CHAPTER XXV
LIFTING THE CURTAIN
Ruth slept peacefully and awoke the next morning in a perfectly sereneframe of mind. She was quite as convinced as ever that she had been robbedof her scenario; and she was, as well, sure that "John, the hermit," hadproduced his picture play from her manuscript. But Ruth no longer feltanxious and excited about it.
She clearly saw her way to a conclusion of the matter. If the old actorwas identified by Ben and Uncle Jabez as the tramp they had seen andconversed with, the girl of the Red Mill was pretty sure she would get thebest of the thief.
In the first place she considered her idea and her scenario worth muchmore than five hundred dollars. If by no other means, she would buy thehermit's story at the price Mr. Hammond was willing to pay for it--and alittle more if necessary. And if possible she would force the old actor tohand over to her the script that she had lost.
Thus was her mind made up, and she approached the matter in allcheerfulness. She had said nothing to anybody but Tom, and she did not seehim early in the morning. One of the stewards brought the girls' breakfastto the shack; so they knew little of what went on about the camp at thattime.
The rain had ceased. The storm had passed on completely. Soon afterbreakfast Ruth saw the man who called himself "John, the hermit," makingstraight for Mr. Hammond's office.
That was where Ruth wished to be. She wanted to confront the man beforethe president of the film corporation. She started over that way and raninto the most surprising incident!
Coming out of the cook tent with a huge apron enveloping her queer, tightdress and tilting forward upon her high heels, appeared Bella Pike! RuthFielding might have met somebody whose presence here would have surprisedher more, but at the moment she could not imagine who it could be.
"Ara-bella!" gasped Ruth.
The child turned to stare her own amazement. She changed color, too, forshe knew she had done wrong to run away; but she smiled with both eyes andlips, for she was glad to see Ruth.
"My mercy!" she ejaculated. "If it ain't Miss Fielding! How-do, MissFielding? Ain't it enough to give one their nevergitovers to see youhere?"
"And how do you suppose I feel to find you here at Beach Plum Point,"demanded Ruth, "when we all thought you were so nicely fixed with Mr. andMrs. Perkins? And Mrs. Holmes wrote to me only the other day that youseemed contented."
"That's right, Miss Fielding," sighed the actor's child. "I was. And MizPerkins was always nice to me. Nothing at all like Aunt Suse Timmins. But,you see, they ain't like pa."
"Did your father bring you here?"
"No'm."
"Nor send for you?"
"Not exactly," confessed Bella.
"Well!"
"You see, he sent me money. Only on Tuesday. Forty dollars."
"Forty dollars! And to a child like you?"
"Well, Miss Fielding, if he had sent it to Aunt Suse I'd never have seen apenny of it. And pa didn't know what you'd done for me and how you'd putme with Miz Perkins."
"I suppose that is so," admitted the surprised Ruth. "But why did you comehere?"
"'Cause pa wrote he had an engagement here. I came through Boston, an' gotme a dress, and some shoes, and a hat--all up to date--and I thought I'dsurprise pa----"
"But, Bella! I haven't seen your father here, have I?"
"No. There's a mistake somehow. But this nice Miz Paisley says for me notto worry. That like enough pa will come here yet."
"I never!" ejaculated Ruth. "Come right along with me, Bella, and see Mr.Hammond. Something must be done. Of course, Mrs. Perkins and the doctor'swife have no idea where you have gone?"
"Oh, yes'm. I left a note telling 'em I'd gone to meet pa."
"But we must send them a message that you are all right. Come on, Bella!"and with her arm about the child's thin shoulders, Ruth urged her to Mr.Hammond's office--and directly into her father's arms!
This was how Arabella Montague Fitzmaurice Pike came to meet herfather--in a most amazing fashion!
"Pa! I never did!" half shrieked the queer child.
"Arabella! Here? How strange!" observed the man who had been acting thepart of the Beach Plum Point hermit. "My child!"
Mr. Pike could do nothing save in a dramatic way. He seized Bella andhugged her to his bosom in a most stagy manner. But Ruth saw that theman's gray eyes were moist, that his hands when he seized the girl reallytrembled, and he kissed Bella with warmth.
"I declare!" exclaimed Mr. Hammond. "So your name issomething-or-other-Fitzmaurice Pike?"
"John Pike, if it please you. The other is for professional purposesonly," said Bella's father. "If you do not mind, sir," he added, "we willpostpone our discussion until a later time. I--I would take my daughter tomy poor abode and learn of her experience in getting here to Beach PlumPoint."
"Go as far as you like, Mr. Pike. But remember there has got to be asettlement later of this matter we were discussing," said the managersternly.
The actor and his daughter departed, the former giving Ruth a very curiouslook indeed. Mr. Hammond turned a broad smile upon the girl of the RedMill.
"What do you know about _that_?" Mr. Hammond demanded. "Why, Miss Ruth,yours seems to have been a very good guess. That fellow is an old-timerand no mistake."
