The Moving Picture Girls at Rocky Ranch
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Laura Lee Hope >> The Moving Picture Girls at Rocky Ranch
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"He didn't see much!" chuckled Walsh. "The film broke after a few feet
had been run off, and I switched on the lights. He didn't see a great
deal."
"No, his notes show that," said the manager. "But only for that
accident he might have learned of our plans and given our rivals
information sufficient to spoil our big play."
"Have you new plans?" asked Mr. DeVere, who was on very friendly terms
with the manager.
"Yes, we are going to make a big three-reel play, called 'East and
West,' and while some of the scenes will be laid in New York, the main
ones will be filmed out beyond the Mississippi. One of the most
important New York scenes has already been made. It was this one which
was being tested when Wilson went in there. Had he seen it all he might
have guessed at the rest of our plans and our rivals, the International
people, would have been able to get ahead of us. They are always on the
alert to take the ideas of other concerns. But I think I'll beat them
this time."
"So we are to go West; eh?" queried Mr. DeVere.
"Yes, out on what prairies are left, in some rather wild sections, and I
think we will make the best views we have yet had," responded Mr.
Pertell. "Now, if you please, ladies and gentlemen, take your places,
and go on with your acts. I am sorry this interruption distracted you."
CHAPTER III
A DARING FEAT
"Oh, Ruth, did you hear? We are to go out West!"
"Are you glad, Alice?"
"Indeed I am. Why, we can see Indians and cowboys, and ride bucking
broncos and all that. Oh, it's perfectly delightful!" and Alice, who had
been taking down her jacket, held it in her arms, as one might clasp a
dancing partner, and swept about the now almost deserted studio in a
hesitation waltz.
"Can't I come in on that?" cried Paul Ardite, as he began to whistle,
keeping time with Alice's steps.
"No, indeed, I'm too tired," she answered, with a laugh. "Oh, but to
think of going West! I've always wanted to!"
"Alice always says that, whenever a new location is decided on,"
observed Ruth, with a quiet smile.
The work of the day was over, and most of the players had gone home.
Ruth and Alice were waiting for their father, who was in Mr. Pertell's
office. They had intended going shopping, thinking Mr. DeVere would be
detained, but he had said he would be with them directly.
And the two girls had brought up the subject of the new line of work,
broached by Mr. Pertell in mentioning the matter of the spy.
"I hope nothing comes of that incident," said Mr. DeVere, as he came
from the manager's office, while Ruth and Alice finished their
preparations for the street.
"I hope not, either," returned the manager, slipping into his coat, for,
like many busy men, he worked best in his shirt sleeves. "Yet I don't
like it, and I am frank to confess that the International concern has
more than once tried to get the best of me by underhand work. I don't
like it. I must keep track of that Wilson. Good night, ladies. Good
night, Mr. DeVere."
The good nights were returned and then the two girls, with their father,
Russ and Paul, went out.
"That was an unfortunate occurrence," remarked Mr. DeVere.
"Oh, Daddy! How hoarse you are!" exclaimed Ruth, laying a
daintily-gloved hand on his shoulder. "You must use your throat spray as
soon as you get home."
"I will. My throat is a little raw. There was considerable dust in the
studio to-day. I like work in the open air best."
"So do I," confessed Alice. "Now, Daddy, you must stop talking," and she
shook her finger at him. "You listen--we'll talk."
"You mean _you_ will," laughed Ruth, for Alice generally did her own,
and part of Ruth's share also.
They walked on, talking at intervals of the incident of the spy and
again of the prospective trip to the West.
"Do you know just where we are going, Russ?" asked Ruth, as she kept
pace with him.
"Not exactly," he replied, stealing a glance at the girl beside him, for
she was a picture fair to look upon with her almost golden hair blown
about her face by the light breeze, while her blue eyes looked into the
more sober gray ones of Russ. "I believe Mr. Pertell intends to go to
several places, so as to get varied views. I know we are to go to a
ranch, for one thing."
"Fine!" exclaimed Alice, with almost boyish enthusiasm, as she walked at
the side of Paul. "Daddy, do you want me to become a cowgirl?" she
asked, turning to Mr. DeVere, who was in the rear.
"I guess if you wanted to be one, you would whether I wanted you to or
not," he replied, with an indulgent smile. "You have a way with you!"
"Hasn't she, though!" agreed Paul.
They reached the apartment house where the DeVeres and Russ lived. Paul
came in for a little while, but declined an invitation to stay to tea.
"I've got quite a piece of work on for to-morrow," he said, as he left.
