roopers.

"Aren't you nervous for fear you'll fall?" asked Ruth, as the young
horsewoman was making ready.

"Well, no. I don't think about that part. All I am afraid of is that I
may get out of range of the camera. You see I'm not very old at this
business."

"Just how did you come to get into it?" asked Alice.

"Why, it was a sort of accident. I was on a boat one day, leaning over
the rail looking at the water, when a gentleman came up, begged my
pardon for speaking without being introduced, and asked me if I had ever
been in the movies.

"I hadn't, though I had often thought I would like to be, and I told him
so. He asked me to call at his studio, and I did. They gave me a 'try
out,' found I photographed well, and they cast me for small parts. Then
they found out I could ride and they let me do some outdoor stuff. From
then on I did very well, and when I heard your company was going to make
a big war play, I applied to Mr. Pertell. He took me, I'm glad to say."

"And we're glad you're here," ejaculated Alice.

"We'll go out and watch you jump; it fascinates me, though it makes me
afraid," Ruth declared. "My sister and I did some riding while we were
at Rocky Ranch, but it was nothing to what you do."

"Oh, it takes practice, that's all," answered Estelle.

There were some animated scenes previous to the one in which Estelle
took part. There was a fight over the possession of a bridge, and the
Confederates, having driven off their enemies, prepared to blow it up to
prevent the Union army from using it.

Estelle was to try to reach the bridge before it was destroyed, but,
failing in that, she was to ride her horse to a narrow part of the
stream and leap over.

All went well, and the time came for her to take her swift ride to try
to reach the bridge. On and on she galloped, until she was met by a
colored man who warned her of the fact that in another moment the bridge
would be destroyed.

"She's going pretty close!" murmured Mr. Pertell, as he stood near Russ,
who was filming the scene. "Some of those timbers may fall pretty near
her."

But Estelle seemed to know no fear. She rode straight for the bridge,
and she was only a short distance away when it blew up, the planks and
rails flying high into the air.

Then she turned her horse to reach, ahead of her pursuers, the place she
was to jump the stream. So near was she to the bridge that she had to
swerve her horse quickly to avoid being struck by a fra