But it was part of the game, and no one seemed to mind. A real hospital was set up at Oak Farm, not a mere shell of a building, and here the injured, as well as those who simulated injury, were attended. Ruth and some of the women made up as nurses, though this was not the big scene in which Ruth and Alice were to take part. "Confederates retreat!" directed Mr. Pertell, and the Southern forces, having been defeated, were forced to withdraw. Their attempt to recapture their town had failed. "Whew! that was hot work!" cried Paul, as he came back to the farmhouse, having played his part as a Confederate soldier. "It certainly was," agreed Mr. DeVere, who had been the directing Union General. Now that the "war" was over Northerners and Southerners mingled together in friendly converse, their differences forgotten. "I just can't bear the smell of powder!" complained Miss Dixon. "I wish I had my salts." "I'll get them for you, dear," offered Miss Pennington. "I'm going up to our rooms." The former vaudeville actresses, with Ruth, Alice, and some of the others, were resting on the farmhouse porch. Miss Dixon smelled the salts and declared she felt much better. "There's to be a dance in the village to-night," Paul remarked at the supper table. "Let's go!" proposed Alice. "Will you take me, Paul?" "Of course I will." "May I have the pleasure?" asked Russ, of Ruth. "Why, yes, if the rest go." "We'll all go!" chimed in Miss Dixon. "Some of the extra men are good dancers. They proved it in the ballroom scene the other day. We can get a man, Pearl." "All right, my dear, just as you say." The little party was soon arranged. "Estelle might like to go," suggested Alice. "I'll go to ask her," offered Ruth, for Miss Brown had quit the supper table early and gone to her room. As Ruth mounted the stairs she heard Miss Dixon and Miss Pennington talking in the hall outside their rooms. "I can't see where it can be," Miss Dixon was saying. "It was on your dresser when I went up for the salts," said her chum. "Are you sure you didn't take it after that?" "Positive! It's gone--that's all there is to it." "What's gone?" asked Ruth. "One of my rings," was Miss Dixon's answer. "I left it on my dresser and my door was open. It was there when I went down to supper, and we were all at the table together----" "Except Estelle Brown!" said Miss Pennington quickly. CHAPTER X LIEUTENANT VARLEY For a moment Ruth stood looking with wide-open eyes at the two former vaudeville actresses. On their part they stared boldly at Ruth, and then Miss Dixon turned and slightly winked at Miss Pennington. "That was one of your valuable rings, wasn't it, dear?" asked Miss Pennington, in deliberate tones. "It certainly was--the best diamond I had. I simply won't let it be lost--or taken. I'm going to have it back!"