit. But it had been only a thought; she knew nothing about the techniqueof the scenario, or how to go about getting an opinion upon her work ifshe should write one.
Here chance had thrown her into the company of a girl who was working forthe films, and evidently was of some importance in the moving picturecompanies, despite the treatment she had received from the unpleasantdirector, Mr. Grimes.
Ruth remembered now of having seen Hazel Gray upon the screen more thanonce within the year. She was regarded as a coming star, although she hadnot achieved the fame of many actresses for the silent drama who were noolder.
So Ruth, feeling the importance of the occasion, selected from her storethe very prettiest night gown that she owned--one she had never even wornherself--and brought it down stairs to the girl who had been in the river.A little later Hazel Gray was between Aunt Alvirah's blankets, and wassipping her hot tea.
"My dear! you are very, very good to me," she said, clinging to Ruth'shand. You and the dear little old lady. Are you as good to every strangerwho comes your way?"
"Aunt Alvirah is, I'm sure," replied Ruth, laughing and blushing. Somehow,despite the fact that the young actress was only two or three years olderthan herself, the girl of the Red Mill felt much more immature than MissGray.
"You belittle your own kindness, I am sure," said Hazel. "And that _dear_boy who got me out of the river--Where is he?"
"Unseeable at present," laughed Ruth. "He is dressed in some of UncleJabez's clothing, a world too big for him. But Tom _is_ one of the dearestfellows who ever lived."
"You think a great deal of him, I fancy?"
"Oh, yes, indeed!" cried Ruth, innocently. "His sister is my very dearestfriend. We go to Briarwood Hall together."
"Briarwood Hall? I have heard of that. We go there soon, I understand. Mr.Hammond is to take some pictures in and around Lumberton."
"Oh!" exclaimed Ruth. 'That will be nice! I hope we shall see you upthere, Miss Gray, for Helen and I go back to
school in a week."
"Whether I see you there or not," said the young actress with a sigh, "Ihope that I shall be able some time to repay you for what you do for menow. You are entirely too kind."
"Perhaps you can pay me more easily than you think," said Ruth, bashfully,but with dancing eyes.
"How? Tell me at once," said Miss Gray.
"I'm just _mad_ to try writing a scenario for a moving picture," confessedRuth. "But I don't know how to go about getting it read."
Miss Gray smiled, but made no comment upon Ruth's desire. She merely said,pleasantly:
"If you write your scenario, my dear, I will get our manager to read it."
"That awful Mr. Grimes?" cried Ruth. "Oh! I shouldn't want _him_ to readit."
Hazel Gray laughed heartily at that. "Don't judge, the taste of a bakedporcupine by his quills," she said. "Grimes is a very rough and unpleasantman; but he gets there. He is one of the most successful directors Mr.Hammond has working for him."
"You have mentioned Mr. Hammond before?" said Ruth, questioningly.
"He is the man I will show your scenario to." Then she added: "If I amstill working for him. Mr. Hammond is a very nice man; but Grimes does notlike me," and again the girl sighed, and a cloud came over her prettyface.
"I would not work under such a mean man as that Grimes!" declared Ruth."You might have been drowned because of his carelessness."
"It is my misfortune--being an actress--often to work under unpleasantconditions. I want to get ahead, and I would like to please Grimes; heputs over his pictures, and he has made several film actresses quitefamous. Of course, although my first consideration must necessarily be mybread and butter, I hope for a little fame on the side, too."
"Oh! you have achieved that, have you not?" said Ruth, timidly. "I thoughtyou had already made a name for yourself."
"Not as great a name as I hope to gain some day," declared Hazel Gray."But thank you for the compliment. I was carried on to the stage when Iwas a baby in arms by my dear mother, who was an actress of some ability.My father was an actor. He died of a fever in the South before I canremember, and when I was seven my mother died.
"Kind people trained me for the stage; they were kind enough to say I hadtalent. And now I have tried to do my best in the movies. Mr. Hammondthinks I am a good pantomimist; but Grimes declares I have no 'filmcharm,'" and Miss Gray sighed again. "He has another girl he wants to pushforward, and is angry that Mr. Hammond did not send her to head thiscompany."
"Then this Mr. Hammond is quite an important man?" asked Ruth.
"Head of the Alectrion Film Corporation. He is immensely wealthy and areally _good_ man. Of course," went on Miss Gray, "he is in the businessof making films for money; just the same, he makes a great many picturespurely for art's sake, or for educational reasons. You would like Mr.Hammond, I am sure," and the girl in bed sighed again.
Ruth saw that talking troubled Miss Gray and kept her mind upon herquarrel with the moving picture director; so it did not need AuntAlvirah's warning to make the girl of the Red Mill steal away and leavethe patient to such repose as she might get.