The Moving Picture Girls at Rocky Ranch

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The cowboys entered into the spirit of the affair once it was mentioned
to them, and arrangements were at once made.

As there might be some little danger of a refractory steer breaking
loose and injuring someone, the ladies of the company only took part in
the preliminary scenes.

These included the beginning of the drama in which the stampede was to
play a principal part. It involved a little love story, and the lover,
Paul, was afterward to be in peril through the cattle stampede.

The first part went off all right, Ruth and Alice acquitting themselves
well in their characterizations. Their riding had improved very much,
and they were sure of themselves in the saddle.

"Now, ladies," said Pete Batso, who was managing the cowboy end of the
affair, "if you'll get over on that little mound you can see all that
goes on and you won't be in any danger. We're goin' to stampede the
cattle now!"

"Whoop-ee!" yelled the cowboys, as they rushed up at the signal, when
Ruth and Alice, with Miss Pennington and Miss Dixon, had gone off some
little distance.

"Get ready, Russ!" called Mr. Pertell.

"All ready," answered the young operator, as he took his place with his
camera focused.

The steers, startled by the shots and shouts of the cowboys, began a mad
rush.

"There's your stampede!" called Mr. Norton to Mr. Pertell. "Is that
realistic enough for you?"

"Quite so, and thank you very much."

More and more wild became the rushing steers, as the cowboys drove them
along in order that pictures might be made of them.

CHAPTER XIX

TOO MUCH REALISM

The shouting of the cowboys, the rushing of their intelligent ponies
here--there--everywhere, seemingly--the fusillade of pistol shots, the
thunder and bellowings of the steers and the thud of the ponies
hoofs--all combined to make the scene a lively one.

The imitation stampede seemed to be a great success, and no one, not in
the secret, could have told that it was not a real one.

"Over this way, Paul!" cried Baldy, who was taking part with the young
actor. "I'm supposed to rescue you, and I can't do it if you keep so far
away."

"But isn't it dangerous to ride so close to the steers?" asked Paul,
who, while willing to do almost anything in the line of moving picture
work, did not want to take needless chances.

"There's no danger as long as you're mounted," replied the cowboy, "and
you've got a good horse under you. Come on!"

Accordingly Paul rode closer in, and the camera showed him in imminent
danger of being trampled under the feet of the rushing steers.

But Baldy, who had done the same thing so often that he did not need to
rehearse it, rode swiftly in and managed to "cut out" Paul, so that the
actor was in no real danger. The cattle nearest to him were forced to
one side.

Then, as called for in the action of the little drama, Mr. Switzer, who
was a good horseman, having been in the German cavalry, rushed up to
attack Paul. Of course it was but a pretended attack; but it looked real
enough in the pictures.

Ruth and Alice, with the other spectators on the little mound, looked on
with intense interest.

"Oh, I just wish I was on my pony!" cried Alice, as she looked at the
scene of action.

"Alice, you do not!" protested Ruth.

"Yes, I do! Oh, it must be great to drive those cattle around that way!"

"You have a queer idea of fun," remarked Miss Pennington in a
supercilious tone, as she looked in the small mirror of her vanity box
to see what effect the sun and dust were having on her brilliant
complexion. For it was dusty, with the thousands of hoofs tearing up the
earth.

The main part of the action over, the cattle were now being "milled" by
the cowboys. That is, the onward rush was being checked, and the steers
were being made to go around in a circle.

Thus are stampedes, when real, gradually brought to an end.

"Well, it's all over," said Mr. Norton, as he stood beside the manager.
"Is that about what you wanted?"

"Indeed it is. This film will sure make a hit. Those rivals of ours, who
started out to take advantage of my plans and work, will be sadly left."

"You haven't seen any more of them?"

"Not since that fellow disappeared from here. He took himself and his
camera off. I guess he weakened at the last moment."

"I had no idea he was a moving picture operator," said the ranch owner,
"or I would never have hired him."

"Well, I guess no harm was done," Mr. Pertell rejoined.

The rush of the steers was gradually coming to a close when Mr. Norton,
looking over to the far edge of the bunch of cattle, uttered a sudden
cry of alarm.

"What's the matter?" asked Mr. Pertell, anxiously.

"Why, they seem to have started up all over again," was the reply. "You
didn't tell them to put in a second scene of the stampede; did you?"

"No, indeed. We don't need it. Besides, Russ can't have any film left
for this reel. He used up the thousand-foot, I'm sure, and he hasn't an
extra one with him. What does it mean?"

