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THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS AT OAK FARM

Or

Queer Happenings While Taking Rural Plays

by

LAURA LEE HOPE

Author Of "The Moving Picture Girls,"
"The Moving Picture Girls Snowbound,"
"The Outdoor Girls of Deepdale,"
"The Bobbsey Twins," Etc.

Illustrated







[Illustration: A BULL CAME RUSHING THROUGH THE CORN.
_Moving Picture Girls at Oak Farm_.--_Page_ 54.]




The World Syndicate Publishing Co.
Cleveland New York
Made in U. S. A.
Copyright, 1914, by
Grosset & Dunlap

Press of
The Commercial Bookbinding Co.
Cleveland




CONTENTS


CHAPTER PAGE

I FILMING A SMASH 1

II A MISSING DOG 11

III ON TO THE FARM 20

IV A QUEER PROPOSAL 29

V SANDY'S STORY 36

VI THE BUTTING BULL 45

VII THE PLAY OF THE HOSE 55

VIII IN THE OLD BARN 64

IX THE RESCUE 70

X THE BARN DANCE 79

XI THE RUNAWAY MOWING MACHINE 89

XII THE MAN WITH THE LIMP 97

XIII ON GUARD 107

XIV AN UPSET 114

XV THE LONELY CABIN 124

XVI THE MAN AND THE UMBRELLA 132

XVII IN THE WOODS 141

XVIII GOING TO SCHOOL 151

XIX FILMING THE BEES 158

XX THAT MAN 166

XXI A CHASE 174

XXII CAUGHT 181

XXIII THE MONEY BOX 193

XXIV EXPLANATIONS 203

XXV THE FIRE FILM 208




THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS AT OAK FARM




CHAPTER I

FILMING A SMASH


"All aboard for Oak Farm!"

"Are we all here; nobody missing?"

"What a relief to get out of the hot city, with summer coming on!"

"Yes, I'm so glad we can go!"

These were only a few of the expressions that came from a motley
assemblage of persons as they stood in a train shed in Hoboken, one
June morning. Motley indeed was the gathering, and more than one
traveler paused to give a second look at the little group. Perhaps a
brief list of them may not be out of place.

There were four pretty girls, two of the innocent type that can so
easily forget their own good looks; two not so ingenuous, fully aware
that they had certain charms, and anxious that they be given full
credit for them.

Then there was a man, with rather long black hair, upon which
perched, rather than fitted, a tall silk hat that had lost its first
sheen. If ever "actor" was written in a man's make-up it was in the
case of this personage. Beside him stood, attired much the same, but
in garments that fitted him better, another who was obviously of the
theater, as were the two girls who were so aware of their own good
looks.

Add to this two or three young men, at least two of whom seemed to
hover near the two girls who were innocently unaware of their beauty;
a bustling gentleman who seemed nervous lest some of the party get
lost, a motherly-looking woman, with two children who were here,
there and everywhere; another man who looked as though all the milk
and cream in the world had turned sour, and finally one on whose
round German face there was a gladsome smile, which seemed
perpetual--and you have the main characters.

No, there was one other--a genial man who seemed to be constantly
trying to solve some puzzle, and taking pleasure in it.

And these personages were waiting for a train. That was evident. You
might have puzzled over their occupation and destination, as many
other travelers did, and the problem would not have been solved,
perhaps, until you had a glimpse of the markings on their trunks. But
when you noted the words: "Comet Film Company," you understood.

"Oh, won't it be just delightful, Ruth!" exclaimed one of the younger
girls.

"It certainly will, Alice. I'm just crazy to get out where I can
gather new-laid eggs and know they are fresh!"

"Little housekeeper!" exclaimed the man standing beside the one who
looked as though he dreamed of nothing else but "Hamlet."

"Well, Daddy dear, won't it be just fine to have fresh eggs?"
demanded the one addressed as Ruth. "If Alice thinks it's easy to get
them in the city----"

"Now Ruth DeVere, you know I was only chaffing!" exclaimed Alice.
"But I don't believe you'll get much chance to gather eggs, Ruth."

"Why not?"

"Those two youngsters will claim that as one of their
daily--chores--I believe they're called on a farm," and with laughing
brown eyes she motioned to the boy and girl who, at that moment, were
playing tag around the motherly-looking woman.

"Oh, yes, I suppose Tommy and Nellie will be after them," agreed
Ruth. "But I can go with them."

"And jump off the beam in the barn down into the hay! Won't that be
fun!" cried Alice. "I haven't done that--not in years, when we went
once to grandfather's farm. Oh, for a good jump into the fragrant
hay!"

