The capture of Bilby in connection with the smugglers and Chinese runners delighted the motion picture producer.

"That will settle the controversy, I believe," Mr. Hammond said to the two girls. "Bilby's attempt to annoy us must fall through now. We will get Totantora and Wonota back from Canada and finish the picture properly. But, believe me! I have had all the experience I want with freak stars. The expense and trouble I have been put to regarding Wonota has taught me a lesson. I'd sell my contract with Wonota to-morrow--or after the picture is done--for a song."

Ruth looked at him steadily for a moment.

"Do you mean that, Mr. Hammond?" she asked quietly.

"Yes, I do."

Helen laughed. "I guess Ruth is thinking of singing that song. Ruth believes in Wonota."

"If I could carry the tune," her chum said, more lightly. "We'll talk of that later, Mr. Hammond."

"Oh, I would give you first chance, Miss Ruth," said the producer. "By the way," and he turned to his desk. "I brought mail from the town. Here are several letters for you, Miss Ruth, and one for Miss Cameron."

The girls began to open their letters as soon as they reached their room.

But it was Helen's single epistle that created the most excitement.

"It's from Carrie Perrin," she said to Ruth. Then, in a moment, she uttered a cry that drew Ruth's full attention. "Listen to this! What do you know about this, Ruth?"

"What is it, my dear?" asked her chum, in her usual composed manner.

"Just think of that!" cried Helen, in tears. "And I have treated him so hatefully. He'll never forgive me in this world, I suppose. It is about Chess," she sobbed, and handed her chum the letter.

CHAPTER XXV

THE HEART'S DESIRE

"And what do you think of this, Nell? I've wormed out of Bill Kenmore the truth about that mean joke the boys played on us last spring when we were all at Jennie Stone's. Excuse! I suppose I should say Madame Marchand's.

To think of Heavy Stone being an old married woman now!

"Well, Bill Kenmore always did have a crazy streak--and he wasn't sh.e.l.l-shocked in France, either. You remember the time you went away down town in answer to a telegram, thinking it was somebody who needed you very much, and you walked into that place and found the boys all dressed up and ready to give you the 'ha, ha!'?

"I know it got you awfully mad--and I don't blame you. Chess was there, I know. But he didn't even know what the row was all about. Bill engineered the whole thing, and he thinks still that it was an awfully good joke.

His ideas of humor must have originated in the Stone Age.

"I made him tell me all about it, he thinking I would be amused. Then I turned him right out of our parlor and told him not to call again. I hear that he thinks I am a regular cat!

"But who wouldn't be cattish with a fellow who has no more sense? Anyhow, we know the truth now. Perhaps Chess Copley is not very sharp, but I couldn't think of his doing anything really mean. So now you know. If Chess is up there at the Thousand Islands you can tell him from me, at least, that 'all is forgiven.' Sounds like a newspaper personal, doesn't it?"

Ruth stopped reading there, and looked brightly at her chum.

"What do you think of that?" asked the latter, wiping her eyes.

"Well, my dear, I shouldn't cry about it," said Ruth. "I think it is an occasion to be joyful."

"But, Chess--"

"Is of a forgiving nature, I think," Ruth said. "At any rate, I would not let the matter stand between me and a nice boy friend any longer. I could never suspect Chess of doing an unkind thing."

"But I have wronged him!" cried Helen, who was, after all, tender-hearted.

"Do you know," said her friend, "I believe you can make it up to him very nicely, if you want to, Helen?"

The _Gem_ returned to the island just at daybreak. The girls ran down to the dock to meet the returned young men and Willie. Chess Copley had come to get his own motor-boat, and the report they made of the end of the smuggling affair was very satisfactory.

The sheriff and his posse in a big motor-boat had gone to the Kingdom of Pipes and relieved Chess of his duty as guardian of the cave. The Chinamen, who were hiding there until they could be shipped into the States dressed in feminine garments, were all handcuffed, together with the owner of the launch and Horatio Bilby, and loaded into the sheriff's launch.

"And you should have heard Bilby squeal," said Tom. "There is one bad egg who is likely to pay a considerable penalty for his crimes. He'll not get out of the mess very easy."

"What of the King of the Pipes?" asked Ruth.

"Poor old Charley-Horse Pond," Willie, the boatman, said, "will be detained as a witness. Already he has got a new name for himself. He isn't 'King of the Pipes' any longer."

"What do you mean?" Ruth inquired, for she was interested in the queer old man and his fate.

"He told me that he was Major Andre," chuckled Willie. "He is a Number One spy. The sheriff knows him well and knows there isn't a mite of harm in him."

Later it came out that the old man had been living on the island for some time, having found the cave there. The smugglers of opium and the Chinese found him there and made use of him. But when the court proceedings came on, Pond was merely used by the prosecution as a witness. His harmlessness was too apparent for the court to doubt him.

That particular day had to be a day of rest for Ruth and her friends, for they had had no sleep the night before. But while they slept Mr.

Hammond's representative went in search of Totantora and Wonota and the two Osage Indians were brought back to the moving picture camp before night.

The work of making the last scenes of "The Long Lane's Turning" was taken up at once, and until the last scene was taken Ruth and her a.s.sociates were very busy indeed. The Cameron twins spent most of the ensuing time with the Copleys and the other summer visitors. And it was noticeable that Helen was attended by Chess Copley almost everywhere she went.

Tom saw this with some wonder; but he found very little opportunity to talk to Ruth about it. And when he tried to question Helen regarding her change toward Chess, she quite ignored the subject.

"Looks to me," Tom said to himself, "as though I was shut out in the cold. I wish I hadn't come up here. I might as well be slaving in that old office. Gee, I'm an unlucky dog!"

For Tom, no more than Helen, could not see that Ruth's att.i.tude toward the matter of strenuous occupation for a wealthy young man was a fair one. Tom certainly had none of Uncle Jabez Potter's blood in his veins.

The big scene at the end of the picture--the throne room of the French king--was as carefully made as the other parts of the picture had been.

And because of Ruth's coaching Wonota did her part so well that Mr.

Hooley was enthusiastic--and to raise enthusiasm in the bosom of a case-hardened director is no small matter.

"The Boss is rather sore on the whole business," Hooley said to Ruth. "It has been an expensive picture, I admit. We have gone away over the studio estimate.

"But that is not my fault, nor your fault, nor the Indian girl's fault.

Mr. Hammond is not to be blamed either, I suppose, for feeling worried.

The motion picture business is getting to that stage now where lavish expenditure must be curtailed. I fancy Mr. Hammond will make only five-reel program pictures for some time. And where will your big feature pictures come in, Miss Fielding?"

"The program pictures are sure-fire, I suppose," the girl admitted. "But it doesn't take much of a story to make those. Nor does it give the stars as good a chance."