IN THE STORM
"That's the way to drive!"
"Come on now!"
"Faster, if you can make the horses go!"
"Get all that in, Russ!"
It was a lively scene, for a spirited race in cutters was in progress
between Mr. Bunn and Mr. Sneed. It was taking place on the frozen
surface of the lake, and each actor had been instructed to do his best
to win. The race was a scene in the big snow drama, and it was being
filmed several days after the events narrated in the preceding chapter.
The thaw was over, there had been a spell of cold weather, and Deerfield
was icebound. The lake was a glittering expanse, and the ice on it was
thick enough to support a regiment.
"A little more to the left, Mr. Sneed!" called Russ, who was taking the
pictures. "I want to get a better side view."
"But if I go too far to the left I'm afraid I'll run into Mr. Bunn,"
objected the gloomy actor.
"No matter if you do--if you don't run into him too hard," cried Mr.
Pertell. "It will make it look more natural."
"If he runs into me--and does me any damage--I shall sue him and you
too!" declared Mr. Bunn. "This is a farcical idea, anyhow. You said I
might get a chance to do some Shakespearean work up here; but so far I
have done nothing."
"I'll see what I can do on that line next week," promised the manager.
"Go on with this race now. The idea is for you, Mr. Sneed, to be in
pursuit of Mr. Bunn. You must look as though you really wanted to catch
him. Put some spirit into your acting."
"It is too cold!" complained Mr. Sneed. "I would a great deal rather be
sitting beside the fire in the Lodge."
"No doubt," commented Mr. Pertell, drily. "But that won't make moving
pictures. Come on, now, start your horses again," for they had, so far,
been only rehearsing.
Finally Mr. Pertell was satisfied that the play would be done to his
satisfaction, and gave the word for Russ to start unreeling the film.
Away started the two cutters over the ice, and the two actors really
managed to put a little enthusiasm into their work. Then, as Russ called
to Mr. Sneed to edge over a little to the left, as he had done before,
at the rehearsal, the gloomy actor pulled too hard on one rein. His
horse swerved too much, and, the next instant, the cutter upset, and Mr.
Sneed was neatly deposited on the ice.
Fortunately he fell clear of the vehicle, and was not entangled in the
reins, so he was not hurt. The horse, an intelligent animal, feeling
that something was wrong, came to a stop after running a little
distance.
"Stop! Stop!" called Mr. Pertell to Mr. Bunn, who was still urging on
his horse, unaware of the accident to his fellow actor. "The scene is
spoiled. Don't take that, Russ. Sometimes I like an accident on the
film, but not in this case. It would spoil the action of the play. It
will have to be done over again."
"Not with me in it!" said Mr. Sneed, as he got up and went limping
toward shore.
"Why not?" asked Mr. Pertell. "Why don't you want to do this act?"
"Because I am hurt. I knew something would happen when I got up this
morning, and it certainly has. I may be injured for life by this."
"Nonsense!" exclaimed the manager. "You're not hurt. You only think so.
Here, Mrs. Maguire, give him that bottle of witch hazel I saw you use
for little Tommy the other day. That will fix you up, Mr. Sneed."
"Humph!" exclaimed the "grouch." And then, as the motherly Irish woman,
with a quizzical smile on her face, started to the house for the
liniment, Mr. Sneed said:
"Oh, you needn't make such a fuss over me. I suppose I can go on with
this, if I am suffering. Bring back the horse."
The overturned cutter was righted, and the play went on. This time no
mishap occurred and the race was run to a successful finish.
"Now, Alice and Ruth, you will get into the larger cutter, and with Paul
for a driver we'll make the next scene," directed Mr. Pertell, and so
the making of the play went on.
The filming of the big drama was to occupy several days, as some of the
scenes were laid in distant parts of the game preserve belonging to Elk
Lodge, and there was not time to take the company there, and come back
for other scenes, the darkness falling early, as the year was dying.
There came fair weather, and storms, alternating. A number of fine films
were obtained by Russ, some of them showing weather effects, and others
views of the ice at the falls where the two girls and their companions
had been imprisoned in the ice cave.
It was on one comparatively warm afternoon that Alice, who had been out
in the barn to give some sugar to a favorite horse, came back and called
to Ruth:
"Let's go for a walk. It's perfectly lovely out, and it will do us both
good."
"All right!" agreed Ruth. "I've been sewing all morning and my eyes are
tired. Where are you going?"
"Oh, in a direction we have never taken before."
"Don't get lost," advised their father.
"We won't," returned Alice. "Don't you want to come, Daddy?"
"Too busy. I'm studying a new part," he said.
So the two moving picture girls started off, and soon were tramping
through the woods, following an old lumber trail.
"This leads to the camp of Flaming Arrow," said Alice, for they had paid
the promised visit some time before. "Shall we take it?"
"Yes, but not all the way to the lumber camp," objected Ruth. "That is
too far."
"Oh, I wouldn't think of going there now," responded Alice. "I mean to
branch off on the new path I spoke of."
The day was pleasant, but there was the hint of a storm in the feeling
of the air and in the clouds, and the hint was borne out a little later,
for a fine snow began sifting down.
The girls kept on, however though Ruth wanted to turn back at the first
white flake.
"There's going to be a storm," she declared.
"What of it?" asked Alice, with a merry laugh. "It will be all the more
fun!"
But a little later, when the wind suddenly sprang into fury, and lashed
the flakes into their faces with cutting force, even Alice was ready to
turn back.
"Come on," she cried to her sister. "We'd better not go to the snow
grotto--that was a natural curiosity I wanted to show you. But we'll
have to wait until another time."
"I should think so!" exclaimed Ruth. "This is terrible! Oh, suppose we
should be lost?"
"How can we be, when all we have to do is to follow the path back to Elk
Lodge?"
Alice thought it would be as easily done as she had said, and Ruth
trusted to the fact that her sister had been that way on a previous
occasion. But neither of them realized the full force of the storm, nor
how easy it was to mistake the way in blinding snow.
They emerged from a little clump of woods, and then they felt the full
force of the blast in their faces.
"Oh, Alice, we can't go on!" cried Ruth, halting and turning her face
aside.
"But we must!" Alice insisted. "We've got to get back. We can't stay out
in this snow. It's a small-sized blizzard now, and it is growing worse."
"Oh, what shall we do?" cried Ruth, almost sobbing.
"We must keep on!" declared Alice, grimly.
They locked arms and bent their heads before the blast. They tried to
keep to the path, but after a few moments of battling with the storm,
Ruth cried:
"Alice where are we?"
"On the way to Elk Lodge, of course."
"No, we're not. We're off the path! See, we didn't come past this big
rock before," and she pointed to one that reared up from the snow.
Alice paused for a moment, and then, with a curious note of fear in her
voice, she said:
"I--I am afraid we are lost, Ruth. Oh, it is all my fault!"