"Why, Alice, you wouldn't do that; would you?" asked Ruth, as she
straightened her sailor.

"She may--and you may all have to!" spoke the man who seemed in
charge of this odd theatrical company.

"How is that, Mr. Pertell?" asked Ruth.

"Well, you know we're going to make moving pictures of all sorts of
rural scenes that will fit in the plays, and jumping into a haymow
may be one of them," he laughed.

"I refuse to do any such foolishness as that!" broke in the tragic
actor. "I have demeaned myself enough already in this farce and
travesty of acting, and to jump into a haymow--ye gods! Never!" and
he seemed to shudder.

"Oh, I guess you'll do it, Mr. Bunn, or give up your place to someone
who will," said Mr. Frank Pertell, the manager, calmly.

The tragic actor sighed, and said nothing.

"Huh! Yes! Jumping around in barns! Some of us will break our arms or
legs, that's certain!" exclaimed the man who looked as though all the
world were sad. "I know some accident will happen to us yet."

"Oh, cheer up, Mr. Sneed. The worst is yet to come, Sir Knight of the
Doleful Countenance!" exclaimed a fresh-faced young man who carried
under his arm a small box, from which projected a handle and a small
tube. The initiated would have known it at once as a camera for
taking moving pictures. "It will be jolly out there at Oak Farm, I'm
sure."

"That's right, Russ! Don't let Mr. Sneed get gloomy on such a fine
day!" whispered Alice DeVere. "But when is our train coming?"

"It will be made up soon," Russ Dalwood answered. "Perhaps it is
ready now. I'll go and inquire."

The two girls, before spoken of as being too well aware of their own
good looks, were talking together at one side of the big concrete
platform beneath the train shed. As they strolled about and talked,
one of them, from time to time, applied a chamois to her already
well-powdered nose, and took occasional glimpses of herself in the
tiny mirror imbedded in the top of the box that contained her
"beautifier." Occasionally the two would glance at Alice and Ruth,
and make remarks.

"Train will soon be ready for us," announced Russ Dalwood, coming
back to join the rest of the theatrical troupe which, instead of
presenting plays in a theater, posed for them before the clicking
eye of the camera, the films later to be shown to thousands in the
chain of moving picture playhouses which took the Comet Company's
service. "We can go aboard in five minutes!" Russ added.

"That's good," sighed Ruth. "There's is nothing so tiresome as
waiting. Which track will it be on, Russ?"

"Number thirteen!"

"What! Great Scott! Track thirteen! I'm not going!" cried Pepper
Sneed, who had come to be known as the "grouch" of the company.

"Not going! Why not, I'd like to know?" demanded Mr. Pertell.

"Why--track thirteen--that's unlucky, you know. Something is sure to
happen!"

"Well, as we have to get to Beatonville, where Oak Farm is located,
and as this is the only road that goes there, I'm afraid we'll have
to take that train, whether it's on track thirteen or not," declared
Mr. Pertell. "Unless," he added with gentle sarcasm, "you can get the
company to switch it to another track."

Mr. Sneed did not answer, but later Paul Ardite, who was one of the
younger members of the company, saw the actor tieing a knot in his
watch chain, and tossing a penny into a rubbish heap.

"What in the world are you doing that for?" demanded Paul.

"Trying to break the hoodoo!" exclaimed Mr. Sneed. "To start out to
do new film work on track thirteen! Whew! That's terrible!"

But Paul only laughed.

"Now, is everyone here?" asked Mr. Pertell a little later, when a
railroad man, through a megaphone, announced the make-up of the
train.

"It seems so," remarked Mr. DeVere, who spoke in a hoarse and husky
whisper, difficult to understand. In fact, as you will learn later,
it was this affliction that had caused him to be acting for moving
pictures instead of in the legitimate drama.

Mr. Pertell took a rapid survey of his little company, and then went
off to make sure that the trunks containing the various costumes had
been properly checked.

"Funny thing about Beatonville," remarked Russ to Ruth.

"Why so?" she asked.

"Oh, every time I inquired of the brakeman, or starter, where the
train for that place left from, they'd laugh. I thought there must be
some joke, and I asked about it."

"Was there?"

"Well, not much of one. It seems that Beatonville is about the last
place in Jersey that anyone ever heads for. I guess it must consist
of the depot and one house--the one where the agent lives. There is
only one train a day and the place is so lonesome, the starter said,
that the engineer hates to stop there."

