Part 15 (1/2)
The young officer shook his head.
”I couldn't do that,” he said with a smile that showed his white, even teeth. ”It was just about this time three--no, four years ago. I was in Portland on business, and as I entered the railroad station you were standing there----”
Estelle shook her head, smiling.
”Well, for the sake of argument,” admitted the lieutenant, ”say it was some one who looked like you.”
”All right,” agreed Miss Brown, and she and Alice drew near the porch railing, on the other side of which stood the officer with doffed hat.
”A young lady was standing there, and she seemed quite bewildered,” went on Lieutenant Varley. ”I saw that she was in some confusion, and asked if I could be of any service to her. She said she wanted to get to New York, but did not know which train to take. I asked her if she had her ticket, and she replied in the negative. I asked her if she wanted to buy one, and she said she did, showing a purse well filled with bills----”
”Then surely it could not have been I!” exclaimed Estelle with a merry laugh. ”I never had a purse well-filled with bills. We moving picture players--at least in my cla.s.s--don't go about like millionaires.
Gracious! I only wish I did have a well-filled purse, don't you, Alice?”
”Surely. But what else happened? I'm interested in the story.”
”And I was interested in the young lady,” went on the officer. ”I bought her ticket for her with the money she handed me, and put her on the train. She was quite young--about as old as you”--and he smiled at Estelle, ”and I asked her if some one was going to meet her. She said she thought so, but was not sure, at any rate she felt that she could look after herself. I left her, and meant to speak to the conductor about her, but did not have time.
”I have often wondered since whether she arrived safely, and when I saw you sitting here I felt that I could ascertain. For I certainly took you for that young lady.”
”I am sorry to spoil your romance,” said Estelle, ”but I am not the one.
I never was farther West than Chicago, and then only for a little while, filling a short engagement in the movies.”
”Well, I won't insist on your ident.i.ty,” said the lieutenant, ”but I'm sure I'm not mistaken. However, I won't trouble you further----”
”Oh, it has been no trouble,” interrupted Estelle. ”I'm sure I hope you will find that young lady some day.”
”I hope so, too,” and the lieutenant bowed. But, judging from his face, Alice thought, it was plain that he was sure he had already found the young lady in question.
At that moment Mr. Pertell came out on the porch and saw the lieutenant.
”Ah, I'm glad you are here,” observed the manager. ”I want to ask you a great many things. This staging of sham battles is not as easy as I thought it would be.”
”We can have the sham battles all right,” answered the officer, with a smile. ”But I can imagine it is not easy to get good moving pictures of them. We have to operate over a large area, and we can't always tell what the next move will be. Though, of course, for the purpose of making views we can ignore military regulations and strain a point or two.”
”That's just what I want to talk about,” remarked Mr. Pertell. ”In the attack, for instance, the way the plans have been made the sun is wrong for getting good views. Can't we switch the two armies around?”
”Well, I suppose we can. I'll speak to the colonel about it,” and then the two went inside, where Mr. Pertell had his office in the parlor of the farmhouse.
”What do you think of him, Estelle?” asked Alice.
”Why, I think he's very nice, but he's altogether wrong about me.”
”And yet he seemed so positive.”
”Yes, that is what makes it strange. But I never saw him before--that is, as far as I know; and I'm certain I was never in Portland. He must be mistaken, but it was nice of him to admit it. I thought at first he was using the old method to get acquainted.”
”So did I. But he isn't that kind.”