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 the rallying cry of their own particular Briarwood sorority, Ruth let the limb go, 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 some contempt. "Just a _chorus_! They were a lot of tabby-cats--afraid to wet their precious feet. If it hadn"t been for Tom, Miss Gray would have been drowned before the eyes of that mean director and those other imitation men. Ugh! I de-_test_ a coward!"
This was said later, however. Until they drew Tom and his fainting burden ash.o.r.e, neither Ruth nor Helen had time for criticism. Then they bundled Hazel Gray in the automobile rugs, while Tom struggled into an overcoat and 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, opposite the road to Cheslow. And don"t try to see her before to-morrow. No thanks to _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"s manner. "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 was being taken.
"I shall expect you to be ready bright and early in the morning, Miss Gray!" he shouted as the automobile moved off. The young actress, half fainting in the tonneau between the Briarwood Hall girls, did not hear him.
It was several miles to the Red Mill, and Ruth, worried, said: "I"m afraid Tom will catch cold, Helen."
"And--and this po--poor girl, too," stammered Tom"s sister, as the car jounced 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 there more 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.
"n.o.body knows better than I," said Ruth, "that the water of the Lumano river 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 will snuggle you down between soft, fluffy blankets, and give you hot boneset tea, or "composition," and otherwise coddle you. To-morrow morning you will 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 the rambling, old, story-and-a-half dwelling beside it, in which Jabez Potter"s grandfather had been born. Although the leaves had long since fallen from the trees, and the lawn was brown, the sloping front yard of the Potter house was very attractive. The walks were swept, the last dead leaf removed, and the big stones at the main gateway were dazzlingly white-washed.
The jar and rumble of the grist-mill, and the trickle of the water on the wheel, made a murmurous accompaniment to all the other sounds of life about the place. From the rear of the old house fowls cackled, a mule sent his clarion call across the fields, and hungry pigs squealed their prayer for supper. A cow lowed impatiently at the pasture bars in answer to the querulous blatting of her calf.
Tom was going on home to change his clothes; but when Ruth saw the fringe of icicles around the bottoms of his trouser legs, she would not hear to it.
"You come right in with us, Tom. Helen will drive the car home and get you a change of clothing. Meanwhile you can put on some of Uncle Jabez"s old clothes. Hurry on, now, children!" and she laughingly drove Tom and Hazel Gray before her to the porch of the old house, where Aunt Alvirah, having heard the automobile, met them in amazement.
"What forever has happened, my pretty?" cried the little old lady, whose bent back and rheumatic limbs made her seem even smaller than she naturally was. "In the river? Do come in! Bring the young lady right into the best room, Ruthie. You strip off right before the kitchen fire, Master Tom. I"ll bring you some things to put on. There"s a huck towel on the nail yonder. Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!"
Thus talking, Aunt Alvirah hobbled ahead into the sitting room. The girl who had fallen into the river was now shivering. Ruth and the old lady undressed her as quickly as possible, and Aunt Alvirah made ready the bed with 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 "real live 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 particular reason. Long before she had gained the reward for the return of the pearl necklace to Nettie Parsons" aunt, Ruth had thought of writing a scenario.
This was not a very original thought, for many, many thousand other people have thought the same thing.
Occasionally, when she had been to a film show, Ruth had wondered why she could not write a playlet quite as good as many she saw, and get money for it. But it had been only a thought; she knew nothing about the technique of the scenario, or how to go about getting an opinion upon her work if she should write one.
Here chance had thrown her into the company of a girl who was working for the films, and evidently was of some importance in the moving picture companies, despite the treatment she had received from the unpleasant director, Mr. Grimes.
Ruth remembered now of having seen Hazel Gray upon the screen more than once within the year. She was regarded as a coming star, although she had not achieved the fame of many actresses for the silent drama who were no older.
So Ruth, feeling the importance of the occasion, selected from her store the very prettiest night gown that she owned--one she had never even worn herself--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 was sipping her hot tea.
"My dear! you are very, very good to me," she said, clinging to Ruth"s hand. You and the dear little old lady. Are you as good to every stranger who 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 older than herself, the girl of the Red Mill felt much more immature than Miss Gray.
"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 Uncle Jabez"s clothing, a world too big for him. But Tom _is_ one of the dearest fellows who ever lived."
"You think a great deal of him, I fancy?"
"Oh, yes, indeed!" cried Ruth, innocently. "His sister is my very dearest friend. 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 up there, 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, "I hope that I shall be able some time to repay you for what you do for me now. You are entirely too kind."