FIRE ON BOARD
Ruth sat for some moments in silence after she had read in the paper the
short account of the missing girls. She had come to a pause in arranging
her luxuriant hair for the night and, with it only half combed, leaned
back in the small chair the stateroom afforded. Alice was reclining on
her berth.
"Does it worry you, Ruth?" the younger girl finally asked.
"A little, yes." Ruth was unusually quiet, and there was a far-away look
in her deep blue eyes.
"Oh, don't take it so seriously," rallied Alice, in her vivacious way,
though at first she, too, had been affected by what she read.
"But it is serious."
"Oh, it may be only one of those 'newspaper yarns,' as Russ calls them."
"Alice, your language, of late--"
"There, sister mine! Please don't scold--or lecture. I'm too sleepy," and
she finished with a yawn that showed all her white, even teeth.
"I'm not scolding, my dear, but you know I must look after you in a way,
and--"
"Look after yourself, my dear. With your hair down that way, and that
sweet and innocent look on your face, and in your eyes--you are much more
in need of looking after than I. Someone is sure to fall in love with
you, and then--"
"Alice, if you--"
"Don't throw that hair brush at me!" and the younger girl covered herself
with a quilt, in simulated fear. "I--I didn't mean it. I'll be good!" and
she shook with laughter.
Ruth could not but smile, though the serious look did not leave her face.
She was very like her father. The least little matter out of the ordinary
affected him, and usually on the sad, instead of on the "glad" side. He,
like Ruth, was of a romantic type, inclined to anticipate too much. Alice
was more matter of fact, not to say frivolous, though she could be very
sensible at times.
"Well, I suppose we must go to bed," sighed Ruth at length. "But I'm
afraid I sha'n't sleep."
"On account of thinking of those girls?"
"Yes, just imagine them out all alone in some dismal swamp, perhaps,
without a light, hungry--afraid of every sound--"
"Please stop! You're getting on my nerves."
"I didn't mean to, my dear," was the gentle answer.
"I know you didn't, and it was mean of me to talk that way," and a plump,
bare arm stole around the other's neck, while a hand was run through the
golden hair. "But, don't let's think so much about them. Perhaps they are
not those two girls we met, after all."
"Oh, I don't believe they can be," Ruth agreed. "That would be too much
of a coincidence. But they are two girls--"
"Not necessarily. Maybe it's only an unfounded rumor. Russ says newspaper
men often 'plant' a story like this off in some obscure place, and then
use it as the basis for one of those lurid stories in the Sunday
supplements.
"I shouldn't wonder a bit but what this was one of those cases. So,
sister mine, go to sleep in peace, and in the morning you'll have
forgotten all about it. Only don't let's tell any one, for some of the
company, like Mr. Sneed, might make trouble for Mr. Pertell, saying
alligators were there."
"Well, there are."
"Perhaps. But who cares? I'd like to get one ordinary-sized 'gator."
"Why, Alice! What for?"
"I've always wanted an alligator bag, and I never could afford it. Now's
my chance. But we may never get far enough into the interior for that. By
the way, where did it say those girls started from? I didn't half read
it."
"From Sycamore, near Lake Kissimmee."
"Well, Mr. Pertell did mention that we might get to the lake, but he
didn't specify Sycamore."
"No, and now I'm going to try and do as you said, and forget all about
it," and Ruth laid aside the paper and resumed putting up her hair for
the night.
"I wonder what will happen to-morrow?" mused Alice, as she slipped into
her robe, and thrust her feet into bath slippers.
"What do you mean?" Ruth's voice was rather muffled, for her hair was
over her face now.
"I mean Mr. Towne fell in to-day, and--"
"Gracious, I hope you don't infer that it's someone else's turn
to-morrow!"
"Hardly!" laughed Alice. "Hand me that cold cream, please, the salt air
has chapped my face. Oh, say, did you notice how much color Laura had on
to-day? If ever there was a 'hand-made' complexion hers was!"
"You shouldn't say such things!"
"Why not? When they're true! And such eyes as she made at poor Mr.
Towne!"
Ruth slipped a rosy palm over her sister's lips, but Alice pulled it
away, and laughingly added:
"She found that her glances failed to reach Paul, and so she's trying her
'wireless' on--"
"Alice, you _must_ stop. Someone may hear you!"
"Can't! Daddy has the stateroom on one side, and Mr. Pertell the other,
and they're both sound sleepers. But I've finished anyhow. You put out
the light," and with a bound, having completed her toilette, Alice was in
her berth.
