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The Moving Picture Girls at Sea: A Pictured Shipwreck That Became Real, a novel by Laura Lee Hope |
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Chapter 10. Too Much Realism |
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_ CHAPTER X. TOO MUCH REALISM "Oh dear!" exclaimed Ruth. It seemed a silly, futile thing to say, but, perhaps, very natural under the circumstances. Ruth arose, and put her arms about her sister, who tottered a little as she stood upright. "The tide has risen?" asked Alice, and her tone was questioning. "That's what has happened," went on Paul. "Pshaw! I ought to have kept watch of it. Russ was gone longer than I thought. But here we are now, fairly caught." "Can't we--can't we wade back to shore?" faltered Alice. "I wouldn't like to have you try it," answered Paul, and he moved over closer to the girl. "Why not?" she asked. "I'm not at all afraid of getting wet, and it can't be so very deep over those rocks--not yet." "It isn't that you would get wet," Paul answered. "But the rocks were slippery enough as they were. Covered with water, as they now are between us and the shore, I'm afraid you'd slip off, especially as your ankle will give you a twinge if you twist it." "It certainly will," agreed Alice. "It hurts worse now. But oh! We must get back to shore!" she exclaimed. "We must!" "We--I--I think I could lift her over the place where the water is," said Ruth. "But you might both slip in," objected Paul. "And the water is quite deep on either side of this ledge of rocks. You see the ocean washes in against them, and scoops out the sand. So that there is a deep channel, ten feet or more, right alongside of the ledge of rocks. If you fell in there----" "Oh, don't speak of it!" begged Alice. "I wouldn't mind swimming if I were prepared for it but it isn't exactly Summer yet, and with a disabled foot----" "It isn't to be thought of," finished Ruth. "But we _must_ get ashore somehow, Paul. The water is getting higher every minute." "Yes, the tide has just begun to come in," said the young actor. "I should have noticed it before, but I didn't. Now I wonder--" He did not finish, but gazed back toward the beach, nearly a quarter of a mile away. To his surprise, and also alarm, not one of the members of the moving picture company was in sight. "That's strange," thought Paul, but he did not speak his thought aloud. "Oh!" screamed Alice, so suddenly as to startle them all. "What is the matter?" demanded Ruth. "A wave splashed right up behind me! Look!" The rising wind was sending little waves over the outer edge of the small island of rocks on which the three were marooned. It was another evidence that the tide was getting higher and higher. "What _shall_ we do?" asked Ruth. "We must get help--_somehow_!" Alice said. Then she looked shoreward, in the direction Paul was gazing, and she uttered the single expression: "Oh!" But it was fraught with meaning. "Why--they've gone!" gasped Ruth. "What--what----" "They'll be back!" Paul interrupted. "Probably Mr. Pertell just thought of some scene he could get, and he took them off down the beach to put them all in it. They'll be back in a little while, and then we can signal to them." "If--if it isn't too--too late!" faltered Alice. "Too late? What do you mean?" demanded her sister. "I mean these rocks will soon be covered, and covered deep, too," Alice said. "The high water mark is away above them." "Is it, Paul?" demanded the older girl. She wanted the statement of Alice disproved. "I'm afraid it is," the young actor made answer. "And the tide, I am sorry to say, is likely to be unusually high today. The moon has something to do with it. But we will be taken off before then." "Suppose we aren't?" asked Alice. "The wind and the sea are rising, and if we are swept off the rocks----" "Don't be so tragic about it!" broke in Ruth. "If we are to go to sea, and be in a shipwreck, even if it is only pictured, we must learn to face perils. And here we are only a little way from shore." "That's right!" cried Paul. "That's the way to look at it, Alice. There's no danger!" "That's easy enough for you to say--you two who haven't a lame ankle," the younger girl said, seriously enough. "But I don't believe I can even swim!" "There will be no need of that," Paul said. "They are sure to come back and see our plight soon. I can't see what's keeping Russ. He promised to come back as soon as he fixed up another camera. It's very strange." Later they learned that when Russ and Mr. Pertell got back to the beach, leaving, as they supposed Ruth, her sister and Paul safe on the rocks, Pop Snooks, the veteran property man, discovered a certain nook that would answer for an important scene in the play. Wishing to take advantage of it at once, while the light was good, Mr. Pertell ordered the entire company over there to go through the prescribed "business." He took Russ and the two other camera operators with him, to make sure of getting at least one film. That is why the beach opposite the rocks where the three were marooned by the rising tide, was deserted just then. For the time both Mr. Pertell and Russ forgot their three friends, or, if they thought of them at all, it was to think that they were perfectly safe, and would come to no harm by waiting a bit. The tide rose higher and higher. In a few minutes it would lap the feet of the three marooned ones. A desperate resolve came into Paul's mind. "I'll swim, or wade, to shore," he said, "and get a boat." "And leave us here?" demanded Alice. "Yes. There is nothing else to be done," he answered, desperately. "No, please don't go!" begged Alice, putting a detaining hand on his arm. "I can't bear to be left here." "But it will be only for a few minutes," Paul said, "and the tide isn't rising so fast that it will sweep you away in