e was safely held by the wire cable hooked to her belt at the
back.

But the butterflies were helpless. The men who tried to seize them from
the rear could not do so at first because the scaffolding structure fell
out upon the stage.

The Corner House girl, frightened as she was, miraculously preserved her
presence of mind. As she had already done before during the rehearsals,
she seized the sashes of her two smaller schoolmates at the first alarm.
Their feet slipped from the foothold, but Tess held them.

[Illustration: The scaffolding pulled apart slowly, falling forward
through the drop. Page 238]

Neale had taught Tess, and even Dot, how to use their strength to better
advantage than most little girls. Tess was sure of her own safety in
this emergency, and she allowed her body to bend forward almost double,
as the two frightened little butterflies slipped from the falling
scaffolding.

For a dreadful moment or two, their entire weight hung from Tess
Kenway's clutching hands. Her shoulders felt as though they were being
dislocated; but she gritted her teeth and held on.

And then two of the men caught the little, fluttering butterflies by
their ankles.

"Let 'em come!" yelled one of the men.

Tess loosed her grasp as the scaffolding crashed to the stage. The last
to be lowered, Swiftwing came down, so frightened she could not think
for a moment where she was.

"Oh, Tess, darling!" gasped Agnes.

"Sister's brave little girl!" murmured Ruth.

"I--I didn't spoil the tableau, did I?" Tess asked.

"Spoil it? My goodness, Tess Kenway," shouted Neale O'Neil, who,
likewise, had run to her, "you made the biggest hit of the whole show!
If you could do that at every performance _The Carnation Countess_ would
certain sure be a big success!"

CHAPTER XXIV

THE FINAL REHEARSAL

Before the tableau in which Tess Kenway had so covered herself with
glory was again rehearsed, the scaffolding was rebuilt as a series of
broad steps and made much lower.

Tess was not to be frightened out of playing her part as Swiftwing, the
hummingbird.

"No. I was not in danger," she reported to Mrs. Eland, when she and Dot
went to see the gray lady as usual the next Monday afternoon. "The wire
held me up so that I could not possibly fall. It was only the other two
girls who might have fallen. But they hurt my arms."

"If you had been a _real_ hummingbird," put in the practical Dot, "you
could have caught one of them wit