Mr. Grimes had his schedule before him and he skipped from one part of the story"s action to another in a most bewildering way, getting the scenes about the school filmed in each "setting" in succession, rather than following the thread of the story.
Nor could Ruth judge the effect of the several pictures. She was too close to them. There was no perspective.
Sometimes when Mr. Grimes seemed the most satisfied, Ruth could see nothing in that scene at all. Again he would make the partic.i.p.ants go over and over a scene that seemed perfectly clear the first time.
Hazel Gray and several other professional performers were at Briarwood and had their parts in the scenes with the schoolgirls. Hazel played the heroine of Ruth"s drama, but Mr. Hammond had insisted upon Ruth herself acting the part of the heroine"s chum--a not unimportant role.
Ruth did not feel that she had histrionic ability; but she was so anxious for the moving picture to be a success, that she would have tried her very best to suit Mr. Grimes in any role. She was surprised, however, when he warmly praised her work in her one scene which was at all emotional.
"You naturally feel your part in this scene, Miss Fielding," he said. "Not everybody could get the action before the camera so well."
""Praise from Sir Hubert!"" whispered Hazel Gray, smiling at her young friend. "You should be proud."
Ruth was not quite sure whether she was proud of this unsuspected talent or not. She had written to Aunt Alvirah about her acting in the play, and the good woman had warned her seriously against the folly of vanity and the sin of frivolity. Aunt Alvirah had been brought up to doubt very much the morality of those who performed upon the stage for the amus.e.m.e.nt of the public.
What Mr. Jabez Potter thought of his niece"s acting for the screen, even his opinion of her writing a play, was a sealed matter to Ruth; for the old miller, as Aunt Alvirah informed her, grew grumpier and more morose all the time. "He is a caution to get along with," wrote Aunt Alvirah Boggs in her cramped handwriting. "I don"t know what"s going to become of him. You"d think he was weaned on wormwood and drunk nothing but boneset tea all his life long."
However, it must be confessed that Ruth Fielding"s thoughts were not much upon her Uncle Jabez or the Red Mill these days. The work of making the pictures occupied all her thought that was not taken up with study.
Jennie Stone, Sarah Fish, Helen, Lluella and Belle, all appeared prominently in the "close up" scenes Mr. Grimes took. In the cla.s.sroom, dining hall, the graduation march, and in the Italian garden scenes, most of the seniors and juniors were used.
A splendid gymnasium scene pleased the girls, and views of the hand-ball, captain"s-ball, tennis and basket-ball courts, with the girls in action, were bound to be spectacular, too.
These typical boarding school scenes closely followed the text of Ruth"s play. Hazel and Ruth were in them all; and on the tennis court Hazel and Ruth played Helen and Sarah Fish a fast game, the former couple winning by sheer skill and pluck.
Ruth naturally had to neglect some duties. Discipline was more or less relaxed, and she lost sight of Amy Gregg.
One evening the smaller girl did not appear at Mrs. Sadoc Smith"s after supper. Of late the other girls had let Amy Gregg alone and Ruth had ceased to watch her so carefully. But when darkness fell and Amy did not appear, Ruth telephoned to the school. Miss Scrimp, who answered the call, had not seen her. It was learned, too, that Amy had not been at the supper table. n.o.body had seen her depart, but it was a fact that she had disappeared from Briarwood Hall sometime during the afternoon. Nor had she been near Mrs. Sadoc Smith"s since early morning.
CHAPTER XX
A CLOUD ARISES
While Mrs. Smith and Helen and Ann Hicks were "running around in circles,"
as Ann put it, wondering what had become of Amy Gregg, Ruth did the only practical thing she could think of.
She hunted up Curly.
"Old Scratch!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the boy. "I haven"t seen Amy to-day. Sure I haven"t! No, Ma"am!"
"Not at _all_?" asked Ruth. "And don"t you know where to look for her?"
"Oh, she"ll take care of herself," said the boy, carelessly. "She isn"t as soft as most girls."
"But Mrs. Tellingham will be awfully angry with me," Ruth cried. "I was supposed to look out for her when she came over here."
"Shucks!" exclaimed Curly. "Amy didn"t want to be looked out for."
"That doesn"t absolve me from my duty," sighed Ruth. "Haven"t you the least idea where she"s gone?"
"No, Ruth, I haven"t," the boy declared earnestly. "If I had I"d tell you."
"I believe you, Curly."
"She and I haven"t been so friendly," admitted the boy, in some embarra.s.sment, "since you went fishing with me that time."
"Goodness me! she"s not jealous?" cried Ruth.
"I don"t know what you call it," said Curly, hanging his head. "It"s some foolish girl stuff. Boys don"t act that way. I told her I"d take her fishing, too--if she"d get up early enough." Here Curly began to laugh.
"You can bet, Ruth, that wherever she is, she got there before dark and won"t come back until daylight."
"What do you mean?" asked Ruth, sharply.
"I know she"s afraid as she can be of the dark. She"s a regular baby about that. Of course, she won"t own up to it."
"Why! I never knew it," Ruth exclaimed.
"She wouldn"t go fishing because I start so early--while it"s still dark.
Catch _her_ out of the house before sun-up!"
"Oh, Curly! I blame myself," gasped Ruth. "I never knew that about her.
Are you sure?"
""Course I am. She"s scared of the dark. I can make her mad any time by just hinting at it. So that proves it, don"t it?" responded this young philosopher.
"Maybe she has gone somewhere and is afraid to come back till morning,"
repeated Ruth.
"She"s been after me to take her up to that dam where we caught the fish, in the afternoon; but I told her we couldn"t get home before pitch dark. I ought to have taken her along, I guess, and said nothing," Curly added reflectively.
"Last night she was talking about it. She said I should take her because I took you there."
"You don"t suppose she"s gone clear over there by herself, do you?" Ruth cried, in alarm.
"I don"t believe she knows how to start, even," Curly said easily. "And I told her last night she"d better not go anywhere till she got rid of that sore throat."
"Sore throat!" repeated Ruth, with added worriment. "I never knew her throat was sore."
"She told me, she did," Curly said. "It was pretty bad, I guess, too. I guess maybe she was afraid to say anything about it. I don"t like to tell Gran when there"s anything the matter with me. She mixes up such nasty messes for me to take!"
"The poor child!" murmured Ruth, thinking only of Amy Gregg. "What _shall_ we do?"
"I"ll get a lantern and we"ll go hunt around for her," suggested Curly, ripe for any adventure.