"That's what I'd like to know. Those steers are certainly on the rush
again, though. Hi, Baldy!" he called to the cowboy. "What are you
starting 'em up again for?"

"Startin' who up?"

"The steers! Look at 'em!"

"Say, they _are_ on the run again," agreed the bald-headed cowboy, who
had ridden up to where Mr. Pertell and Mr. Norton stood. "Something must
be wrong," and he set off on the gallop once more.

Meanwhile the steers, which had almost come to a rest, were again in
motion. But they were not safely going about in a circle. Instead, they
had started off in a long line and now were swinging around in a big
circle and heading directly for the mound on which the young ladies were
still standing.

Ruth and Alice had started down as they saw the cattle growing quiet,
but now several of the cowboys shouted to them:

"Go back! Go back! This is a stampede in earnest."

"A stampede in earnest!" repeated Mr. Norton. "I wonder what started
that?"

With a sudden rush the whole bunch of cattle were in motion, and headed
in a solid mass for the mound.

"If they rush over that----" said Mr. Pertell in fear.

"This is too much realism!" cried Mr. Norton, putting spurs to his steed
and racing off to help the cowboys. The latter had seen the danger of
the girls, and were hastening to once more stop the stampede that had
unexpectedly become a real one.

"Look at those fellows over there!" shouted Pete Batso as he rode up,
his horse in a lather. "They're none of our crowd!" and he pointed to a
group of horsemen who were riding away from the stampeded cattle instead
of toward them.

"Who are they?" asked Mr. Pertell.

"I don't know, but they're a lot of cowards to run away, when we'll need
all the help we can get to stem this rush!"

CHAPTER XX

IN THE OPEN

Thundering over the ground, the frightened cattle rushed on. After them
came the cowboys, determined, at whatever cost, to turn the steers away
from the little hill on which stood the four girls, clinging together,
and in fear of their lives. For certainly it would be the end of life to
fall beneath the hoofs of those on-rushing beasts.

"I can't understand what happened!" exclaimed Mr. Norton, as he rode on.
"Those steers had all quieted down, when all of a sudden they started up
again. Something must have happened."

He glanced over toward the mound. The cattle were still headed toward
it. Would the cowboys be able to turn them aside in time?

"Head 'em off!"

"Shoot at 'em!"

"Head 'em away from that mound!"

Thus cried the cowboys as they raced to the rescue. They were at rather
a disadvantage, for their horses were winded and exhausted from the
previous rushes to stop the pretended stampede, and now, when all their
energies were needed to end a real one, the animals were not equal to
the demand.

"Do you think they can stop 'em?" asked Russ of a passing cowboy. The
young operator was still at his camera, but he was not going to take any
pictures if Ruth, Alice and the others were really in danger.

"Of course we'll stop 'em!" cried the cowboy, with supreme confidence in
his ability and that of his companions.

"Then I might as well get a film of this," decided Russ. "It would be a
pity to let a real stampede get away from me. I can cut out some of the
other pictures."

He ran to where he had left a spare camera and soon was grinding away at
the handle, making views of a real and dangerous stampede.

"Oh, what shall we do?" gasped Alice, as she clung to her sister on the
mound of safety.

"We can't do anything," answered Alice, solemnly--"except to wait. They
may divide and pass to either side of us. I've read of such things
happening."

"Oh, if they come any nearer I'll faint--I know I shall!" murmured Miss
Dixon.

"That's the surest way to be trampled on," remarked Alice, calmly.
"Just faint, and fall down and----"

She paused significantly.

"I sha'n't do anything of the kind!" cried the other actress with more
spirit. "I won't do it just because you want me to! There!"

It was a silly thing to say, but then, she was half-hysterical. In fact,
all four were.

"That's what I wanted to do--rouse her up," observed Alice to her
sister. "It's our only safety--to remain upright. And we might try to
frighten the cattle."

"How?" asked Ruth.

"Let's shout and yell--and wave things at them. We've got parasols.
Let's wave them--open and shut them quickly. That will make flashes of
color, and it may frighten the steers. Come on, girls--it's worth
trying!"

The others fell in with her plan at once, and the spectacle was
presented of four young ladies, perched on a hill, toward which a
thousand or more steers were rushing, waving their parasols, opening and
shutting them and yelling at the top of their voices.

"Are--are they stopping any?" asked Miss Pennington, anxiously.

"I--I'm afraid not," faltered Alice.

And then, just in the nick of time, there came riding around one side
of the stampeding cattle a group of the Rocky Ranch cowboys. They had
succeeded in reaching the head of the bunch of steers, and now had a
chance to turn the excited cattle to one side--to mill them again.