"What is it?" asked Alice.
"There's to be a new play, 'An Inventor's Troubles,' and one of the
inventions is a sort of rope fire escape. There's a rope, coiled in a
metal case. You take it to your hotel room with you, and in case of fire
you fasten the case to the window casing, grab one end of the rope, and
jump. The rope is supposed to pay out slowly, by means of friction
pulleys, and you come safely to the ground."
"Did you invent that?" asked Ruth, who had not heard all that was said.
"Oh, no, some fellow did, and the city authorities are going to give him
a chance to demonstrate it before they will recommend it to hotel
proprietors. And I'm to be the 'goat,' if you will allow me to say so."
"How?" asked Alice.
"I'm to come down on the rope from the tenth story of some building.
This will serve as the city test, and at the same time Mr. Pertell has
fixed up a story in which the fire escape scene figures. I've got to
study up a little bit before to-morrow."
"It--it isn't dangerous; is it?" asked Alice, and she rather faltered
over the words.
"Not if the thing works," replied Paul, with a shrug of his shoulders.
"That is, if the rope doesn't break, or pay out so fast that I hit the
pavement with a bump."
"Oh, is it as dangerous as that?" exclaimed Alice, looking at Paul
intently.
"Don't worry," and he smiled. "I guess the apparatus has been tested
before. I'm getting used to risks in this business."
"What time to-morrow is it?" queried Ruth.
"Right after lunch," Russ responded. "I've got to film him."
"Then I'm coming to see you!" declared Alice. "I'm off directly after
lunch. I haven't much on for to-morrow."
"Oh, Alice! You wouldn't go!" cried her sister.
"Of course I would, my dear!"
"But suppose something--happened?" Ruth went on in a low voice, as Russ
and Paul started out together.
"All the more reason why I should be there!" declared Alice, promptly,
and Ruth looked at her with a new light of understanding in her eyes.
And then she looked at Paul, who waved his hand gaily at the younger
girl.
"Dear little sister," murmured Ruth. "I wonder----?"
"I'll look for you there," called Paul, as he went on down the hall.
"And I'll be there," promised Alice.
"Do you feel better now, Daddy?" asked Ruth, in their rooms.
"Much better--yes, my dear. That new spray the doctor gave me seems to
work wonders. And my throat is really better since our trip South. I
feel quite encouraged."
It was after supper in the DeVere apartment. The two girls were seated
at the sitting-room table with their father, who was looking over a new
play in which he had a part. Alice was reading a newspaper and Ruth
mending a pair of stockings.
"Well, there's one good thing about going out West," finally remarked
the younger girl, as she tossed aside the paper, and caught up a hairpin
which her vigorous motion had caused to slip out of her brown tresses.
"What's that--you won't have to fuss so about dress?" asked Ruth, for
her sister did not share her ideas on this subject.
"No, but if we do go there won't be any trouble about that International
company trying to steal Mr. Pertell's secrets."
"I don't know about that," observed Mr. DeVere, slowly. "If they are
after his big drama they may even follow us out West."
"Oh, I hope not!" exclaimed Ruth, pausing with extended needle. "I don't
like trouble."
"There may be no trouble," her father assured her, with a smile. "In
fact, now that the spy is detected, the whole affair may be closed. I
hope so, for Mr. Pertell works hard to get up new ideas, and to have
some other concern step in, and rob him of the fruits of his labor,
would be unjust indeed."
Rehearsals and the filming of plays in the Comet studio were over the
next morning about eleven o'clock.
"Come on," said Paul to Ruth and Alice. "I'm to get a bonus on account
of the fire escape stunt, and I'll take you girls out to lunch. Come
along, Russ. It's extra money and we might as well enjoy it."
"You are too extravagant!" chided Ruth.
"Oh, I like to be--when I have the chance," Paul laughed. "It isn't
often I do."
"Well, then, we may as well help you out," agreed Russ. "Right after
lunch we'll give you a chance to show us what you can do on that patent
rope."
The little meal was a merry one, in spite of the fact that the two girls
were a little nervous about going to see Paul descend from the tenth
story of a building on a slender rope. Ruth had finally consented to
accompany her sister.
Together they went to the place where the test was to take place. It was
a tall office structure, and, as word of what was afoot had spread,
quite a throng had gathered.
Mr. Pertell had made arrangements with the authorities to have Paul work
in a little theatrical business in connection with the test, and the
inventor of the fire escape was also to be in the moving pictures.
