WITH THE MOTION-PICTURE PEOPLE
"Where did you boys spring from, I'd like to know?"
It was the perspiring stage manager who asked this question when Hugh
and the other four scouts came hurrying up to where he was sitting on
a rock, fanning himself with his hat, while the dozens of knights,
squires and bowmen were puffing cigarettes, and apparently resting up
for the next exciting scene in the wonderfully realistic drama of
olden times.
"Well, you see, sir, we happen to belong to a scout troop over in
Oakvale," explained Hugh. "We came up here to spend the weekend,
and transact some business at the same time. This chap here, Alec
Sands, has a peculiar old aunt in the city who is anxious to buy just
such a quiet retreat as this place, where she wouldn't hear a sound,
for she's got a case of nerves, you see. And one of our objects was
to take some pictures of the castle, as well as spy around a bit."
The red-faced stage-director laughed even as he kept on mopping his
forehead. Evidently it mattered little to him that the air was quite
chilly, for his duties kept him so much on the jump he was sweltering
from the perspiration of hard, honest labor.
"Say you so, my young friend?" he exclaimed. "Well, if we leave any
part of the old ruin intact when we're through with this series of
startling pictures the old lady can doubtless buy it at a small
figure."
"Does that mean you'll wreck a big structure like this, sir, just to
get a picture of it being blown up?" asked Alec, dismayed.
"Oh, that doesn't cut any figure in the bill!" he was told flippantly.
"The public demands the best there is, and money must flow like water
in order to keep up with our rivals. We're going to give them something
novel this time, you see."
"How, sir?" Monkey Stallings found the courage to ask, his curiosity
getting the better of his modesty.
"This new play isn't really a play at all," said the stout man, with
a touch of pride in his voice. "It's a stunt of my own we're pulling
off to-day. You see, the public sometimes expresses a desire to learn
just how these magnificent pictures are done, and we expect to show
them the whole thing from beginning to end. They'll see my company
starting out in a string of motor cars for this place; watch them
getting rigged out in their spic-and-span suits of mail, and old-time
stuff; feast their eyes on just such wonderful feats as you have seen
pulled off beside these massive walls; and step by step, be taken
into our confidence as we progress, until finally the amazing climax
arrives. Right now you can hear the machine clicking away, as the
operator takes a crack at the players resting between their acts.
Perhaps it may please you chaps to know that you'll be seen in the
finished production along with the rest of the troupe."
Billy seemed quite awed at the idea. He was observed to slyly pull
down his vest, and straighten himself up as though on dress parade.
If countless thousands of people were going to gaze upon his person
throughout the whole length and breadth of the land, Billy wanted
to do his family justice, and not disgrace his bringing up.
Plainly, the stage director seemed to be considerably interested in
the scouts. Possibly he may have had a boy or two of his own in his
metropolitan home who also wore the khaki, and consequently any fellow
who sported such a uniform was of some value in his eyes. Then again,
in his hard labors, the coming of Hugh and his four comrades may have
seemed like a breath of fresh air, something to temporarily distract
him from the routine of his trying business.
At any rate, he seemed disposed to continue the conversation while his
people were resting, and making ready for the next act in the drama of
publicity.
"Although all this seems very wonderful to you boys," he went on to
remark, lighting a cigarette as he spoke, at which he took several
puffs and then nervously threw it away again, "it represents only one
little event in the bustling activities of my force here, as any
regular member of it could tell you."
"I suppose you must have been around some, sir?" ventured Monkey
Stallings, at which the red-faced manager looked queerly at him and
then chuckled.
"Well, it's a hustling age, you know," he told them. "I've been at
this business over four years now, and so far it hasn't quite reduced
me to a skeleton in spite of the fierce work. I've taken the leading
members of my famous players across the desert in Egypt to the pyramids,
explored Spain and the heart of India, traveled across Japan, gone
into China, camped in Central American jungles, wandered into the
heart of Africa hunting big game, toured away up in Alaska as well
as traveled all through the Wild West, and in Mexico among the fighting
that's always going on down there. And I've got a few more stunts
mapped out that will dwarf everything else that's ever been undertaken.
Oh! this is only a little picnic for a motion-picture stage director."
He may have been stretching the truth more or less, but then Hugh saw
no reason to disbelieve what he said. The boy realized that in these
modern days those who would succeed in the midst of fierce competition
must have something very unusual to offer the fickle public in the way
of adventure and novel effects. Why, the mere fact of this manager
learning about the deserted castle in the lonesome valley, and
fetching such an army of players all the way up there to impersonate
the genuine characters of olden days, was proof enough that what he
had just been saying might be considered in the line of reason. At
all events, there was no ground on which to doubt him.
Billy was casting frequent nervous glances over toward the spot where
the operator was still grinding lustily away, seeking to get a good
picture of the actors in one of their off-periods, when they were
taking things easy after a recent "engagement."
