, of course," growled the boy.

"We did not. Ann and Helen don't know. Amy is scared, but she's gone to
sleep. _She_ wouldn't tell."

"How did Gran' know, then?" demanded Curly, coming closer.

Ruth told him. The boy was both ashamed of his predicament and frightened.

"How can I get in, Ruth? I'd like to sneak downstairs into the sitting
room and lie down by the sitting room fire and get warm."

"You shall. Come in this way," commanded Ruth. "But, for pity's sake,
don't fall!"

"She'll find it out and lick me worse," said Curly, doubtfully.

"She won't. The girls are asleep, I tell you."

"Well, _you_ know it, don't you?" demanded Curly, with desperation.

"Curly Smith! If you think I'd tell on you, you deserve to stay out here
on this roof and freeze," declared Ruth, in anger.

"Oh, say! don't get mad," said Curly, fearing that she would leave him as
she intimated.

"Come on, then--and whisper. Not a sound when you get in the room. And for
pity's sake, Curly Smith--don't fall!"

"Not going to," growled the boy. "Look out and let me swing down to that
window-sill. Ugh! I 'most slipped then. Look out!"

Ruth wriggled back into the room and almost immediately Curly's unshod
feet appeared on the sill. She grasped his ankles firmly.

"Come in!" she whispered. "That's the boy! Quick, now!"

All this in low whispers. The girls did not stir, and Ruth had no light.
She could barely see the figure of the boy between her and the gray light
out-of-doors.

Curly dropped softly into the room. Ruth led him by the hand to the door,
which she opened softly. The hall was pitch dark, too.

"You're all right, Ruthie Fielding!" he muttered, as he passed her and
stepped into the hall. "I won't forget this."

Ruth thought it might be a warning to him. In the morning his grandmother
admitted having found the boy curled up in a rug and asleep before the
sitting-room fire.

"An' I thought he was out o' doors all the time," she said. "I ought to
punish him, anyway, I s'pose, for scaring me so."

Ruth Fielding spent all her spare time (and that was not much, for her
studies were just then very engrossing) in planning and sketching out the
five-reel drama in which she hoped to interest Mr. Hammond, head of the
Alectrion Film Corporation. She called up the Lumberton Hotel every day to
learn if the film company had arrived.

At length the clerk told her Mr. Hammond himself had come, and expected
his company the next day. Mr