that time." "I know--but--don't go!" begged Alice, her voice trembling. Paul looked at Ruth. "Perhaps you _had_ better stay," suggested the older girl. "They are sure to come back soon, and--well, we don't want to be left here." "All right," agreed Paul. "But I think I could get back with a boat in time." However, there was no need for him to go. A moment later the moving picture company, headed by Russ and the two other camera men, came around the turn of some sand dunes. "There they are!" cried Ruth. "Oh, come and get us!" fairly screamed Alice. Paul put his fingers to his mouth and sent out a shrill whistle. It needed only a glance on the part of Mr. Pertell and the others to show the plight of the three marooned ones. "I forgot all about them!" the manager exclaimed. "Russ--Mr. Bunn--Switzer--a boat--where's that fisherman--where's the life-saving station? This is----" "Avast there! Belay!" came the deep tones of Jack Jepson, who had come out to do certain parts in the shore scenes. "I'll take that boat out and get 'em. Don't worry!" "Oh, but my daughters!" exclaimed Mr. DeVere, hoarsely. "And Alice with a sprained ankle!" gasped Mrs. Maguire. "Don't worry! I'll get 'em!" declared the old salt. "Come on," he called to Mr. Bunn. "You look like you could handle an oar," and he started toward a dory that was drawn up on the beach. "I--I can't row!" exclaimed the old actor. "Besides, I might----" "Yes, he might spoil his dignity," said Russ fiercely in an undertone. "I'll go with you," he said to the sailor. "I can manage a boat!" "Good! That's the way to talk. Come on!" A few minutes later Russ and Jack had shoved out the fisherman's craft, and were quickly rowing toward the rocks. The tide was now so high that Paul and the two girls stood ankle-deep in the water that completely covered the rocks. "Ahoy there! Ahoy!" sang out Jack, as he and Russ sent the boat over the waves to the rescue. "Ahoy! We'll have you safe in a minute!" "Quick! Get that picture! Film it!" cried Mr. Pertell to one of the other camera men. "I can work that scene in--somehow." There was very little that was not "grist" which came to the "mill" of Mr. Pertell's cameras. The film began to unreel and before they knew it Paul, Ruth and Alice were being depicted in the rescue scene, which, when it was projected on the screen, made a series of effective pictures. There was little real harm done save for wet feet and startled nerves. Sufficient harm, one might think, but Ruth and Alice were beginning to forget they had nerves, so many were the strange acts they were called upon to perform in their moving picture work. Jack and Russ helped the three into the boat, and rowed to shore with them, where mutual explanations were made, and Mr. Pertell was sorrowfully apologetic for his forgetful share in it. "And the next time I forget about the tide, when I'm at the shore, I'll fine myself a box of candy to be forfeit to you girls," Paul said. "Be sure you don't forget to pay the fine," Alice warned him. As the company had brought along several changes of costume, there were dry shoes for the three marooned ones, and then, as it was too late to finish the scene on the rocks, they went back to New York. Some other day would have to be devoted, at least in part, to completing that film. In the days that followed, work on the _Mary Ellen_ went on apace. She was almost ready for her voyage to sea. The big motorboat, _Ajax_, was also being put in readiness. While Jack Jepson and the others were busy at the schooner there were also busy scenes at the studio, where Mr. DeVere and his daughters took part in many film plays. Nearly all the studio scenes for "Out on The Deep," had been completed. "But we must get that river attack before we start on the voyage," said Mr. Pertell one day. This "river attack" showed one phase of the big marine drama. Ruth and Alice, in company with Mr. Bunn, as an old 'longshoreman, were supposed to be rowed across a river to escape harbor thieves. To get good local color the location of the scene was fixed on the Jersey side of the Hudson river, above the Palisades. Thither those of the company required in the scene journeyed one day. All went well until the time when Mr. Bunn, rather against his will, was rowing Ruth and Alice toward shore. They were being pursued by some rough men in a second boat. It is needless to say that the "rough men," were also moving picture actors. "Go on there, Mr. Bunn! Row! Row!" called Mr. Pertell, while Russ, who was with him in a third boat, was making the reel hum in the camera. "I--I can't row any faster," said the old "Ham" actor. "But you _must_!" the manager cried. "That's better," he added as Mr. Bunn showed a burst of speed. "Oh dear! If ever I get through this series of pictures I'll quit the game!" groaned the former legitimate actor. Ruth and Alice "registered" the proper business as the men in the pursuing boat came nearer and nearer. The flight was to continue along the Jersey shore. "Jump out! Jump out!" commanded Mr. Pertell, giving directions from behind a screen of bushes, where he and Russ, having landed, were now hidden to take the land scenes. The girls and Mr. Bunn leaped ashore. The "villains" followed, firing blank cartridges. "Fine! That's fine!" cried the enthusiastic manager, when suddenly, from a road that ran along the shore, there sprang a number of country officers. They had their clubs in one hand and had drawn their revolvers. "Surrender! Surrender!" cried the leading officer to the "villains," who were pursuing Mr. Bunn and the girls. "Surrender! We've got you covered! We seen you chasin' these parties! Surrender!" and the police rushed toward the actors. "Keep back! Keep back!" implored Mr. Pertell, leaping out of concealment and waving his hands. But he was too late. _ |
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