When, by accident, Monkey Stallings chanced to step in the way, Billy
hastily moved his position. When a Worth was being immortalized in
this fashion far be it for a worthy scion of the race to allow a mere
Stallings to crowd him out. When, presently, the grinding ceased,
with the operator hurrying across to report his success to the bustling
stage director, Billy grinned in conscious triumph, for he felt convinced
that he stood out prominently in that picture, so that any one who saw
it must notice what a handsome chap one of the Boy Scouts appeared to
be on the screen, at least.
The man who was running all this wonderfully complicated affair looked
just like a goodnatured, red-faced bank cashier, but Hugh realized that
he must have an amazing capacity for detail work, as well as a
remarkable faculty for organization.
Now and then he would refer to a sheaf of papers he carried around
with him, fastened together with a little arrangement that allowed
of their being rapidly turned over from time to time. Doubtless this
was his plan of campaign. Hugh would have given something for the
privilege of examining the same, but lacked the assurance to ask such
a favor of one who was an utter stranger to him, and moreover could
not afford to spend much time with a pack of mere boys.
It could be seen that the players expected to be soon called around the
managing director for instructions connected with motion pictures were
taken. So Hugh pulled at the sleeves of Monkey Stallings, to intimate
that they had better fall back.
Arthur had already left them. Hugh hardly needed to take a look around
to understand what it was that had drawn the other. Yes, he was over
there where the man in a business suit seemed to be bathing the limb
of a super who had suffered more or less severely when the ladder on
which he was mounted had been roughly dislodged from the walls,
throwing all upon it to the ground beneath.
If Arthur were given half a chance he would soon be busily engaged
assisting the doctor wrap some linen bandages about that bruised limb.
By his eager remarks he would also arouse considerable interest on
the part of the company's physician, who probably always accompanied
the troupe wherever they traveled, as his services were in frequent
demand. Indeed, sometimes he became a very busy man.
"I wonder," Billy was saying, becoming more and more audacious, it
seemed, on the principle that give one an inch and he will want an
ell---"I wonder now if he'd listen to me if I asked him to let us have
a chance to get in the next picture?"
Monkey Stallings laughed harshly at hearing that.
"Well, you are a greeny, Billy, I must say," he declared. "Stop and
think for a minute, will you, how silly it would look to see a bunch
of Boy Scouts dressed in khaki clothes helping those old-time yeomen
tackle the walls of that ancient castle. Why, we'd queer the whole
business, that's what!"
"Yes, but didn't you hear him say we'd appear in that last scene?"
disputed the eager Billy, loth to give up his ambitious plan to have a
leading place in the exposition showing how this famous group of
motion-picture players did their perilous work.
"Sure he did," retorted the other, with a shrug of his shoulders as
if he pitied Billy's ignorance, "but then you must remember that was
intended to show the players resting up between acts, and not at their
work. There's a whole lot of difference between the two jobs, let
me tell you."
Billy made no reply, but it could be seen that he looked greatly
disappointed as he watched the myriad of actors begin to get in
position for the opening of the next scene. This might possibly
represent the triumphant entry of the assailants into the castle of
the enemy, which, in turn, would lead up to the rescue of the lovely
heroine just when the villainous knight was about to hurl her into
the blazing tower.
The chattering began to die away as the harsh voice of the stage
director was heard through his megaphone, giving directions as to how
this or that group should carry out their parts. Hugh wondered how
many turns it would take before that exacting manager felt like calling
it a satisfactory picture. Perhaps they might be forced to repeat
the scene many times, simply because some clumsy fellow did something
to injure its value.
Alec was busily manipulating his camera, and Hugh chuckled when he
found that the other was taking in the entire scene, showing the operator
with his instrument, as well as the scouts gathered near by. Billy,
too, had made the same discovery, for he was smiling as sweetly as he
knew how, and had again assumed that martial attitude which he seemed
to consider made him such a striking figure.
Evidently this little expedition was bound to be fruitful with results,
and on their return home those who were along would have something
to show for their labors. Even if that eccentric relative of Alec's
lost the chance to obtain a quiet retreat "far from the madding crowd,"
as Billy had once described it, their week-end outing promised to
be well worth the effort it cost them individually and collectively.
They watched everything that was being done. It was astonishing to
see what an amount of stuff the players had fetched along from the
city, in order to carry out the battle scene true to the original,
as they understood it. Why, even the rude bridge that had been thrown
across the moat had been fashioned beforehand, and was carried with
them in sections, like one of those ready-built houses Hugh remembered
seeing advertised, that "any boy could put together."
The stage director was fuming, and saying a lot of hard things, as
though some of the stupid acts of the army of _supers_ nearly drove
him distracted. By degrees he managed to whip his forces into the
shape he wanted before he gave the warning signal that the fun was
about to commence.
"Whee!" Billy was saying half to himself as he stared at the bustling
scene, "but wouldn't it be great if only we'd been asked to put on
some suits like those fellows are wearing, and have a chance to climb
up the ladders? I bet you now we'd show them how to break through,
no matter what the men on the walls tried to put on us. But shucks!
that'd be too big luck; and besides, it could hardly be fair for
us boys to steal the thunder of those hard-working actors. There,
he's going to give the signal for the mimic war to begin. Everybody
take a big breath and sail in! Now, go it, you terriers; the battle's
on again!"