her.

She felt herself sinking again, and tried to strike out to keep her
head above the water, but it seemed impossible. Then she felt herself
grasped in a strong arm, and she realized that Paul had come to her
rescue.

At the same moment she dimly heard, in her returning consciousness, a
voice crying something from the opposite shore.

CHAPTER X

THE BARN DANCE

Alice fought back with all her strength the inclination to faint, and
forced her brain to compel her body to do its work. She did her best
to aid Paul in the rescue, but he was having a hard struggle. For
Alice was rather heavy, and her feet, entangled as they were with the
fish line, were of no aid. Then, too, the blow on her head had not
been a light one, though it developed later that her heavy hair had
prevented the log from bruising her.

"I have you! Don't worry! I'll save you!" she could hear Paul
murmuring in her ear. Then her head cleared, and she was able to
recognize the voice and make out the words of someone on the opposite
bank, toward which Paul was swimming with his burden.

For the voice was the voice of Russ Dalwood, and his words sounded
strangely enough under the circumstances.

"That's it! Come right over here!" the young moving picture operator
called. "I'm getting a dandy film! That's it, Paul, a little more to
the left! That's the finest rescue scene I ever got! It's great
acting!"

"Why--why you--you don't mean to say you're _filming_ us!" cried
Paul, for he was now in shallow water and could stand upright,
holding Alice in his arms.

"Of course I'm filming you!" exclaimed Russ. "Do you think I'd let an
act like this get past me? Not much!" and he continued to grind away
at the crank of his machine, which he had hastily set up on the edge
of the stream, where he commanded a good view of those in the water.

"But this isn't acting!" said Paul, ready to laugh, now that the
danger was over. "This is _real!_ Alice fell in, and I went in after
her. It's the real thing!"

"Great Scott!" cried Russ. "I thought you were rehearsing for some
play, and as I came along I thought I might as well get the scene,
even if it was only a rehearsal. For I had plenty of film left, and
sometimes the rehearsal comes out better than the real thing. And so
it was an accident?"

"Of course it was," answered Paul. "But as long as you've got it on
the film I suppose there's no help for it."

"It's a fine scene, all right," went on Russ