There was a little preliminary scene, as part of the projected play, and
then Paul went into the building with the inventor to prepare for his
thrilling descent.
The apparatus seemed simple. It was a round, metallic case, inside of
which was coiled a stout rope. At the end was a broad leather strap,
intended to be fastened about the person who was to make the jump. The
case, and the coil of rope, were to be fastened to a hook at the side of
the window. Then Paul was to jump out, and trust to the slow uncoiling
of the rope to lower him safely.
"Are you all ready?" asked the inventor, after he had explained the
apparatus.
"As ready as I ever shall be," answered Paul a little nervously. He
looked down to the ground. It seemed a long way off.
CHAPTER IV
A CLOUD OF SMOKE
Below, in the crowd that had gathered to watch the test, were Ruth and
Alice. Russ, of course, was there with his moving picture camera, and
Paul saw the little lens-tube aimed in his direction, like the muzzle of
some new weapon.
"Now, don't get nervous," directed the inventor, after he had explained
the mechanism to Paul, and also to the city officials who had gathered
to pass upon its merits.
"You can't make me nervous," declared the young actor. "I've gone
through too much in this moving picture business, though I will admit I
never jumped from such a height before."
"Don't look down," the inventor warned him. "You won't get dizzy then.
And don't think of the height. With this apparatus it is impossible to
get hurt. You will go down like a feather."
"That's comforting to know," laughed Paul. "Well, I may as well start, I
guess."
The belt was adjusted about him, and as it was done in the open window
Russ was able to get views of it, and of all that went on. Then Paul got
out on the sill. There he paused a moment.
"I--I can't bear to look at him!" murmured Ruth.
"Don't be silly," exclaimed Alice.
"But suppose--suppose something happens?"
"Don't be a Mr. Sneed!" retorted her sister, with a laugh. "I don't
believe anything will happen, and if--if he should fall--see!" and she
pointed to where a detachment of city firemen stood ready with their
life net.
"Oh, I didn't notice them before," confessed Ruth. "That makes it
safer."
"All ready down there, Russ?" shouted Paul, through a megaphone. "Shall
I go?"
"Jump! I'm all ready for you," was the answer.
Paul paused but for a moment, and then he jumped from the sill, and out
away from the building. The coil of rope in the metal case had been
swung out from the side of the structure on an arm, so as to enable Paul
to clear the lower window ledges.
For the first few feet he went down like a shot, and for one horrible
moment he felt that something had gone wrong. In fact the crowd did
also, for there was a hoarse shout of alarm.
"Oh!" gasped Ruth, faintly.
"I--I----" began Alice, as she, too, turned aside her head. Then someone
yelled:
"It's all right!"
Alice looked then.
She saw Paul descending as the rope payed out. He was coming down
gradually.
"That will make a good film," commented Russ to Mr. Pertell, for the
manager had come to witness the fire escape scene.
"Indeed it will."
Paul came down several stories, and the success of the apparatus seemed
assured when, at about the fourth story from the ground, something
suddenly went wrong.
Once more the young actor shot downward and this time it seemed that he
would be seriously injured.
Russ felt that he must rush forward to save his friend, but he had an
inborn instinct to stick to his camera--an instinct that probably every
moving picture operator has, even though he does violence to his own
feelings.
"He'll be hurt!" several in the crowd cried.
Ruth and Alice both turned aside their heads again, but there was no
need for alarm.
For the firemen, at the word of command from their captain, had rushed
forward with the life net. They were standing only a few feet away from
where Paul dangled in the air, but even at that they were only just in
time.
Paul fell into it heavily, for the mechanism depended on to check the
speed at which the rope payed out, did not work. But the firemen knew
just how to handle a situation of that sort, and they held firmly to the
net. It sagged under the impact of Paul's body, but he bounded upward
again in an instant, and then was helped out of the net and to his feet.
"Mighty lucky you fellows were here," observed the young actor, as the
cheers of the crowd died down.
"I was afraid something like that might happen," spoke the fire captain.
"I've seen too many accidents with these patent escapes to take any
chances. Now there's another inventor who will have to make quite a few
changes in his apparatus."
The man who had patented the fire escape had been in a frenzy of fear
when he saw Paul slipping, and, now that he knew the young actor was
safe, he began to explain how something unforeseen had occurred, and
that it would never happen again.
"Did you get that, Russ?" the manager wanted to know, for he thought the
operator, in his anxiety over Paul, might have forgotten to turn the
handle of the machine.
"Every move," was the reassuring answer. "It will make a dandy film. But
I'm mighty glad it turned out as it did."
