Ruth Fielding in Moving Pictures | Page 8

said Ruth,
questioningly.

"He is the man I will show your scenario to." Then she added: "If I am
still working for him. Mr. Hammond is a very nice man; but Grimes
does not like me," and again the girl sighed, and a cloud came over her
pretty face.
"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 unpleasant
conditions. I want to get ahead, and I would like to please Grimes; he
puts over his pictures, and he has made several film actresses quite
famous. Of course, although my first consideration must necessarily be
my bread and butter, I hope for a little fame on the side, too."
"Oh! you have achieved that, have you not?" said Ruth, timidly. "I
thought you 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 I
was 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
can remember, and when I was seven my mother died.
"Kind people trained me for the stage; they were kind enough to say I
had talent. And now I have tried to do my best in the movies. Mr.
Hammond thinks I am a good pantomimist; but Grimes declares I have
no 'film charm,'" and Miss Gray sighed again. "He has another girl he
wants to push forward, and is angry that Mr. Hammond did not send
her to head this company."
"Then this Mr. Hammond is quite an important man?" asked Ruth.
"Head of the Alectrion Film Corporation. He is immensely wealthy and
a really good man. Of course," went on Miss Gray, "he is in the
business of making films for money; just the same, he makes a great
many pictures purely 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 her
quarrel with the moving picture director; so it did not need Aunt
Alvirah's warning to make the girl of the Red Mill steal away and leave
the patient to such repose as she might get.
CHAPTER IV
A TIME OF CHANGE
Tom Cameron looked funny enough in some of the miller's garments;
but he was none the worse for his bath in the river. He, too, had been
dosed with hot tea by Aunt Alvirah, though he made a wry face over it.
"Never you mind, boy," Ruth told him, laughing. "It is better to have a
bad taste in your mouth for a little while than a sore throat for a week."
"Hear! hear the philosopher!" cried Tom. "You'd think I was a tender
little blossom."
"You know, you might have the croup," suggested Ruth, wickedly.
"Croup! What am I--a kid?" demanded Tom, half angry at this
suggestion. He had begun to notice that his sister and Ruth were
inclined to set him down as a "small boy" nowadays.
"How is it," Tom asked his father one day, "that Helen is all grown up
of a sudden? I'm not! Everybody treats me just as they always have; but
even Colonel Post takes off his hat to our Helen on the street with
overpowering politeness, and the other men speak to her as though she
were as old as Mrs. Murchiston. It gets me!"
Mr. Cameron laughed; but he sighed thereafter, too. "Our little Helen is
growing up, I expect. She's taken a long stride ahead of you, Tommy,
while you've been asleep."
"Huh! I'm just as old as she is," growled Tom. "But I don't feel grown
up."

And here was Ruth Fielding holding the same attitude toward him that
his twin did! Tom did not like it a bit. He was a manly fellow and had
always observed a protective air with Ruth and his sister. And, all of a
sudden, they had become young ladies while he was still a boy.
"I wish Nell would come back with my duds," he grumbled. "I have a
good mind to walk home in these things of the miller's."
"And be taken for an animated scarecrow on the way?" laughed Ruth.
"Better 'bide a wee,' Tommy. Sister will get here with your rompers
pretty soon. Have patience."
"Now you talk just like Bobbins' sister. Behave, will you?" complained
Tom.
Ruth tripped out of the room to peep at the guest, and Aunt Alvirah
hobbled in and, letting herself down into