A BREAKDOWN
There was snow everywhere. Never could Ruth, Alice, and the other
members of the Comet Film Company remember so much at one time. They
seemed to have entered the Polar regions.
Along the tracks of the railroad the white flakes were piled in deep
drifts, and when they swept out from a patch of woodland, and had a view
across the fields, or down into some valley, they could see a long,
unbroken stretch of white.
"It sure is some snow," observed Russ, who sat in the seat with Ruth,
while Paul had pre-empted a place beside Alice. This last in spite of
the fact that Miss Dixon invitingly had a seat ready for the young actor
beside herself. But she was forced to be content with a novel for
companionship.
"Yes, and we're going to get more snow," remarked Mr. Sneed, who sat
behind Russ. "We'll get so much that the train will be delayed, and
we'll have to stay on it all night; that's what will happen."
"Und ve vill starf den; ain't dot so?" inquired Mr. Switzer, with a
jolly laugh from across the aisle. "Ve vill starf alretty; vill ve not,
mine gloomy friendt?"
"We sure will," predicted the grouch of the company. "They took the
dining car off at the last station, and I understand there isn't another
one to be had until we get to Hampton Junction. We sure will starve!"
"Ha! Dot is vot ve vill _not_ do!" laughed Mr. Switzer, with conviction.
"See, I haf alretty t'ought of dot, und I haf provided. Here are
pretzels!" and he produced a large bag of them from his grip. "Ve vill
not starf!"
"Ha! Pretzels!" scoffed Mr. Sneed. "I never eat them!"
"Maybe you vill before you starf!" chuckled Mr. Switzer, as he replaced
them. "I like dem much!"
The other members of the company laughed--all but Mr. Sneed and
Wellington Bunn. The former went forward to consult a brakeman as to the
prospects of the train becoming snowbound, while Mr. Bunn, who wore his
tall hat, and was bundled up in a fur coat, huddled close to the window,
and doubtless dreamed of the days when he had played Shakespearean
rôles; and wondered if he would play them again.
The train went on, not that any great speed was attained, for the grade
was up hill, and there had been heavy storms. There was also the
prospect of more snow, and this, amid the rugged hills of New England,
was not reassuring.
"But we expect hard weather up here," said Mr. Pertell to his company.
"The more snow and ice we have, the better pictures we can get."
"That's right!" agreed Russ.
"Humph! I'm beginning to wish I hadn't come," growled Mr. Sneed, who had
received information from a brakeman to the effect that trains were
often snowbound in that part of the State.
A few feathery flakes began falling now, and there was the promise of
more in the clouds overhead, and in the sighing of the North wind.
"Does your throat hurt you much, Daddy?" asked Ruth, as she noticed her
father wrapping a silk handkerchief closer about his neck.
"Just a little; I think it is the unusual cold," he replied. "But I do
not mind it. The air is sharper here than in New York; but it is drier.
Perhaps it may do me good. I think I will use my spray," and he got out
his atomizer.
There were not many passengers beside the members of the film
theatrical company in the car in which Ruth and her sister rode. Among
them, however, were two young ladies, about the age of Alice, and as
Ruth went down the aisle once, to get a drink of water, she noted that
one of the strangers appeared to be ill.
"Pardon me," spoke Ruth, with ready sympathy, "but can I do anything to
help you?"
"She has a bad headache," replied the other. "My sister always gets one
when she travels. Fortunately we have not much farther to go."
"Oh, Helen, I shall be so glad when we get there," said the suffering
one.
"Never mind, Mabel, we will soon be there," soothed the other.
"If you don't mind--I'd like to give you my smelling salts," offered
Ruth. "They always help me when I have a headache, which is seldom, I'm
glad to say."
"I wish I could say that," murmured the afflicted one.
"Suppose you let me give the bottle to you," suggested Ruth. "I'll have
my sister bring some spirits of cologne, too. Then you can bathe your
head."
"You are very kind," responded the other.
Soon the four girls were in the ladies' compartment of the parlor car in
which the picture company was traveling. There was a lounge there, and
on this the girl called Mabel was soon receiving the ministrations of
the others.
Her head was bathed in the fragrant cologne, and the use of the smelling
salts relieved the slight feeling of indisposition that accompanied the
headache.
"I feel so much better now," she declared, after a little. "I--I think I
could sleep."
"That would be the best thing for you, my dear," said Ruth, as she
smoothed her hair. "Come," she whispered to the others, "we will sit
back here and let her rest," and she motioned them to come into the
curtained-off recess of the compartment.
There the other girl said that she and her sister were on their way to
visit relatives over the holidays. They were Mabel and Helen Madison, of
New York.
"And right after Christmas we're going to Florida," Helen confided to
Ruth and Alice.
"Oh, it must be lovely there, under the palms!" exclaimed the latter. "I
do so want to go."
"It is quite a contrast to this, I should imagine," remarked Ruth, as
she gazed out of the window on the snowy scene.
