124

XVI IN THE ICE CAVE 132

XVII THE RESCUE 139

XVIII SNOWBOUND 148

XIX ON SHORT RATIONS 158

XX THE THAW 166

XXI IN THE STORM 174

XXII THE THREE MEN 181

XXIII THE PLAN OF RUSS 191

XXIV THE PROOF ON THE FILM 199

XXV THE MOVING PICTURE 207

THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS SNOWBOUND

CHAPTER I

TROUBLE

"Daddy is late; isn't he, Ruth?" asked Alice DeVere of her sister, as
she looked up from her sewing.

"A little," answered the girl addressed, a tall, fair maid, with deep
blue eyes, in the depths of which hidden meaning seemed to lie, awaiting
discovery by someone.

"A little!" exclaimed Alice, who was rather plump, and whose dark brown
hair and eyes were in pleasing contrast to her sister's fairness. "Why,
he's more than an hour late, and he's seldom that! He promised to be
back from the moving picture studio at four, and now it's after five."

"I know, dear, but you remember he said he had many things to talk over
with Mr. Pertell, and perhaps it has taken him longer than he
anticipated.

"Besides you know there are some new plans to be considered," went on
Ruth. "Mr. Pertell wants to get some different kinds of moving
pictures--snow scenes, I believe--and perhaps he has kept daddy to talk
about them. But why are you so impatient? Are you afraid something has
happened to him?"

"Gracious, no! What put that idea into your head?"

"Well, I didn't know whether you had noticed it or not, but poor daddy
hasn't been quite himself since we came back from Oak Farm. I am afraid
something is bothering him--or worrying him."

"Perhaps it is his voice, though it has seemed better of late."

"I think not," said Ruth, slowly, as she bent her head in a listening
attitude, for a step was coming along the hallway in the Fenmore
Apartment, where the DeVere girls and their father had their rather
limited quarters.

"That isn't he," said Ruth, with a little sigh of disappointment. "I
thought at first it was. No, I don't mean that it was his voice, Alice.
That really seems better since he so suddenly became hoarse, and had to
take up moving picture work instead of the legitimate drama he loves so
much. It is some other trouble, Alice."

"I hadn't noticed it