Ruth sighed, and then sat again staring off into space. It must have been
some little time, too, for when she turned to look at her sister, Alice
was breathing deeply in sleep.
"Dear Alice!" murmured Ruth, and she bent over her for a moment, and
kissed her lightly on the cheek--as gently as the fall of a rose petal.
Soon the older sister, too, was asleep.
In order that there might be no trouble among the members of the moving
picture company over the statement made in the newspaper that perhaps the
two girls had fallen victims to alligators, Ruth, next morning,
carefully cut out the item, and put it away among her things.
"It may be silly," she said to Alice, "but--"
"It _is_ silly to imagine anything like that," was the quick retort.
"But it's best to be on the safe side," finished Ruth, gently. "Mr. Sneed
is so peculiar."
"I agree with you there, sister mine. Well, you've taken the precautions,
anyhow. My, I'm hungry! I hope breakfast is ready."
"You are not troubled with _mal-de-mer_, then?"
"Not a bit of it, and I never was out on the ocean before. It isn't a bit
rough; is it?"
"Well, we did roll some during the night, but then the sea is calm. Wait
until we get a storm."
"I do hope one comes!"
"Alice DeVere!"
"Well, I mean just a _little_ one, with waves like little hills, instead
mountains."
The only members of the film company who did not present themselves at
the breakfast table were Miss Pennington and Miss Dixon.
They breakfasted in their staterooms, but it was noticed that the trays
came out about as well filled as they went in, from which it might be
gathered that they were not altogether free from the toll the sea exacts
from most travelers.
"My, how charming you look!" observed Paul to Alice as he joined her on
deck, and arranged her steamer chair out of the wind. She had on a new
jacket, and a little toque, the brown fur of which matched her eyes, and
brought out, in contrast, the damask of her cheeks.
"Thank you," she laughed in retort. "I might say the same of you. That's
a good-looking coat."
"A little different from the usual, yes. The man said it was imported--"
"Just as if that made it any better."
"It doesn't--only different. Where did you get that rug? It's an odd
pattern."
"My! But the compliments are flying this morning. It's one daddy picked
up somewhere. Isn't the weather glorious?"
"Now we're on a safe topic," laughed Paul. "Here come Russ and Ruth. My,
but she's stunning!"
"I'm glad you appreciate her," Alice said. Really, Ruth made a picture,
for she had on a long white cloak, and with a turban trimmed with ermine,
and her fair hair and blue eyes, she looked like some Siberian princess,
if they have princesses there, and I suppose they must.
The four young people chatted and laughed together, while the _Tarsus_
plowed on her way. It was a day of idleness, save that Russ took a few
pictures of scenes on shipboard for future use.
In the afternoon, while Ruth and Alice were reclining luxuriously in
their steamer chairs, they observed one of the officers come up from
below, and run toward the bridge. There was something in his manner that
startled Alice, and she sat up suddenly, exclaiming:
"I hope nothing has happened!"
"Happened? Why should it? What do you mean?" asked Ruth. But immediately
a look of fear came into her own eyes--a look born of suggestion merely.
"Oh, I don't know," and Alice tried to laugh, but it did not ring true.
"It was just a notion--"
She did not finish, for another officer came on the run from forward, and
he, too, sought the bridge. Then the two girls saw curling up from one of
the hatchways on the lower forward deck, a little wisp of smoke, and
immediately afterward there sounded through the ship the clanging of
bells.
"What's that?" cried Ruth, casting aside her rug, and struggling to her
feet, no easy matter from a steamer chair. "What's that?"
"Some alarm," said Alice, faintly.
Paul came running toward them.
"Oh, what is it?" gasped Ruth, impulsively clasping him by the arm.
"Don't be frightened," said Paul, but Alice noticed that his lips
trembled a little. "It's only a--fire drill."
As he spoke there was an outpouring of sailors from many places, and
lines of hose were reeled out.
The wisp of smoke from the forward hatchway had increased now, though the
hatch cover was on.
Up on the bridge the girls could see the captain leaving his post in
charge of one of the officers. The ship, too, seemed to be turning about.
"Are you sure it is only fire--_drill_?" asked Alice.
"Why, that's what a sailor told me," answered Paul, slowly.
"Look," said Alice, and she pointed to the curling smoke.
More clanging bells resounded, and more lines of hose were run out. There
was no doubt, now, that the _Tarsus_ was making a complete turn.
Then, as the captain and one officer left the bridge there rang out the
cry:
"Fire! Fire! The ship's on fire! Lower the boats!"