“Ugh!  It doesn’t taste like these,” complained his sister.  “Oh, folks! there are those foolish actors again.”

“Now what are they about?” demanded Ruth.

“Look out that you don’t bring the car into the focus of the camera, Tom,” his sister warned him.  “It will make them awfully mad.”

“Don’t fret.  I have no desire to appear in a movie,” laughed Tom.

“But I think I would like to,” said his sister.  “Wouldn’t you, Ruth?”

“I—­I don’t know.  It must be awfully interesting——­”

“Pooh!” scoffed Tom.  “What will you girls get into your heads next?  And they don’t let girls like you play in movies, anyway.”

“Oh, yes, they do!” cried his sister.  “Some of the greatest stars in the film firmament are nothing more than schoolgirls.  They have what they call ‘film charm.’”

“Think you’ve got any of that commodity?” demanded Tom, with cheerful impudence.

“I don’t know——­Oh, Ruth, look at that girl!  Now, Tommy, see there!  That girl isn’t a day older than we.”

“Too far away to make sure,” said Tom, slowly.  Then, the next moment, he ejaculated:  “What under the sun is she doing?  Why! she’ll fall off that tree-trunk, the silly thing!”

The slender girl who had attracted their attention had, at the command of the director of the picture, scrambled up a leaning sycamore tree which overhung the stream at a sharp angle.  The girl swayed upon the bare trunk, balancing herself prettily, and glanced back over her shoulder.

Tom had brought the car to a stop.  When the engine was shut off they could hear the director’s commands: 

“That’s it, Hazel.  Keep that pose.  Got your focus, Carroll?” he called to the camera man.  “Now—­ready!  Register fear, Miss Hazel.  Say! act as though you meant it!  Register fear, I say—­just as though you expected to fall into the water the next moment.  Oh, piffle!  Not at all like it! not at all like it!”

He was a dreadfully noisy, pugnacious man.  Finally the girl said: 

“If you think I am not scared, Mr. Grimes, you are very much mistaken.  I am.  I expect to slip off here any moment——­Oh!”

The last was a shriek of alarm.  What she was afraid would happen came to pass like a flash.  Her foot slipped, she lost her balance, and the next instant was precipitated into the river!

CHAPTER II

THE FILM HEROINE

When the motion picture girl fell from the sycamore tree into the water, some of the members of the company, who sat or stood near by panting after their hard chase cross-lots, actually laughed at their unfortunate comrade’s predicament.

But that was because they had no idea of the strength and treacherous nature of the Lumano.  At this point the eddies and cross-currents made the stream more perilous than any similar stretch of water in the State.