Ruth Fielding in the Great Northwest; Or, The Indian Girl Star of the Movies
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CHAPTER XVII
THE PROLOGUE IS FINISHED
"We must do something very nice for Wonota," Helen Cameron saidseriously. "She has twice within a few hours come to our succor. I feelthat we might all three have been seriously injured had she not turnedthe mules yesterday, and frightened off those mad horses on the traillast evening."
"'Seriously injured,' forsooth!" grumbled Jennie Stone. "What do youmean? Didn't I show you my bruises? I was seriously injured as it was!But I admit I feel grateful--heartily grateful--to our Indian princess.I might have suffered broken bones in addition to bruised flesh."
"We could not reward her," Ruth Fielding said decidedly. "I would nothurt her feelings for the world."
"We can do something nice for her, without labeling it a reward, Ishould hope," Helen Cameron replied. "I know what I would like to do."
"What is that?" asked Jennie, quickly.
"You remember when they dressed Wonota up in that evening frock there inNew York? To take the ballroom picture, I mean?"
"Indeed, yes!" cried Jennie Stone. And she looked too sweet foranything."
"She is a pretty girl," agreed Ruth.
"I saw her preening before the mirror," said Helen, smiling. "That sheis an Indian girl doesn't make her different from the other daughters ofEve."
"Somebody has said that the fashion-chasing women must be daughters ofLilith," put in Jennie.
"Never mind. Wonota likes pretty frocks. You could see that easilyenough. And although some of the Osage girls may follow the fashions inthe mail order catalogs, I believe Wonota has been brought up verysimply. 'Old-fashioned,' you may say."
"Fancy!" responded Jennie. "An old-fashioned' Indian."
"I think Helen is right," said Ruth, quietly. "Wonota would like to havepretty clothes, I am sure."
"Then," said Helen, with more animation, "let us chip in--all three ofus--and purchase the very nicest kind of an outfit for Wonota--a realparty dress and 'all the fixin's,' girls! What say?"
"I vote 'Aye!'" agreed Jennie.
"The thought is worthy of you, Helen," said Ruth proudly. "You alwaysdo have the nicest ideas. And I am sure it will please Wonota to bedressed as were some of the girls we saw in the audiences at thetheatres we took her to."
"But!" ejaculated Jennie Stone, "we can't possibly get that sort ofclothes out of a mail-order catalog."
"I know just what we can do, Jennie. There is your very owndressmaker--that Madame Jone you took me to."
"Oh! Sure! Mame Jones, you mean!" cried the fleshy girl with enthusiasm."Aunt Kate has known Mame since she worked as an apprentice with someFifth Avenue firm. Now Madame Jone goes to Paris--when there is no waron--twice a year. She will do anything I ask her to."
"That is exactly what I mean," Helen said. "It must be somebody who willtake an interest in Wonota. Send your Madame Jone a photograph ofWonota--"
"Several of them," exclaimed Ruth, interested as well, althoughpersonally she did not care so much for style as her chums. "Let thedressmaker get a complete idea of what Wonota looks like."
"And the necessary measurements," Helen said. "Give her _carte blanche_as to goods and cost--"
"Would that be wise?" interposed the more cautious Ruth.
"Leave it to me!" exclaimed Jennie Stone with confidence. "We shallhave a dandy outfit, but Mame Jones will not either overcharge us ormake Wonota's frock and lingerie too _outre_."
"It win be fine!" declared Helen.
"I believe it will," agreed the girl of the Red Mill.
"It will be nothing less than a knock-out," crowed Jennie, slangily.
The three friends had plenty of topics of conversation besides newfrocks for Ruth's Indian star. The work of making the scenes of theprologue of "Brighteyes" went on apace, and although they all escapedacting in any of the scenes, they watched most of them from thesidelines.
Mr. Hooley had found a bright little girl (although she had no Indianblood in her veins) to play the part of the sick child in the Indianwigwam. These shots were taken in a big hay barn near the special carstanding at Clearwater, and with the aid of the electric plant that hadbeen set up here the "interiors" were very promising.