"Oh, well, we aren't going there for pleasure--we're going to work,"
put in Ruth. "Besides, Oak Farm isn't exactly in Beatonville; is it,
Russ?"

"No, a few miles out, I believe. Well, it will be a rest for us after
the rush of the city, anyhow."

"All aboard!" called a brakeman, and the Comet Film Company, bag and
baggage, started for the train that was to take them to new scenes of
activity.

"Why do you carry your camera, Russ?" asked Ruth, when she and her
sister were seated near the young man, on whom devolved the duty of
"filming," or taking, the various scenes of the plays it was planned
to produce.

"Oh, I didn't know but what I might see something to 'shoot' it at,"
he answered, with a laugh. "You know Mr. Pertell sometimes sends
films to the Moving Picture Weekly Newspaper--scenes of current
events. I might catch one for him on the way."

"I see. Have you ever been to Oak Farm, Russ?"

"Yes, I went up there when Mr. Pertell looked it over to see if it
would do for our new rural dramas."

"What sort of a place is it?" asked Alice.

"Very nice--for a farm."

"Isn't there something queer about it?" asked Ruth. "I mean wasn't
there some sort of a mystery connected with Sandy Apgar, the young
farmer who works it? You know we met him in New York," she added to
Alice.

"Yes, I remember."

"Mystery?" spoke Russ, musingly. "Well, I believe there is something
wrong about the place--not exactly a mystery, though. Maybe it's some
sort of trouble. Well, here we go!"

The train had started out into the "wilds of Jersey," as Wellington
Bunn, the tragic actor, put it. It was about forty miles to
Beatonville, the trip occupying nearly two hours, for the train was
not a fast one. The members of the company conversed on various
topics in regard to some of the projected plays.

The train had stopped at a small station, and was gathering speed
when there suddenly came such an application of the air brakes as to
cause several persons in the aisle to fall. Others slid from their
seats, or were thrown against the backs of the seats in front of
them.

"What is it?"

"What's the matter?"

"An accident--let's get out!"

Before anyone could do anything, though, there was a terrific smash,
and amid the wild tooting of a whistle could be heard the crashing
and splintering of wood. Then the train came to a stop with a jerk
that further scattered the frightened passengers.

"A smash-up!"

"A collision!"

"Oh, let's get out of here!"

No one could tell who was saying these things. They were shouted over
and over again.

Russ Dalwood picked himself up from the floor of the car. A glance
told him that no member of the company had been more than jarred or
shaken, for their car was intact, and no windows were broken.

He helped Alice back to her seat, from which she had slid. Ruth had
risen to her feet. Russ caught up his camera and made for the door.

"Oh, where are you going?" cried Alice, nervously clutching her
leather purse. "Is any one hurt?"

"I don't know--I'm going to see," answered Russ. "And I'm going to
film this smash. I may be able to get some good pictures for our
newspaper service, Mr. Pertell," he added, as he hurried out.




CHAPTER II

A MISSING DOG


After the first crash, the sudden stop, and the terrified cries, a
silence followed that was almost as startling and nerve-racking as
the accident had been.

Then benumbed senses gradually came back to their owners, and the
passengers began to take stock of themselves and their surroundings.

"Is anybody hurt?" demanded Mr. Pertell, as he surveyed the interior
of the car.

"We seem to be all right," replied Mr. DeVere, hoarsely, as he noted
where his two daughters were standing together, their arms about each
other.

"Py gracious, dot vos a smash, all right!" exclaimed Carl Switzer,
the comedian of the company. "I pelief me dot I haf busted----"

"Not your leg--don't say you have broken your leg!" cried Mrs.
Maguire, as she clasped her two grandchildren in her arms. Nellie,
the little girl, was crying, from having bumped her nose against the
back of a seat.

"No, t'ank my lucky stars I haf not broken my leg. It iss only my
shoe-lace!" exclaimed Mr. Switzer, triumphantly, as he held it up,
dangling.

"Luck!" grunted Mr. Sneed in gloomy tones. "Is there any such thing
as good luck? I knew something would happen when we started out on
track thirteen. This company is doomed--I can see that."

"Well, then, please keep it to yourself," requested Mr. Pertell,
sharply. "You are getting on the nerves of the ladies, Sneed!"

For Miss Pearl Pennington, and her friend Miss Laura Dixon--the two
rather flashily-pretty girls mentioned before--were crying
hysterically.

"It doesn't seem to be a very bad smash," went on Mr. Pertell.
"Suppose we go out and see what caused it? I hope none of our baggage
has been damaged."

"Oh, let's go out and see Russ taking moving pictures of the wreck!"
proposed Alice, as she brushed off her blue suit.

