s though he could not understand it at all."

"Then you think he still feels sure she is the girl he met in Portland?"

"I'm positive he does, and he isn't doing it to further his own ends and
force an acquaintance with her, either. He honestly believes he has met
her before."

"Well, it is very strange. But she doesn't seem to want to talk about
anything connected with her past."

"No, and I suppose we should not try to force matters."

The man who was shot was soon out of danger, and, meanwhile, the taking
of the war scenes went on with some one else in his place. A number of
sham engagements had been fought, all working up to the big final
battle, in which Ruth would play her part as an army nurse, and Alice
would act as the spy. Estelle, too, had been given a rather important
part, much to the annoyance of Miss Dixon, who had been expecting it.

The vaudeville actress made sneering and cutting remarks about "extra
players butting in," and there were veiled insinuations concerning the
missing ring, but Estelle took no notice, and Alice, Ruth and her other
friends stood loyally by her.

"We'll film that burning barn scene to-day," said Mr. Pertell one
morning at the breakfast table, when he had ascertained that the
atmospheric conditions were right. "That's the one where you two DeVere
girls are surprised on your little farm by the visit of some Union
soldiers. You have been caring for a wounded cousin, who has escaped
through the Union lines, and at the news that the Yankees are coming you
hide him in the barn. Then the Unionists set fire to it, and you girls
have to drag him out.

"There'll be no danger, of course, for the fire won't be near you--in
fact, the barn won't burn at all--only a shack nailed to it. And the
smoke will be from the regular bomb. You have plenty of them, haven't
you, Pop Snooks?"

"Oh yes, plenty of smoke bombs, Mr. Pertell."

All was soon in readiness for the burning-barn scene. Ruth and Alice
received the wounded cousin (an inside scene this) and then, when an old
colored mammie (Mrs. Maguire) came panting with the news that the
Yankees were coming, the wounded Confederate was carried out to the
barn. Then came the visit of the Yankees, who, suspecting the presence
of the escaped prisoner, made diligent search, but without success.

"Fire the barn, anyhow!" cried the captain.

Then came the spirited scene where Ruth and Alice got their wounded
relative out. He was a slim young