"Hi--yi!" yelled the cowboys.

"Hi--yi!"

Bang! Bang! boomed the revolvers.

"Shoot right in their faces!" cried Buster Jones, as he fired point
blank at the steers.

Most of the cowboys had blank cartridges in their pistols for the
purpose of making a noise. But others had real bullets, and with these
some of the wildest of the steers were killed. It was absolutely
necessary to do this to stop the rush.

And this was just what was needed, for the fallen cattle tripped up
others and soon there was a mound of the living bodies on the ground,
offering an effectual barrier to those behind.

The cattle were now almost at the hill where the four young ladies stood
in fear and trembling, but with the advent of the cowboys new hope had
come to them.

"Now we're all right!" cried Alice, joyfully.

"How do you know?" Miss Pennington wanted to know.

"You'll see. They'll stop the stampede," was the confident answer.

And this was done. With the piling up of some of the steers into an
almost inextricable mass, and the dividing of the other bunch just as
they reached the foot of the mound, the danger to the girls was over.

In two streams of living animals the steers passed on either side of the
little hill, and after running a short distance farther they came to a
halt, being taken in charge by other cowboys who rode up from the rear
on fresh horses.

Other horses were brought up for the girls to ride, as they were too
weak and "trembly" to walk. Besides, it is always safer to be in the
saddle among the lot of Western steers.

"Oh, what a narrow escape!" panted Miss Dixon.

"It was," agreed Alice. "But it shows you what cowboys can do! It was
just splendid!" she cried to Baldy Johnson, who was riding beside her.

"Glad you liked it, Miss," he responded, breathing hard, "but it was
rather hot work all around."

"You're not hurt; are you, girls?" cried Mr. DeVere as he came up to
them, having had no part in the drama, but having heard in the ranch
house of the real stampede.

"Not a bit, Daddy!" answered Alice. "I don't believe the steers would
have trampled us anyhow."

"Well," remarked Baldy, slowly. "I don't want to scare you; but for a
minute there I thought it was all up with you--I did for a fact."

"Some stampede!" cried Paul, as he rode up, looking almost like a cowboy
himself.

"And some film!" laughed Russ, delighted that he had gotten one of the
real stampede, now that his friends were out of danger.

"But I can't understand it," said Mr. Norton. "What started the cattle
off the second time? They were really frightened at something."

"Did you see those men over that way?" asked the ranch owner, pointing
in the direction where he had observed the retreating cowboy band.

"I saw 'em," admitted Pete, "but I thought they were some of our boys
that you'd sent up to the North pasture."

"They weren't from Rocky Ranch!" declared the owner of the Circle Dot
outfit.

"Well, if they were strange punchers, maybe they frightened our steers,"
suggested Baldy.

"They might have," admitted Mr. Norton. "But I was thinking that perhaps
they were rustlers, trying to ride off a bunch, and they became
frightened when they saw us all on hand."

"It might be," admitted Pete Batso. "I'll have a look around after we
get the critters in the corral."

Ruth and Alice, as well as Miss Pennington and Miss Dixon, were so
nervous and upset that it was thought advisable not to attempt any more
pictures that day.

Most of the members of the Comet Film Company sat about the ranch house,
talking over recent events, or studying parts for new plays. Some of the
cowboys went off on the trail, trying to find traces of the strange men,
but they returned unsuccessful.

The next days were spent in getting simple scenes about Rocky Ranch, no
very hard work being done. These scenes would afterward be interspersed
with more elaborate ones.

When moving picture films are made, it is usual to photograph all the
scenes of one kind first, whether or not they come in sequence. Thus, if
one scene shows action taking place in a parlor, and the next scene
calls for something going on out on the lawn, and the third scene is
aboard a steamboat, while the fourth one is back in the parlor, the two
parlor scenes will be taken one after the other, on the same film, at
the same time, regardless of the fact that something came in between.
Later on the outdoor scenes will be made, all at once. Then, when the
film is developed and printed it is cut and fastened together to show
the scenes in the order called for in the scenario.

Thus it was planned to make all the simple scenes around the ranch house
first, and later to film a number of more important ones out in the
open.

"We're going to rough it for a while," announced Mr. Pertell to his
company one evening.

"Rough it!" cried Miss Pennington. "Have we done anything else since we
left New York, pray?"

"Well, we're going to rough it more roughly then," went on the manager,
with a smile. "I am going to have a series of films showing the life of
the cowboys when off on the round-up. I want some of you in the scenes
also, so I shall take most of you along.

