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.