Several other "sets" were built in this make-shift studio, for all thescenes were not out-of-door pictures. The prologue scenes, however,aside from the interior of the chief's lodge, were made upon the openplain on the Hubbell Ranch not more than ten miles from the Clearwaterstation. Two weeks were occupied in this part of the work, for outsidescenes are not shot as rapidly as those in a well equipped studio. Whenthese were done the company moved much farther into the hills. They wereto make the remaining scenes of "Brighteyes" in the wilderness, far fromany human habitation more civilized than a timber camp.
Benbow Camp lay well up behind Hubbell Ranch, yet in a well shelteredvalley where scarcely a threat of winter had yet appeared. A big crew oflumbermen was at work on the site, and many of these men Mr. Hammondused as extras in the scenes indicated in Ruth's script.
Ruth had now gained so much experience in the shooting of outdoor scenesthat her descriptions in this story of "Brighteyes," the Indian maid,were easily visualized by the director. Besides, she stood practicallyat Jim Hooley's elbow when the story was being filmed. So, with theauthor working with the director, the picture was almost sure to be asuccess. At least, the hopes of all--including those of Mr. Hammond, whohad already put much money into the venture--began to rise like thequicksilver in a thermometer on a hot day.
The small river on which locations had been arranged for was both aboisterous and a picturesque stream. There were swift rapids ("whitewater" the woodsmen called it) with outthrust boulders and many snagsand shallows where a canoe had to be very carefully handled. Severalscenes as Ruth had written them were of the Indian girl in a canoe.Wonota handled a paddle with the best of the rivermen at Benbow Camp.There was no failure to be feared as to the picture's requirementsregarding the Indian star, at least.
Having seen the scenes of the prologue shot and got the company onlocation at Benbow Camp, Mr. Hammond went back to the railroad to getinto communication with the East. He had other business to attend tobesides the activities of this one company.
Scenes along the bank and at an Indian camp set up in a very beautifulspot were shot while preparations for one of the big scenes on thestream itself were being made.
The text called for a freshet on the river, in which the Indian maid iscaught in her canoe. The disturbed water and the trash being borne downby the current was an effect arranged by Jim Hooley's workmen. Thetimbermen working for the Benbow Company helped.
A boom of logs was chained across the river at a narrow gorge. This heldback for two nights and a day the heavy cultch floating down stream, andpiled up a good deal of water, too, for the boom soon became a regulardam. Below the dam thus made the level of the stream droppedperceptibly.
"I am going to put Wonota in her canoe into the stream above the boom,"Hooley explained. "When the boom is cut the whole mass will shoot downahead of the girl. But the effect, as it comes past the spot where thecameras are being cranked, will be as though Wonota was in the verymidst of the freshet. She handles her paddle so well that I do not thinkshe will be in any danger."
"But you will safeguard her, won't you, Mr. Hooley?" asked Ruth, who wasalways more or less nervous when these "stunt pictures" were beingtaken.
"There will be two canoes--and two good paddlers in each--on either sideof Wonota's craft, but out of the camera focus of course. Then, we willline up a lot of the boys along the shore on either side. If she gets aducking she won't mind. She understands. That Indian girl has somepluck, all right," concluded the director with much satisfaction.
"Yes, Wonota's courageous," agreed Ruth quietly.
Arrangements were made for the next morning. Ruth went with Mr. Hooleyto the bunkhouse to hear him instruct the timbermen hired from theBenbow Company and who were much interested in this "movie stuff."
The girl of the Red Mill had alr
eady made some acquaintances among therough but kindly fellows. She stepped into the long, shed-likebunkhouse to speak to one of her acquaintances, and there, at the end ofthe plank table, partaking of a late supper that the cook had justserved him, was no other than Dakota Joe Fenbrook, the erstwhileproprietor of the Wild West and Frontier Round-Up.