"We will go into the open, and live out of doors. We will take along a
'grub wagon,' and other wagons for sleeping quarters for the ladies.
There will be as many comforts as is possible to take, but I am sure you
will all enjoy it so much you will not mind the discomfort. We will
sleep out under the stars, and it will do you all good."

"I'm sure it's doing me good out here," said Mr. DeVere. "My throat is
much better."

"Glad to hear it," the manager responded. "Yes, we will live out of
doors for perhaps a week--camping, so to speak; but on the move most of
the time. And that will bring our stay at Rocky Ranch to a close. But
there will be plenty to do before then," he added quickly, as he saw the
look of disappointment on the face of Alice.

"Oh, I like it too much here to leave," she said. In fact Alice seemed
to like every place. She could make herself at home anywhere.

Plans were made the next day, and nearly all the members of the company,
save Mrs. Maguire and the two children, were to go on the trip across
the prairies.

Big wagons, of the old-fashioned "prairie schooner" type, were made
ready. In these the ladies would live when they were not in the saddle.
There was also a "grub" wagon, in which food would be carried. It
contained a small stove so that better meals could be prepared than
would be possible over a campfire.

Then with plenty of spare horses, and with the camera and a good supply
of film, the moving picture company and several cowboys set off one
morning over the rolling plains.

Many scenes were filmed, some of them most excellent. It was not all
easy going, for often there would be failures and the work would have to
be done all over again. But no one grumbled, and really the life was a
happy one. Even Mr. Sneed seemed to enjoy himself, and the former
vaudeville actresses condescended to say it was "interesting."

One day an important film had been made and the work involved was so
hard that everyone was glad to go to their "bunks" early. Mr. Pertell,
Russ and Mr. DeVere occupied a large tent near the wagons where the
ladies had their quarters.

There was some little disturbance during the night, caused by one of the
dogs barking, but the cowboys who roused to look about could find
nothing wrong. But in the morning when Russ went to prepare his camera
for that day's work he uttered an exclamation of dismay.

"What's the matter?" asked Mr. Pertell.

"That big reel I took yesterday, and which I put in the light-tight box
for safe keeping, is gone!" cried the young operator.

CHAPTER XXI

THE BURNING GRASS

The announcement made by Russ caused considerable surprise, and, on the
part of Mr. Pertell, dismay.

"You don't mean that big reel--that important one which is a sort of key
to all the rest--is missing; do you?" he asked.

"That's it," replied Russ, ruefully. "It's clean gone!"

"Maybe you didn't look carefully, or perhaps you put it in some other
place than you thought."

"I'm not in the habit of doing that with undeveloped film," replied the
young operator. "If it was a reel ready for the projector I might mislay
it, for I'd know the light couldn't harm it. But undeveloped reels, that
the least glint of light would spoil--I take precious good care of them,
let me tell you. And this one is gone."

"Let's have another look," suggested Mr. Pertell, hopefully.

He went into the tent from which Russ had just emerged, and the latter
showed him where he had placed the reel. It was enclosed in its own
case as it came from the camera, and that case, as an additional
protection, was placed in a light-tight black box. This box would hold
several reels; but that night only one, and the most important of those
taken on the trip, was put in it.

"Look!" suddenly exclaimed Mr. DeVere, who had followed the two into the
tent. "That's how your reel was taken!" and he pointed to a slit in the
wall of the tent, close to where the black box had stood. So clean was
the cut, having evidently been made with a very sharp instrument, that
only when the wind swayed the canvas was it noticeable.

"By Jove! You're right!" cried Mr. Pertell. "That's how they got it,
Russ. Someone sneaked up outside the tent, slit it open, reached in and
lifted out the reel. It was done when we were asleep and----"

"That's what made the dogs bark!" exclaimed Russ. "Now the question is:
Who was it?"

He looked at Mr. Pertell as he spoke, and at once a light of
understanding came into the eyes of the manager.

"You mean----?" the latter began.

"Those fellows from the International!" finished Russ, quickly. "They
must be still on our trail."

"What's the trouble?" asked Baldy Johnson, from outside the tent. "Has
anything happened?"

"Oh, don't say there's more trouble," chimed in Ruth, as she came down
out of the wagon where she and Alice slept. "What has happened now?"

"Nothing much, except that we've been robbed," spoke Russ, ruefully.
"Our big reel is gone." To the cowboys and others of the company who
crowded up he showed the slit in the tent wall, through which the theft
had been perpetrated.

"Hum! I guess those fellows were smarter than we were," replied Baldy.
"We scurried around in the night, but they gave us the slip."