"Does your company ever get as far as Florida?" asked Helen, for Ruth
and Alice had told her their profession.
"We haven't yet," replied Ruth, "though once, when we were small, daddy
played in St. Augustine, and we were there. But I don't remember
anything about it."
"We are going to a little resort on Lake Kissimmee," said Helen Madison.
"Perhaps we may see you there, if you ever make pictures in Florida."
"I hardly think we are going that far," observed Ruth. "But if we do we
shall look for you."
Ruth little realized then how prophetic her words were, nor how she and
Alice would actually "look" for the two girls.
A little later Mabel awakened from a doze, and announced that her head
felt much better. Then, as it would soon be time for her and her sister
to get off, for they were nearing their destination, they went back to
their seats to get their luggage in readiness.
"I like them; don't you?" asked Alice, as she and Ruth rejoined their
friends.
"Indeed I do! They seem very sweet girls. I would like to meet them
again."
"So would I. Perhaps we shall. It would be lovely if we could go to
Florida, after our winter work is over. I'm going to ask Mr. Pertell if
there's any likelihood of our doing so."
But Alice did not get the opportunity just then, as she and Ruth went to
the door to bid their new girl acquaintances good-bye. Then came the
announcement that in a short time Hampton Junction would be reached.
"Better be getting your possessions together," advised Mr. Pertell to
his company. "It is getting late and I don't want to have you travel too
much after dark."
The train came to a stop at Hampton Junction, and from the car emerged
the picture players. Ranged alongside the small building that served as
the depot were several large sleighs, known in that country as "pungs,"
the bodies being filled with clean straw. There were four horses to
each, and the jingle of their bells made music on the wintry air.
"Oh, we're going to have a regular straw ride!" cried Alice, clapping
her hands at the sight of the comfortable-looking sleighs. "Isn't this
jolly, Ruth?"
"I'm sure it will be, yes. Come now, have you everything?"
"Everything, and more too!"
"Daddy, are you all right?" went on Ruth, for she had gotten into the
habit, of late, of looking after her father, who seemed to lean on her
more and more as she grew older.
"Everything, daughter," he replied. "And my throat feels much better. I
think the cold air is doing it good."
"That's fine!" she laughed, happily. "Now I wonder which of these
sleighs is ours?"
"I'll tell you in a minute," said Mr. Pertell. "I want to see the
lodge-keeper. Oh, there he is! Hello, Jake Macksey!" he called to the
sturdy man, in big boots, who was stalking about among the sleds, "is
everything all right for us?"
"Everything, Mr. Pertell," was the hearty answer. "We'll have you out to
Elk Lodge in a jiffy. My wife has got a lot of stuff cooked up, for she
thought you'd be hungry."
"Indeed we are!" grumbled Mr. Sneed.
"But if dere iss stuff cooked I can safe mine pretzels!" chuckled Mr.
Switzer.
The baggage was stowed in one sled, and in the others the members of the
picture company distributed themselves.
"All right?" asked Jake Macksey, who was a veteran guide and hunter, and
in charge of Elk Lodge.
"All ready!" answered Mr. Pertell.
"Drive lively now, boys!" called the hunter. "It's getting late, and
will soon be dark, and the roads aren't any too good."
"Oh my!" groaned Mr. Sneed. "I'm sure something will happen!"
With cracks of the whips, and a jingling of sleighbells, the little
cavalcade started off. The gloom settled slowly down, but Ruth and Alice
helped dispel it by singing lively songs. Over the snow-covered road
they went, now on a comparatively level place, and again down into some
hollow where the drifts were deep. The horses pulled nobly.
They came to a narrow place in the road, where the snow was piled high
on either side. There was room for but one sled at a time.
"I hope we don't meet anyone here," said Mr. Macksey. "If they do we'll
have a hard job passing. G'lang there!" he called to his horses.
They were half-way through the snow defile, when the leading sleigh, in
which rode Ruth and Alice, swerved to one side. There was a crashing
sound, a splintering of wood, and the two forward horses went down in a
heap.
"Whoa! Whoa!" called Mr. Macksey, as he reined in the others.
"What's happened?" asked Mr. DeVere.
"Some sort of a breakdown," answered the hunter.
"Serious?" the actor wanted to know, trying to peer ahead in the gloom.
"I can't tell yet," was the answer. "Here, can someone hold the reins
while I get out?" he asked.
"I will," offered Russ, and he held the rear team. The horses who had
fallen had struggled to their feet and were quiet now. But the front
part of the sled seemed to have sagged into the snow.
"I thought so!" exclaimed Mr. Macksey, as he got up after peering under
the vehicle. "No going on like this."
"What happened?" asked Alice.
"One of the forward runners has broken. There must have been a defect in
it I didn't notice."
"Can't we go on?" asked Mr. Sneed.
"Not very well," was the answer. "We've broken down, and unfortunately
we're the leading sleigh. I don't know how to get the others past it."
"Well, I knew something would happen," sighed the human grouch. And he
seemed quite gratified that his prediction had been verified.