The Moving Picture Girls in War Plays

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Alice got out the old paper. It contained a description of the missing
Mildred Passamore, and in another newspaper dated a few days before the
one Alice had used as a wrapper for her shoes (another paper which Mr.
DeVere had saved because of a notice in it) was a picture of the girl.

"It is she! Our girl--the one we knew as Estelle Brown--is Mildred
Passamore!" cried Alice as she looked at the picture in the paper.

"There is no doubt of it," agreed Ruth, and Mr. DeVere affirmed his
daughters' opinions.

Mr. Pertell was told of the occurrence, and, being a good judge of
pictures and persons, he decided there was no doubt as to the identity.

"We will telegraph to Mr. Passamore at once," decided the director.

The crisis--for such it was in the case of the injured girl--seemed to
mark a turn for the better. She slept nearly forty-eight hours,
awakening only to take a little nourishment. Then she slept again. She
did not again mention any names, nor, in fact, anything else. Her
friends could only wait for the arrival of Mr. Passamore to have him
make sure of the identity.

He had sent a message in answer to the one from Mr. Pertell saying that
he and his wife were hastening across the continent in a special train.

"That means he hasn't found his daughter up to this time," said the
manager, "and there is every chance that this girl is she."

Three days after her startling announcement Estelle or Mildred, as she
was variously called, was much better. She sat up and seemed to be in
her right mind.

"I don't in the least know what it is all about, nor how I came here,"
she said, smiling. "The last I remember is being in a railroad train on
my way from San Francisco to visit relatives in Seattle. There was a
crash, and the next I knew I found myself in bed here. I presume you
brought me here from the train wreck."

"Yes, you were brought here after the--the--ah, accident," said Mr.
Pertell, lamely.

"The nurse tells me you are a moving picture company," went on Mildred.
"I shall be interested to see how you act. I always had a half-formed
desire to be a moving picture actress, but I know Daddy Passamore would
never consent to it."

"And she's been in the films for three years or more, and doesn't
remember a thing about it!" murmured Alice. "Good-night!"

"Alice!" rebuked her sister. But Alice, for once, did not care for
Ruth's rebuke. Her astonishment was too great. And it was a queer case.

"We must be very careful!" said Dr. Wherry when, after a swift ride
across the continent, Mr. Passamore and his wife reached Oak Farm. "We
must not startle the patient."

"Oh, but I want to see my little girl!" cried the mother, with tears in
her eyes. "My little girl whom I thought gone for ever!"

"I hope this will prove to be she," said Mr. DeVere.

"I'm sure it will!" cried the father. "No one but Mildred would remember
her old doll--Estelle Brown!" and he held up a battered toy.

Softly, the parents entered the room. The girl on the bed heard some one
come in, and sat up. There was a look of joy and happiness on her face;
and yet it was not such as would come after a separation of four years.
It was as if she had only separated from her loved ones a few hours
before.

"Oh, Daddy! Momsey!" she cried. "I did so want you! And did you bring
Estelle Brown?"

"My little girl! My own little lost girl!" cried Mrs. Passamore. "Oh,
after all these years--when we had given you up for dead!"

"After all these years? Why, Momsey, I left you only two days ago to go
to Seattle. There must have been a wreck or something; for I heard a
dreadful crash, and then I awakened here with these nice moving picture
folk. They were on the same train, I guess."

Dr. Wherry made the parents a signal not to tell the secret just yet.

"And did you bring Estelle?" asked Mildred.

"Yes, here is your doll!" and as Mr. Passamore handed it to his daughter
he and his wife exchanged tearful glances of joy. The lost had been
found.

It was a scene of rejoicing at Oak Farm, and the moving picture girls
came in for a big share of praise. For had it not been for the fact that
Alice had seen the paper containing the account of the missing girl and
saved it, the identity of Mildred might not have been disclosed for some
time.

Finally, she was told what had happened; that for four years she had
been another person--Estelle Brown--a name she had taken after the
awakening following the railroad accident because of some kink in the
brain that retained the memory of the doll.

"Then Lieutenant Varley was right, he must have seen you in Portland,"
said Alice, when explanations were being made.

"He must have," admitted Mildred. "But I don't understand how it
happened."

Later on it was all made clear.

Mildred Passamore, the daughter of a wealthy family, living temporarily
at the Palace Hotel, in San Francisco, had started on a trip to visit
relatives in Seattle. She was well supplied with money.

The train Mildred was on was wrecked near Portland, Oregon, and the girl
received a blow on her head that caused her to lose her sense of
identity completely. She did not seem to be hurt, and she was not in
need of medical aid. Without assistance, she got on the relief train
that took the injured in to Portland, and there it was that Lieutenant
Varley saw her in the station.

Through some vagary of her brain, Mildred imagined she wanted to go to
New York, and, as she had plenty of money, she bought a ticket for that
city, the one to Seattle having been lost. Lieutenant Varley had helped
her and, though he suspected something was wrong with the young lady the
impression with him was not very strong until it was too late to be of
assistance to her.

