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Page 49
But, of course, that chopping sound was made by the man cutting the
boom. Surely nobody was using an ax up there on the pile of logs. She
glanced back to the man teetering on the boom log. The gap in it was
wide and white. He had cut on the down-river side. Already the pressure
from up stream was forcing the gash open, wider and wider----
There came a yell from across the river. Somebody there had seen what
was threatening over Ruth's head. Then Jim Hooley cast his glance that
way and yelled through his megaphone:
"Jump, Miss Fielding! Quick! Jump into the river!"
But at that moment the man on the boom started for the shore, running
frantically for safety. The key log split with a raucous sound. The
water and drift-stuff, in a mounting wave, poured through the gap, and
the noise of it deafened Ruth Fielding to all other sounds.
She did not even glance back and above again at the peril which menaced
her from the top of the steep bank.
CHAPTER XIX
IN DEADLY PERIL
"This stunt business," as Director Hooley called the taking of such
pictures as this, is always admittedly a gamble. After much time and
hundreds of dollars have been spent in getting ready to shoot a scene,
some little thing may go wrong and spoil the whole thing.
There was nothing the matter with the director's plans on this occasion;
every detail of the "freshet" had been made ready for with exactness and
with prodigious regard to detail.
The foreman had cut the key log almost through and the force of the
water and d�bris behind the boom had broken it. The man barely escaped
disaster by reason of agile legs and sharp caulks on his boots.
The backed-up waters burst through. Up stream, amid the turmoil and murk
of the agitated flood, rode Wonota in her canoe, directly into the focus
of the great cameras. To keep her canoe head-on with the flood, and to
keep it from being overturned, was no small matter. It required all the
Indian girl's skill to steer clear of snags and floating logs. Besides,
she must remember to register as she shot down the stream a certain
emotion which would reveal to the audience her condition of mind, as
told in the story.
Wonota did her part. She was rods above the breaking dam and she could
not see, because of an overhanging tree on Ruth's side of the stream,
any of that peril which suddenly threatened the white girl. Wonota was
as unconscious of what imperiled Ruth as the latter was at first
unknowing of the coming catastrophe.
It was Jim Hooley whom the incident startled and alarmed more than
anybody else. He committed an unpardonable sin--unpardonable for a
director! He forgot, when everything was ready, to order the starting of
the camera. Instead he put his megaphone to his lips and shouted across
to Ruth Fielding--who was not supposed to be in the picture at all:
"Jump, Miss Fielding! Quick! Jump into the river!"
And Ruth did not hear him, loudly as his voice boomed across the flood!
She was deafened by the thunder of the waters and the crashing of the
logs in mid-flood. Her eyes, now that she was sure the foreman was safe
on the other bank, were fixed upon the bow of Wonota's canoe, just
coming into sight behind the ware of foaming water and upreared,
charging timbers.
It was a great sight--a wonderful sight. No real freshet could have been
more awful to behold. Mr. Hooley's feat was a masterstroke!
But behind and above Ruth was a scene of disaster that held those on the
opposite bank speechless--after Hooley's first mighty shout of warning.
At least, all but the camera men were so transfixed by the thing that
was happening above the unconscious Ruth.
Trained to their work, the camera men had been ready to crank their
machines when Hooley grabbed up his megaphone. The boom had burst, the
flood poured down, and the Indian maid's canoe came into the range of
their lenses.
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