Part 22 (1/2)

”Well, no. I don't think about that part. All I am afraid of is that I may get out of range of the camera. You see I'm not very old at this business.”

”Just how did you come to get into it?” asked Alice.

”Why, it was a sort of accident. I was on a boat one day, leaning over the rail looking at the water, when a gentleman came up, begged my pardon for speaking without being introduced, and asked me if I had ever been in the movies.

”I hadn't, though I had often thought I would like to be, and I told him so. He asked me to call at his studio, and I did. They gave me a 'try out,' found I photographed well, and they cast me for small parts. Then they found out I could ride and they let me do some outdoor stuff. From then on I did very well, and when I heard your company was going to make a big war play, I applied to Mr. Pertell. He took me, I'm glad to say.”

”And we're glad you're here,” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Alice.

”We'll go out and watch you jump; it fascinates me, though it makes me afraid,” Ruth declared. ”My sister and I did some riding while we were at Rocky Ranch, but it was nothing to what you do.”

”Oh, it takes practice, that's all,” answered Estelle.

There were some animated scenes previous to the one in which Estelle took part. There was a fight over the possession of a bridge, and the Confederates, having driven off their enemies, prepared to blow it up to prevent the Union army from using it.

Estelle was to try to reach the bridge before it was destroyed, but, failing in that, she was to ride her horse to a narrow part of the stream and leap over.

All went well, and the time came for her to take her swift ride to try to reach the bridge. On and on she galloped, until she was met by a colored man who warned her of the fact that in another moment the bridge would be destroyed.

”She's going pretty close!” murmured Mr. Pertell, as he stood near Russ, who was filming the scene. ”Some of those timbers may fall pretty near her.”

But Estelle seemed to know no fear. She rode straight for the bridge, and she was only a short distance away when it blew up, the planks and rails flying high into the air.

Then she turned her horse to reach, ahead of her pursuers, the place she was to jump the stream. So near was she to the bridge that she had to swerve her horse quickly to avoid being struck by a fragment of the falling wood.

”Plucky girl, that!” murmured Mr. DeVere.

While Estelle was being filmed down by the stream, one of the a.s.sistant camera men, a new hand, prepared to take a scene where a Southern farmer rides up to warn the Confederate cavalry of Estelle's escape, so they may take after her. Maurice Whitlow was the farmer.

”Here, you!” cried Mr. Pertell to Whitlow, ”ride down there and deliver the message--that's your part in this scene.”

There was a small automobile which Mr. Pertell had been using standing near, and Maurice leaped into this and started across the field toward a detachment of the Southern cavalry.

Away rattled Maurice in the car, and the camera man ground away, showing the farmer on his way to give the warning. Suddenly Mr. Pertell turned and saw what was going on.

”For the love of gasoline, stop!” he cried. ”The whole scene is spoiled.

There'll have to be a retake! Of all the stupid pieces of work this is the worst! Stop that camera!”

CHAPTER XVII

ESTELLE'S STORY

”What's the matter?” cried Russ Dalwood, running back from the stream where he had been to see that an a.s.sistant was successfully getting the scene after Estelle had leaped to the other bank.

”Matter! Look!” cried the director, and he pointed to Maurice, speeding to carry his message in the small runabout.

”Good-night!” gasped Russ, who understood at once.

”Why, what's wrong with it?” asked Paul. ”Isn't he running the machine all right?”