So, her identity completely lost, Mildred started on her trip across the
continent. What happened on that journey she never could recollect
clearly. That she got on the Great Lakes and then went to Boston was
established. The reason for that was that, as a child, she had lived
there. This accounted for the toilet set her mother had given her, and
for the recollection of the monument and the historic places.

Why she was attracted to moving pictures could only be guessed at, but
she "broke in," and "made good." Her ability to ride was easily
explained. Her father owned a big stock farm, and Mildred had ridden
since a child. But all this, as well as other remembrances of her
younger days, was lost after the injury to her head in the railroad
accident. She retained but one strongly marked memory--the name of her
doll, the name which she took for her own.

So, as a new personage, she came to Oak Farm, unable to think back more
than four years, and totally without suspicion that she was the missing
Mildred Passamore. That she was not recognized as the missing girl was
not strange, since the search in the East had not been prosecuted as
vigorously as it had been in the West.

Mr. and Mrs. Passamore, hearing that the train on which their daughter
was traveling had been wrecked, hastened to Portland, but there they
could find no trace of Mildred. Lieutenant Varley, who might have given
a clue, had sailed for Europe the day after his meeting with Mildred.
Then began the search which lasted four years, and had now come to an
end at Oak Farm.

"And to think that I have been two persons all this while!" exclaimed
Mildred, when explanations had been made, and she was on the road to
recovery. "But what made my memory come back?"

"The same thing that took it from you," explained Dr. Wherry. "It was
the blow you received on the head when you fell from your horse. There
had been a pressure on your brain, from the railroad crash, and the fall
from your horse relieved it, so you came to yourself."

"Oh, I wonder if I could have taken Miss Dixon's ring in my second
personality?" asked Mildred one day, when various happenings were being
explained to her.

"No, you didn't!" exclaimed Alice. "It was found down under the carpet,
back of her bureau. A maid discovered it there when cleaning. And that
snip of a Miss Dixon left without apologizing to you."

"Oh, it doesn't matter, since I am not Estelle Brown, and my doll
doesn't care what they say about her!" laughed Mildred. Miss Dixon and
her friend had left Oak Farm to go back to New York, for their part in
the pictures was finished for the time being.

"And to think that I really became a movie actress, after all!" laughed
Estelle. "I think I shall continue in it, Daddy! It must be fun, though
I don't recollect anything about it."

"No you sha'n't!" laughed Mr. Passamore. "Your mother and I want you at
home for a while."

There is little more to tell.

Mildred Passamore rapidly recovered her health and strength. Her part in
the pictures was finished and though he did not exactly relish the
appearance on the screen of his daughter in battle scenes, the
millionaire, realizing what his refusal would mean to Mr. Pertell, made
no objections. Besides, it was Estelle Brown who was filmed, not Miss
Passamore.

"Well, what is next on the program?" asked Alice of the director one
day, after several other war plays had been made and when they were
about to leave Oak Farm, to go back to New York.

"Oh, I think I'm going to get out a big film entitled 'Life in the
Slums.' You and Ruth will play the star parts."

"No!" laughed Alice. "Not since we became millionaires. You will have to
cast us for rich girls. Mr. Passamore gave us the ten thousand dollars
reward, you know."

"All right!" laughed the director, "then I'll bill you as the rich-poor
girls."

Before going back to San Francisco with Mildred, Mr. Passamore had
insisted that Ruth and Alice take the reward, as it was through their
agency that he received word of his daughter's whereabouts. But Ruth and
Alice insisted on sharing their good fortune with their friends in the
company, so all benefited from it.

The day came for the moving picture players to leave Oak Farm.

"Good-bye, Sandy!" called Alice to the young farmer. "I suppose you're
glad to see the last of us!"

"Well, not exactly, no'm! Still, I'll be glad not to see houses and
barns that have only fronts to 'em, and there won't be no more mistakes
made trying to haul up water from a well that's only made of painted
muslin. I'll try an' get back to real life for a change!"

The big war play was over. It was a big success when shown on the
screen, and the pictures of Ruth, Alice and Mildred--or Estelle Brown,
as she was billed--came out well. The fight where Paul and his men were
nearly blown up was most realistic.

"You girls are not going to retire, just because you have a little
money, are you?" asked Russ of Ruth, one day, when they were back in New
York.

"Indeed, we're not!" cried Alice. "And I wouldn't be surprised if
Mildred joined us. I had a letter from her the other day, and, after
seeing herself on the screen, she says she is crazy to do it all over
again. Give up the movies? Never!"

And it remains for time to show what further fame the Moving Picture
Girls won in the silent drama. For the present, we will say farewell.

* * * * *

Transcriber's Notes:

Obvious punctuation errors corrected.

Page 27, "proping" changed to "propping". (propping it up)

Page 34, "himmel" changed to "Himmel". (Ach Himmel! Ach!)

Page 93, "bruskly" changed to "brusquely". (Miss Dixon brusquely)

Page 94, "Devere" changed to "DeVere". (In fact, Mr. DeVere)

Page 95, "property" changed to "proper". (the proper Civil)

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