"And we didn't see a sign of 'em, neither!" added Buster Jones.

"Say, fellows, if this ever gets back to Rocky Ranch," went on Necktie
Harry, as he adjusted a flaming red scarf, "we'll never hear the last of
it. To think we heard a racket, got up, and let something be taken right
from under our noses and didn't see it done--Good-night! as the poet
says."

"Boys, we've got to make good!" declared Bow Backus. "We've got to take
the trail after these scamps, and get back them pictures. It's up to
us!"

"Whoop-ee! That's what it is!" shouted Necktie Harry, firing his gun.

"Oh, isn't this fine!" cried Alice, as she joined Ruth. "There will be a
real chase and----"

"Oh, how can you like such things?" asked Ruth. "It may be something
terrible!"

"Pooh! I don't see how it can be. If they have something that belongs to
us we have a right to get it back," and Alice shook back the hair that
was falling over her shoulders, for she was to take part in several
pictures that day as a "cowgirl," and was dressed in a picturesque, if
not exactly correct, costume, with short skirt, leggins and all.

"Oh, I hope there won't be any--bloodshed!" faltered Miss Pennington.

"They'll probably only use their lassoes," replied Alice, with a smile.
"Oh dear! I hope breakfast will soon be ready. I'm as hungry as a----"

"Alice!" warned Ruth, with a gentle look. She was still trying to
correct her sister's habit of slang.

"As hungry as if I hadn't eaten since last night," finished Alice with a
mocking laugh. "There, sister mine!" and she blew her a kiss from the
tips of her rosy fingers.

"Well, it's easy enough to say: 'Get after the fellows who took the
reel,'" spoke Baldy Johnson, "but who were they, and where shall we
start?"

"It must have been someone who knew where we kept the reels in the
light-tight box," said Russ. "Otherwise he would have cut several places
in the tent to reach in and feel around. And there is only one cut. So
it must have been somebody who knew about this tent."

"Regular detective work, that," remarked Necktie Harry, quickly, looking
admiringly at Russ.

"Say! I have it!" cried Baldy Johnson. "Those fellows who rode in
yesterday to watch us work. It was one of them."

"You mean the boys from the Double ranch?" asked Buster.

"Them's the ones," answered Baldy. Just before the close of the making
pictures the day before a crowd of cowboys from a nearby cattle range
had ridden up, and looked on interestedly. They were returning from a
round-up. Some of them were known to the boys from Rocky Ranch, and
there had been an exchange of courtesies.

"'Them's the guilty parties,' as the actor folks say," sung out Bow
Backus.

"I think you are right," agreed Mr. Pertell.

"But I can't see what object cowboys would have in taking a film--and an
undeveloped one at that," said Russ. "I can't believe it."

"Maybe the International firm bribed them, or maybe one of their men was
disguised as a cowboy," suggested Mr. DeVere.

"That's possible," admitted Russ.

"Well, we'll soon find out," declared Baldy. "Come on, boys. Grub up and
then we'll ride over."

The visit to Double X ranch proved fruitless, however, except in one
particular. The cowboys attached to that "outfit" easily proved that
they had not been near the camp of the picture makers.

"But there was one fellow who rode with us," said the foreman. "He was a
stranger to us. Looked to be a cow-puncher, and _said_ he was, from down
New Mexico way. He was with us when we were at your place, and when we
rode away he branched off. It might have been him."

"I'm sure it was," declared Mr. Pertell. "Now, how can we get hold of
him?"

But that was a question no one could answer, and though several of the
cowboys took the trail after the stranger, he was not to be found. The
missing film seemed to have disappeared for good.

It was a great loss, but there was no help for it, and plans were made
to go through the big scene again, though not until later.

"I have something else I want filmed now," said Mr. Pertell. "We will
make that 'lost' scene we spoke of last night and then try a novelty."

"Something new?" asked Mr. Bunn. "I hope I don't have to be lassoed
again," for that had been his most recent "stunt."

"No, we'll let you off easy this time," laughed Mr. Pertell. "All you'll
have to do will be to escape from a prairie fire."

"A prairie fire!" gasped the Shakespearean actor. "I refuse to take that
chance."

"Don't worry," said the manager. "It will only be a small, imitation
blaze. I want to get some scenes of that," he went on to explain to the
cowboys. "In the early days of the West prairie fires were one of the
terrible features. I realize that now, of course, with the West so much
more built up, they are not so common. But I think we could arrange for
a small one, and burn the grass over a limited area. It would look big
in a picture."

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