CHAPTER V
"THAT'S A PROMISE"
The family at the Red Mill were early risers When the red, red sun threwhis first rays across the frosty waters of the Lumano, Ruth Fielding'scasement was wide open and she was busily tripping about the kitchen whereher Uncle Jabez had built the fire in the range before going to the mill.
Ben, the hired man, was out doing the chores and soon brought two brimmingpails of milk into the milk-room.
"Aunt Alviry will miss ye, Ruthie, when ye air gone back to school," Bensaid bashfully, when Ruth, with capable air, began to strain the milk andpour it into the pans.
"Poor Aunt Alvirah!" sighed Ruth. "I hope you help her all you can whenI'm not here, Ben?"
"I jest _do_!" said the big fellow, heartily. "T'tell the truth, Ruthie,sometimes I kin scarce a-bear Jabe Potter. I wouldn't work for him anothermonth, I vow! if 'twasn't for the old woman--and--and _you_."
"Oh, thank you, Ben, for that compliment," cried Ruth, dimpling andrunning into the kitchen to set back the coffee-pot in which the coffeewas threatening to boil over.
The breakfast dishes were not dried when the raucous "honk! honk! honk!"of an automobile horn sounded without. The machine stopped at the gate ofthe Potter house.
"My mercy! who kin that be?" demanded Aunt Alvirah, jerkily, and thensettled back into her chair again by the window with a murmured, "Oh, myback! and oh, my bones!"
"It can't be Tom, can it?" gasped Ruth, running to the door. "Soearly--and to see Miss Gray?" for the thought that Tom Cameron wasinterested in the actress still stuck in Ruth's mind.
"It doesn't sound like Tom's horn," she added, as she struggled with theouter door. "Oh, dear! I _do_ wish Uncle Jabez would fix this lock.There!"
The door flew open, and swung out, its weight carrying Ruth with it plumpinto the arms of a big man in a big fur coat which he had thrown open ashe ascended the steps of the porch.
Ruth was almost smothered in the coat. And she would have slipped andfallen had not the stranger held her up, finally setting her squarely onher feet at arm's length, steadying her there and laughing the while.
"I declare, young lady," he said in a pleasant voice, "I did not expectto be met with such cordiality. Is this the way you always meet visitorsat this beautiful, picturesque old place?"
"Oh, oh, oh! I--I--I----"
Ruth could only gasp at first, her cheeks ruddy with blushes, her eyestimid. Her tongue actually refused to speak two consecutive, sensiblewords.
"I must say, my dear," said the gentleman who, Ruth now saw, was a man asold as Mr. Cameron, "that you are as charming as the Red Mill itself. For,of course, this _is_ the Red Mill? I was directed here from Cheslow."
"Oh, yes!" stammered Ruth. "This is the Red Mill. Did--did you wish to seeUncle Jabez?"
"Perhaps. But that was not my particular reason for coming here," said thestranger, laughing openly at her now. "I find his niece pleasanter to lookat, I have no doubt; though Uncle Jabez may be a very estimable man."
Ruth was puzzled. She glanced past him to the big maroon automobile at thegate. Therein she saw the squat, pugnacious looking Mr. Grimes, and shejumped to a correct conclusion.
"Oh!" she cried faintly. "_You_ are Mr. Hammond!"
"Perfectly correct, my dear. And who are you, may I ask?"
"Ruth Fielding. I live here, sir. We have Miss Gray with us."
"Quite so," said Mr. Hammond, nodding. "I have come to see Miss Gray--andto take her away if she is well enough to be moved."
"Oh, she is all right, Mr. Hammond. Only she is still lying in bed. AuntAlvirah prevailed upon her to stay quiet for a while longer."
"And your Aunt Alvirah is probably right. But--may I come in? I'd like toask you a few questions, even if Hazel is not to be seen as yet."
"Oh, certainly, sir!" cried Ruth, thus reminded of her negligence. "Docome in. Here, into the sitting room, please. It is warm in here, forUncle Jabez kept a fire all night, and I just put in a good-sized chunkmyself."
"Ah! an old-fashioned wood-heater, is it?" asked Mr. Hammond, followingRuth into the sitting room. "That looks like comfort. I remember stoking astove like that when I was a boy."
Ruth liked this jolly, hearty, big man from the start. He was inclined tojoke and tease, she thought; but with it all he had the kindliest mannerand most humorous mouth in the world.
He turned to Ruth when the door was shut, and asked seriously: "My dear,is Miss Gray where she can hear us talk?"
"Why, no, sir," replied Ruth, surprised. "The door is shut--and it is asoundproof door, I am certain."
"Very well. I have heard Grimes' edition of the affair yesterday. Will youplease give me _your_ version of the accident? Of course, it _was_ anaccident?"
"Oh, yes, sir! Although that man ought not to have made her climb thattree----"
Mr. Hammond put up a warning hand, and smiled again. "I do not ask you foran opinion. Just for an account of what actually happened."
"But you intimated that perhaps Mr. Grimes was more at fault than heactually _was_," said Ruth, boldly. "Surely he did not push her off thattree!"
"No," said Mr. Hammond, drily. "Did she jump?"
"Jump! Goodness! do you think she is crazy?" demanded Ruth, so shockedthat she quite forgot to be polite.
"Then she did not jump," the manager of the Alectrion Film Corporationsaid, quite placidly. "Very well. Tell me what you saw. For, I suppose,you were on the spot?"