"So am I," said the manager. "I guess that will be about all for Paul
to-day. His nerves must be on edge."
Paul declared that they were not, however, and wanted to go on with the
rest of the film, which included the showing of other, but less
dangerous, inventions.
"No, you take the rest of the day off," directed the manager. "There is
no great rush about this."
The crowd pressed curiously about Paul and the others of the moving
picture company, and, as Ruth and Alice were getting hemmed in, Mr.
Pertell called a taxicab and sent them home in it.
"Report at the studio to-morrow," he called.
"Did you have any more trouble with that spy?" asked Alice, as the
vehicle moved away.
"No," he answered. "I guess they'll quit, now that they know I have
found them out."
The next day Paul finished with his invention-film, being required to do
a number of "funny stunts," such as shaving with a new safety razor
that did anything but what it was intended for; trying a new wardrobe
trunk, that unexpectedly closed up with him inside of it, and such
things as that. Some of the inventions were real, and others were
"faked" for the occasion, to make a "comic" film.
But nothing as risky as the rope escape was tried, though probably had
Paul been required to go through an equally hazardous feat he would not
have balked. Moving picture actors often take very big chances, and the
public, looking at the finished film, little realize it.
"I have something for you to-day I think you'll like," said Mr. Pertell
to Ruth and Alice, as they reported at the studio.
"I hope it is outdoor stuff," ventured Alice. "It is just glorious
to-day!"
Moving picture work is referred to as "stuff." Thus scenes at a river or
lake are "water stuff," and if a play should take place in a desert the
action would be termed "desert stuff," and so on.
"Well, I'm sorry, but only part of it, and a very little at that, is
outdoor stuff," replied Mr. Pertell. "The action of this play takes
place in a shirt waist factory. And I've got the use of a real factory
where you two girls will pose and go through the 'business.' You're to
be shirt waist operators, and I'll explain the story to you later."
"I can't sew very well," confessed Alice, "and I never made but one
shirt waist in my life--I couldn't wear it after it was done," she
added.
"You don't really have to sew," explained Mr. Pertell. "It is all
machine work, anyhow. You and Ruth will sit at the machines in the
factory with the other girls. Miss Pennington and Miss Dixon are also to
be operators, but you two are the main characters. The machines work by
a small electric motor, and all you have to do is to push some cloth
along under the needle. You can do that."
"I guess so," agreed Alice.
"The forewoman will rehearse you a bit," Mr. Pertell went on. "The scene
at the machines only takes a few moments--just a little strip of film.
Then the scene changes to another part of the factory. I think it will
make a good film. The story is called 'The Eye of a Needle.' It's really
quite clever and by a new writer. I think it will make a hit."
Ruth and Alice, as well as the others, were told more in detail what
action the play required, and the next day they were ready for their
parts. They went to the factory accompanied by the two former vaudeville
actresses, and by Russ and Paul. The latter was to take the part of one
of the male employees of the concern.
Ruth and Alice found themselves in a room filled with sewing machines,
at which sat girls and women busily engaged in stitching on shirt
waists. There was the hum of the small electric motors that operated the
machines, and the click and hum of the machines themselves.
A murmur ran around the room on the entrance of the players, but the
operators had been told what to expect and what to do. They were to be
in the pictures, too.
Ruth and Alice, with Miss Pennington and Miss Dixon, were given machines
close to the camera, as they were the principal characters, and interest
centered in them.
"Just guide the cloth through under the needle," the forewoman
explained, as she started the motors on the girls' machines.
"Ready!" called Mr. Pertell to Russ, who stood beside the camera. The
action of the play began, as Russ clicked away at the handle of his
machine.
Suddenly a girl screamed.
"Oh, what is it?" demanded Miss Pennington, jumping up.
"Sit down! You'll spoil the film!" cried Mr. Pertell.
There was a little confusion for a moment.
"It's only one of the girls who has run a needle into her finger," the
forewoman explained. "It often happens. We take care of them right
here."
"All right--get that in, Russ," suggested Mr. Pertell. "It will make it
seem much more natural."
The girl's injury was a slight one, and Russ got on the film the action
of her being attended in the room set aside for the treatment of injured
employes.
"I'll have something written in the script to fit to that," said Mr.
Pertell, as the action of the play resumed.
The plot of the little drama called upon Miss Pennington to write a note
to Alice, pretending that it came from a young man, whose name the
former vaudeville performer was supposed to forge. Alice was to
"register" certain emotions, and to show the note to Ruth. Then Miss
Dixon came into the scene, the sewing machines were deserted and, for a
moment, there was an excited conference.
