Ruth liked this jolly, hearty, big man from the start.  He was inclined to joke and tease, she thought; but with it all he had the kindliest manner and most humorous mouth in the world.

He turned to Ruth when the door was shut, and asked seriously:  “My dear, is Miss Gray where she can hear us talk?”

“Why, no, sir,” replied Ruth, surprised.  “The door is shut—­and it is a soundproof door, I am certain.”

“Very well.  I have heard Grimes’ edition of the affair yesterday.  Will you please give me your version of the accident?  Of course, it was an accident?”

“Oh, yes, sir!  Although that man ought not to have made her climb that tree——­”

Mr. Hammond put up a warning hand, and smiled again.  “I do not ask you for an opinion.  Just for an account of what actually happened.”

“But you intimated that perhaps Mr. Grimes was more at fault than he actually was,” said Ruth, boldly.  “Surely he did not push her off that tree!”

“No,” said Mr. Hammond, drily.  “Did she jump?”

“Jump!  Goodness! do you think she is crazy?” demanded Ruth, so shocked that she quite forgot to be polite.

“Then she did not jump,” the manager of the Alectrion Film Corporation said, quite placidly.  “Very well.  Tell me what you saw.  For, I suppose, you were on the spot?”

“Yes, sir,” said Ruth, not quite sure just then that the gentleman was altogether fair-minded.  Later she understood that Mr. Hammond merely desired to get the stories of the accident from the observers with neither partiality nor prejudice.

Ruth repeated just what happened from the time she and her friends arrived in the Cameron car on the scene, till they reached the Red Mill and Miss Gray had been put to bed.

“Very clear and convincing.  You are a good witness,” declared Mr. Hammond, lightly; but she saw that the story had left an unpleasant impression on his mind.  She did not see how he could blame the motion picture actress; but she feared that he did.

When Ruth tried to probe into that question, however, Mr. Hammond skilfully turned the subject to the picturesqueness of the Red Mill and its surroundings.

“This would make a splendid background for a film,” he said, with enthusiasm.  “We ought to have a story written around this beautiful old place, with all the romance and human interest that must be connected with the history of the house.

“Do you mind if we go out and look around a little?  I would not disturb Miss Gray until she is perfectly rested and feels like rising.”

“Surely I will show you around, sir!” cried Ruth.  “Let me get my coat and hat.”

She ran for her sweater and tam-o’-shanter, and joined Mr. Hammond on the porch.  Mr. Hammond said nothing to Grimes, but allowed him to remain in the limousine.

Ruth took the moving picture magnate down to the shore of the river and showed him the wheel and the mill-side.  The old stone bridge over the creek, too, was an object of interest.  In fact, Ruth had thought so much about the situation of the Red Mill as a picture herself, that she knew just what would attract the gentleman’s interest the most.