"My guess was good in more ways than one," said Ruth. "I believe I canprove that this Pike was at the Red Mill on the day my scenario wasstolen."
She told the manager briefly of the discovery she had made through thepatriarchal old fellow on Reef Island the day before, and of her intentionof sending a photograph of Pike back home for identification.
"Good idea!" declared Mr. Hammond. "I will speak to Mr. Hooley. There are'stills' on file of all the people he is using here on the lot at thepresent time. If you are really sure this man's story is a plagiarism onyour own----"
She smiled at him. "I can prove that, too, I think, to your satisfaction.I feel now that I can sit down and roughly sketch my whole scenario again.I must confess that in two places in this 'Plain Mary' this man Pike hasreally improved on my idea. But as a whole his manuscript does not flattermy story. You'll see!"
"Truly, you are a different young woman this morning, Miss Ruth!"exclaimed her friend. "I hope this matter will be settled in a waysatisfactory to you. I really think there is the germ of a splendidpicture in this 'Plain Mary.'"
"And believe me!" laughed Ruth, "the germ is mine. You'll see," sherepeated.
She proved her point, and Mr. Hammond did see; but the outcome was throughquite unexpected channels. Ruth did not have to threaten the man who hadmade her all the trouble. John M. F. Pike made his confession of his ownvolition when they discussed the matter that very day.
"I feel, Miss Fielding, after all that you did for my child, that I cannotgo on with this subterfuge that, for Bella's sake, I was tempted to engagein. I did seize upon your manuscript in that summer-house near the millwhere they say you live, and I was prepared to make the best use of itpossible for Bella's sake.
"We have had such bad luck! Poverty for one's self is bad enough. I havewithstood the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune for years. But mychild is growing up----"
"Would you want her to grow up to know that her father is a thief?" Ruthdemanded hotly.
"Hunger under the belt gnaws more potently than conscience," said Pike,with a grandiloquent gesture. "I had sought alms and been refused at thatmill. Lurking about I saw you leave the summer-house and spied the goldpen. I can give you a pawn ticket for that," said Mr. Pike sadly. "But Isaw, too, the value of your scenario and notes. Desperately I haddetermined to try to enter this field of moving pictures. It is a terriblecome down, Miss Fielding, for an artist--this mugging before the camera."
He went on in his roundabout way to tell her that he had no idea of theownership of the scenario. Her name was not on it, and he had notobserved her face that day at the Red Mill. And in his mind all the timehad been his own and his child's misery.
"It was a bold attempt to forge s
uccess through dishonesty," he concludedwith humility.
Whether Ruth was altogether sure that Pike was quite honest in hisconfession or not, for Bella's sake she could not be harsh with the oldactor. Nor could he, Ruth believed, be wholly bad when he loved his childso much.
As he turned over to Ruth every scrap of manuscript, as well as thenotebooks she had lost, she need not worry about establishing herownership of the script.
When Mr. Hammond had examined her material he agreed with Ruth that in twoquite important places Bella's father had considerably improved theoriginal idea of the story.
This gave Ruth the lead she had been looking for. Mr. Hammond admittedthat the story was much too fine and too important to be filmed here atthis summer camp. He decided to make a great spectacular production of itat the company's main studio later in the fall.
So Ruth proceeded to force Bella's father to accept two hundred dollars inpayment for what he had done on the story. As her contract with Mr.Hammond called for a generous royalty, she would make much more out ofthe scenario than the sum John Pike had hoped to get by selling the stolenidea to Mr. Hammond.
The prospects of Bella and her father were vastly improved, too. His workas a "type" for picture makers would gain him a much better livelihoodthan he had been able to earn in the legitimate field. And when Ruth andher party left Beach Plum Point camp for home in their automobiles, Bellaherself was working in a two-reel comedy that Mr. Hooley was directing.
"Well, thank goodness!" sighed Helen, "Ruth has settled affairs for twomore of her 'waifs and strays.' Now don't, I beg, find anybody else tobecome interested in during our trip back to the Red Mill, Ruthie."
Ruth was sitting beside Tom on the front seat of the big touring car. Helooked at her sideways with a whimsical little smile.
"I wish you would turn over a new leaf, Ruthie," he whispered.
"And what is to be on that new leaf?" she asked brightly.
"Just me. Pay a little attention to yours truly. Remember that in a week Ishall go aboard the transport again, and then----"
"Oh, Tom!" she murmured, clasping her hands, "I don't want to think of it.If this awful war would only end!"
"It's the only war so far that hasn't ended," he said. "And I have afeeling, anyway, that it may not last long. Henri and I have got to hurryback to finish it up. Leave it to us, Ruth," and he smiled.
But Ruth sighed. "I suppose I shall have to, Tommy-boy," she said. "And dofinish it quickly! I do not feel as though I could return to college, orwrite another scenario, or do a single, solitary thing until peace isdeclared."
"And _then_?" asked Tom, significantly.
Ruth gave him an understanding smile.
THE END
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Ruth Fielding Down East; Or, The Hermit of Beach Plum Point Page 25