"Are you sure you're all right?" asked Ruth, anxiously.

"Oh, certainly! Not hurt at all. Just jolted up a bit. Come on. You
too, Daddy!"

Indeed the whole theatrical company, as well as the other passengers,
made for the doors of the car. And while they are going out to see
the extent of the damage I will take just a moment to make my new
readers somewhat better acquainted with the characters of this story.

To begin with the moving picture girls themselves, they were Ruth and
Alice DeVere, aged seventeen and fifteen respectively, the daughters
of Hosmer DeVere, formerly a well known actor. As told in the first
volume, "The Moving Picture Girls; Or, First Appearances in Photo
Dramas," Mr. DeVere's voice had suddenly given out, when he was
rehearsing for a part in a new play.

This came particularly hard, as he had been without an engagement for
some time, and finances were low. The DeVere family lived in the
Fenmore Apartment on one of the West Sixtieth streets of New York
City. They were, in fact, about to be dispossessed for non-payment of
rent when Mr. DeVere experienced a return of an old throat affection,
making it impossible for him to speak his lines.

He was replaced in the character, and matters looked black indeed.
Across the hall from the DeVere family lived Russ Dalwood, a moving
picture operator, with his widowed mother and brother, Billy. Russ
learned of the distress of his neighbors, and suggested that as Mr.
DeVere could act he might get a place with a moving picture company
that produced picture dramas. In this work he would not need to speak
very much.

At first Mr. DeVere would not hear of it, as he was an actor of some
reputation in the "legitimate." But finally he yielded and became a
member of the Comet Film Company. How his two daughters joined the
company, through a mere accident, and how they made fame for
themselves, you will find set down in the book; also how they aided
Russ greatly when it seemed as if a valuable patent he had perfected,
for an attachment to a moving picture camera, was in danger of being
stolen.

Toward the close of that story you may learn how Mr. Pertell became
acquainted with a young farmer named Sandy Apgar, who was working a
large farm for his aged father, near Beatonville, in New Jersey. It
happened that Mr. Pertell was contemplating the filming of a number
of rural plays, and he made arrangements with Mr. Apgar to use the
farm as a background for the scenes. The company would also live and
board at the farmhouse, which was a large, old-fashioned home.

The players were on their way there when the accident occurred.

To go a little more into detail about the two girls, and the others,
I might say that Ruth was tall, with deep blue eyes and light hair.
She was rather inclined to be romantic, too, as might be suspected.

Alice was just the opposite--plump, jolly, always laughing or joking,
and with a wealth of brown hair, and eyes like hazel nuts. She was
very like her dead mother, while Ruth was more like her father in
character.

Mr. Pertell was the manager and owner of the Comet Film Company, and
I have already mentioned the principal players. Ruth and Alice were
the newest members. Miss Pennington and Miss Dixon were from the
vaudeville stage, and you could see this without being told. They
were a bit jealous of the DeVere girls.

Mrs. Maguire, who was billed as "Cora Ashleigh," was generally played
in "old woman parts." And she played them well. Her two
grandchildren, Tommy and Nellie, occasionally had small parts in the
plays. Mr. Switzer was the comedian, and, opposite to him, was Pepper
Sneed, the "grouch." Wellington Bunn seemed always to have a
grievance because he had not made a success in Shakespeare.

Pop Snooks was the "Old Reliable" property man of the company, and
what he could not manufacture in the way of "props" at short notice
was hardly worth mentioning.

The company of moving picture players and the other train passengers
found a scene of desolation awaiting them as they alighted. But it
was not as bad as might have been expected, and no one had been
killed. In fact, no one was hurt, save the fireman and engineer of
the passenger train, and they only slightly.

What had happened was this: A freight train, on a siding, had overrun
a switch, and one of the cars encroached on the main line tracks. The
passenger engine had "side-swiped" it, as the railroad term has it.
That is, the engine had struck a glancing blow, and had been
derailed. The baggage car, directly behind the engine, had been
smashed, but a quick survey on the part of Mr. Pertell showed that
the company's baggage had not been damaged.

The wreck was bad enough, however, and meant a delay until the track
was cleared. The members of the company, and the other passengers,
gathered about, looking on while the railroad men held a consultation
as to what was best to be done.

"Look, there's Russ, taking pictures!" exclaimed Ruth, pointing to
him. The young operator had gone to the baggage car and obtained the
tripod of his camera. This he had set up in an advantageous position,
and was industriously grinding away at the handle, taking pictures of
the wreck on the moving strip of celluloid.