Considerable dramatic action was called for, and this was well done by
the girls, while the real operatives looked on in simulated surprise as
they kept at their work.
The play was almost over, when from a far corner of the room came a
startled cry.
"Someone else hurt with a needle, I wonder?" queried Paul, as he stood
near Alice's machine.
"I hope not," she answered.
And then the whole room was thrown into panic as the cry broke out:
"Fire! Fire! The building is on fire!"
Shrill screams drowned out the rest of the alarm, but as Ruth, Alice and
the others of the moving picture company looked around they saw a cloud
of smoke at the rear of the big room.
CHAPTER V
A MIX-UP
"Stand still! Don't rush! Form in line!"
Sharp and crisp came the words of the forewoman. The screaming of the
girls ceased almost instantly.
Clang! sounded a big gong through the room. Clang! Clang!
"Fire drill!" called the efficient forewoman, and afterward Ruth and
Alice felt what a blessing it was she kept her wits about her. "Fire
drill! Form in line and march to the fire escapes!"
"Oh! Oh, I know I'm going to faint!" cried Miss Pennington. "This is a
regular fire trap! All shirt waist factories are. I am going to faint!"
"Miss Dixon, just--slap her!" called Alice.
"Oh, Alice!" remonstrated Ruth, looking about with frightened eyes.
"It's the only way to bring her to her senses!" retorted the younger
girl. And to the eternal credit of Miss Dixon be it said that she did
slap her friend Miss Pennington, and she slapped her with sufficient
energy to prevent the fainting fit, even as a sip of aromatic spirits of
ammonia might have done.
"Fire drill! Form lines! March!" again called the forewoman, with the
coolness a veteran fireman might have envied.
"Can't we get our wraps?" asked one of the workers.
"No! You can come back for them," was the answer.
"But it--it's a real fire!" someone cried. "Our things will be burned
up!"
"It isn't a fire at all--it's only a drill!" insisted the forewoman.
"And, even if it were real, and your things were burned, the company
would replace them for you.
"To the fire escapes! March!"
In spite of the forewoman's assertion that it was only a fire drill the
pall of smoke in the corner of the room spread apace, and there was the
smell of fire, as well as the crackle of flames.
"This way, girls," called Mr. Pertell to his four actresses. "Here's a
fire escape over here."
"Excuse me," said the forewoman, firmly. "But please have your company
follow my girls. They know just which way to go, and if your actresses
make any change it may result in confusion, and----"
"I understand," responded Mr. Pertell, at once. "Girls, consider
yourselves shirt waist operatives, and do as the others do," he
concluded. He stood aside, as a sailor might on a sinking ship, when the
order "women and children first" is given. Paul took his place at the
manager's side, waving his hand reassuringly to Ruth and Alice.
"Oh--Oh, must we go with them? Can't we go to that fire escape?"
faltered Miss Pennington, who seemed to have entirely recovered from her
desire to faint.
"That is for the operatives on the upper floor," explained the
forewoman. "If you will follow my girls you will be all right. There are
plenty of fire escapes for all."
"Come on!" called Alice, as she marched behind the nearest shirt waist
girls. "There is no danger--and plenty of time."
"That's the way to talk!" declared the forewoman, admiringly.
But, even as she spoke, there was a burst of flame through the cloud of
smoke. Several girls screamed and those nearest the fire hung back.
"Steady! Go on! There is no danger!" the forewoman called.
"Are you getting this, Russ?" asked Mr. Pertell of the young camera
expert.
"Every move!" was the enthusiastic answer. "It's too good a chance to
miss, and I guess there is really no danger."
He continued to grind away at the camera while the girls, now in orderly
array, marched to the fire escapes and so down and out of the building.
Ruth, Alice and the two other actresses went with them. And not until
the last girl had left the room did the forewoman make a move toward the
escape.
"You gentlemen will please leave now," she said.
"After you," returned Mr. Pertell, with a look of admiration in his
eyes.
"No," she said, firmly. "The rules of the fire drill require that I
leave the room last. You will please go first."
"But, my dear young lady!" exclaimed the manager, "this is not a
drill--it is a real fire!"
"I know it," she said, quietly. "But that makes no difference. I must
leave last. You will kindly go ahead."
"I guess we'll have to, Russ," remarked the manager. "But I don't like
it."
"Those are the rules," insisted the forewoman, and she would not go out
on the fire escape until Russ, Paul and Mr. Pertell had preceded her.
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