"Yes, sir," said Ruth, not quite sure just then that the gentleman wasaltogether fair-minded. Later she understood that Mr. Hammond merelydesired to get the stories of the accident from the observers with neitherpartiality nor prejudice.
Ruth repeated just what happened from the time she and her friends arrivedin the Cameron car on the scene, till they reached the Red Mill and MissGray had been put to bed.
"Very clear and convincing. You are a good witness," declared Mr. Hammond,lightly; but she saw that the story had left an unpleasant impression onhis mind. She did not see how he could blame the motion picture actress;but she feared that he did.
When Ruth tried to probe into that question, however, Mr. Hammondskilfully turned the subject to the picturesqueness of the Red Mill andits surroundings.
"This would make a splendid background for a film," he said, withenthusiasm. "We ought to have a story written around this beautiful oldplace, with all the romance and human interest that must be connected withthe history of the house.
"Do you mind if we go out and look around a little? I would not disturbMiss Gray until she is perfectly rested and feels like rising."
"Surely I will show you around, sir!" cried Ruth. "Let me get my coat andhat."
She ran for her sweater and tam-o'-shanter, and joined Mr. Hammond on theporch. Mr. Hammond said nothing to Grimes, but allowed him to remain inthe limousine.
Ruth took the moving picture magnate down to the shore of the river andshowed him the wheel and the mill-side. The old stone bridge over thecreek, too, was an object of interest. In fact, Ruth had thought so muchabout the situation of the Red Mill as a picture herself, that she knewjust what would attract the gentleman's interest the most.
"I declare! I declare!" he murmured, over and over again. "It is betterthan I thought. A variety of scene, already for the action to be put intoit! Splendid!"
"And I am sure," Ruth told him, "Uncle Jabez would not object to yourfilming the old place. I could fix it for you. He is not so difficult whenonce you know how to take him."
"I may ask your good offices in that matter," said Mr. Hammond. "But notnow. Of course, Grimes could work up something in short order to fit thesescenes here. He's excellent at that. But I think the subject is worthy ofbetter treatment. I'd like a really big story, treated artistically, andone that would fit perfectly into the background of the Red Mill--nothingslapdash and carelessly written, or invented on the spur of the moment bya busy director----"
"Oh, Mr. Hammond!" cried Ruth, so excited now that she could no longerkeep silent. "I'
d dearly love to write a moving picture scenario about theold mill. And I've thought about it so much that I believe I could doit."
"Indeed?" said Mr. Hammond, with one of his queer smiles. "Did you everwrite a scenario?"
"No, sir! but then, you know," said Ruth, naively, "one must always do athing for the first time."
"Quite true--quite true. So Eve said when she bit into the apple," and Mr.Hammond chuckled.
"I would just _love_ to try it," the girl continued, taking her courage inboth hands. "I have a splendid plot--or, so I believe; and it is all aboutthe Red Mill. The pictures would _have_ to be taken here."
"Not in the winter, I fancy?" said Mr. Hammond.
"No, sir. When it is all green and leafy and beautiful," said Ruth,eagerly.
"Then," said Mr. Hammond, more seriously, "I'd try my 'prentice hand, if Iwere you, on something else. Don't write the Red Mill scenario now. Writesome thrilling but simple story, and let me read it first----"
"Oh, Mr. Hammond!" gasped Ruth, with clasped hands. "Will you really_read_ it?"
"Of course I will," laughed the gentleman. "No matter how bad it is.That's a promise. Here is my card with my private address upon it. Yousend it directly to me, and the first time I am at home I will get it andgive it my best attention. That's a promise," he repeated.
"Oh, thank you, sir!" murmured Ruth delightedly, smiling and dimpling.
He pinched her cheek and his eyes grew serious for a moment. "I once knewa girl much like you, Miss Ruth," he said. "Just as full of life andenthusiasm. You are a tonic for old fogies like me."
"Old fogy!" repeated Ruth. "Why, I'm sure you are not old, Mr. Hammond."
"Never mind flattering me," he broke in, with assumed sternness. "Haven'tI already promised to read your scenario?"
"Yes, sir," said Ruth, demurely. "But you haven't promised to produce it."
"Quite so," and he laughed. "But _that_ only goes by worth. We will seewhat a schoolgirl like you can do in writing a scenario. It will give youpractice so that you may be able to handle something really big about thisbeautiful old place. You know, now that the most popular writers of theday are turning their hands to movies, the amateur production has to bepretty good to 'get by,' as the saying is."
"Oh! now you are trying to discourage me."
"No. Only warning you," Mr. Hammond said, with another laugh. "I'll sendyou a little pamphlet on scenario preparation--it may help. And I hope toread your first attempt before long."
"Thank you, sir," Ruth responded. "And if ever I write my Red Millscenario, I am going to write Miss Gray into it. She is just the one toplay the lead."
"And she is a good little actress I believe," said Mr. Hammond. "I knewthat Grimes had a girl that he wanted to push forward as the lead in thiscompany he has up here. I never like to interfere with my directors if Ican help it. But I will see that Miss Gray gets a square deal. She has hadgood training in the legitimate drama, she is pretty, and she has pluckand good breeding."
"That Mr. Grimes was horrid to her," repeated Ruth, casting a glance ofdislike at the man in the limousine.
"Oh, well, my dear, we cannot make people over in this world. That isimpossible. But I will take care that Hazel Gray gets a square deal._That's_ a promise, too, Ruth Fielding," and the gentleman laughed again.