Ruth Fielding in Moving Pictures | Page 6

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 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 ashore, 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.
"Nobody 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