"This will be all right for our newspaper service!" he called to Mr.
Pertell.

"That's right! Good work, Russ! But this will mean a delay in getting
to Oak Farm."

However, there was no help for it. One of the trainmen went to the
nearest station to telephone for the wrecking crew. Fortunately it
was not necessary to bring one out from Hoboken, since at Dover, a
station some miles down the line, such an equipment was kept. And a
little later the wrecking crew was on the scene.

"I'll get some fine pictures now!" exulted Russ. "I'm glad I'm here,
though I wouldn't want a railroad collision to happen every day. We
might not get off so lucky next time."

"Luck! Don't mention luck!" grumbled Mr. Sneed. "The idea of starting
out on track thirteen! I told you something would happen."

"Den you vas not disappointmented alretty yet!" laughed Mr. Switzer.

The work of getting the engine back on the track was comparatively
easy, and it was found that the train could proceed, since the
running gear of the baggage car was intact.

The train was almost ready to go on again, when a woman, flashily
dressed, and wearing many diamonds, came bustling up from the parlor
car.

"Is my dog safe?" she inquired of the baggageman. "Is he hurt?"

"No'm, he's all right; or he was a little while ago," the man
answered. "He was tied in the corner, just where you told me to put
him. I guess he's there yet. His end of the car wasn't hit. But he
howled a lot."

"Poor Rex! Let me see him." The lady went to the open door of the
baggage car, and looked in. "Why, he's gone!" she cried. "My dog--my
darling dog--is gone!"

"Can't be!" exclaimed the trainman. "He was tied right there a minute
ago."

He jumped into the shattered car and looked about.

"Is he there?" cried the woman.

"No, ma'am, he's gone," was the answer. "But I don't see how it could
be."

"Did he break loose?" the lady asked, with much eagerness.

"No, the strap is gone, and he couldn't possibly untie the knot I
put in it. Someone has taken him, ma'am."

"Then this company is responsible, and I shall sue it!" the lady
cried, bristling with what might be righteous anger. "My dog was a
valuable one. Rex III has taken prize after prize, and I was on my
way with him to a dog show now. Oh, Rex! Who could have taken you?"
and she seemed genuinely distressed.

"What kind of a dog was he?" asked Alice, for she loved animals.

"A collie--a most beautiful collie. He had a pink bow on, and here it
is! Oh, how I loved him! We were inseparable! And now he is gone!"
and tears filled the lady's eyes.




CHAPTER III

ON TO THE FARM


Despite the excitement and hard work caused by the wreck, many of the
trainmen had time to look for the missing dog. This was after the
conductor had been appealed to by Mrs. Delamont, the owner of the
prize animal.

And it appeared, from the deferential attitude of the conductor, that
Mrs. Delamont was a person of some importance. Her husband was one of
the directors of the railroad, and she was much interested in prize
dogs.

But a careful search failed to disclose the missing Rex III. An
examination of the car revealed nothing, and the baggage man was sure
he had tied such a knot in the dog's leash that the animal could not
have worked it loose.

"Besides," said Mrs. Delamont, "Rex would not leave me. Someone must
have taken him."

"That's what I think," agreed the baggageman.

And this was very possible, as many strangers had been attracted to
the scene of the wreck. Mrs. Delamont offered a reward of a hundred
dollars for the return of her prize dog, and this spurred a number of
volunteer searchers to work.

They scurried about the fields near the scene of the accident, but in
spite of enticing calls and whistles no Rex answered.

"I'm afraid he is gone," said Alice, who had taken quite a liking to
Mrs. Delamont, in spite of the lady's rather "loud" dress and
manners.

"Oh, I must find him!" exclaimed Mrs. Delamont. "I shall have to
advertise," she went on. "This is not the first time he has been
taken. He is such a fine-looking dog that many are attracted to him.
And he is so friendly! Oh, Rex, where are you?"

But Rex III was not to be found, and the trainmen could no longer
delay. A last search was made in the surrounding fields, and then the
passengers went back to their cars. A substitute engineer and fireman
had come with the wrecking crew.

Mrs. Delamont made many inquiries as to whether anyone had seen her
dog being led away, but no one had, and lamenting over her loss, and
dwelling on the fine qualities and value of her pet, she resumed her
seat in the parlor car.

"Well, I sure did get some fine pictures," remarked Russ, as he came
back to the others of the film company. "It will be something for our
newspaper service, all right."

"We'll send them back to New York from the next station," said Mr.
Pertell, "and wire that they're on the way. They can develop and
print them there."

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