Help! Oh, why did I ever get into this business!"

But with great presence of mind the other sailors lowered away on their rope, so that the other end of the boat went down also, and in another instant it was riding on an even keel. Nothing had happened except that Pepper Sneed had been badly scared.

"Did you get that, Russ?" asked the manager, anxiously.

"Oh, yes."

"How was it?"

"Fine! It will be all the better with that little mistake in--look more natural."

"Good! Then we'll leave it in. Now the rest of you get down the accommodation ladder. Stay there, Mr. Sneed!" he called to the grouchy actor, who seemed to want to leave the boat.

"What! Are more of them coming in this little c.o.c.klesh.e.l.l?"

"Certainly. That boat will hold twenty. Keep your place."

"Well, we'll all be drowned, you mark my words!" predicted Mr. Sneed.

But nothing else happened and that part of the film was successfully made.

Then came more scenes aboard the yacht, until the water parts of the drama were completed.

Late that afternoon the party of moving picture players returned to New York. Sandy Apgar bade his new friends good-bye, expressing the hope that he would soon see them at Oak Farm.

"Excuse me, Mr. Pertell," said Alice, when they got back to the studio, and instructions had been given out for the indoor rehearsals next day, "excuse me, but I could not help overhearing what you said about the possibility of some farm dramas. Do you intend to film some of those?"

"Indeed I do," he answered, with a smile. "Why, would you and your sister like to be in them?"

"Very much!"

"Well, then, if this big play proves a success--and I see no reason why it should not--I shall take you and the rest of the company out to the country for the summer. We may go to Oak Farm, or to some other place; but we'll try a circuit of rural dramas, and see how they go."

Alice went to tell Ruth the good news. She found her sister in the dressing room, getting ready for the street.

"I think that will be fine!" exclaimed Ruth. "Listen, dear, daddy told me he had some business to attend to downtown, so he won't be home to supper. He suggested that we two go to a restaurant, and I think I'd like it--don't you? It will round out the day!"

"Of course. Let's go. I'm _so_ hungry from that little water trip!"

A short time afterward the girls sat in a quiet restaurant, not far from the moving picture studio. There were not many persons there yet, for it was rather early. Ruth and Alice had taken a cosy little corner, of which there were a number in the place.

"We are coming on!" remarked Alice, as she gave her order.

"We certainly are!" agreed Ruth. "Who would ever have thought that we would get to be moving picture girls? I think----"

"Hush!" cautioned Alice, raising her hand for silence. Then the two girls heard some men in the next screened-off place talking, and one of them spoke loudly enough to be overheard.

"I'm sure we can get it," he was saying. "It's a nice little patent, and all the movies in the country will want it. It makes the pictures clearer and steadier. I tried to make a deal with him for it, but he turned me down. Now I'm going to get it anyhow, if you'll help."

"But how can you get it if it's patented?" another voice asked.

"That's the joke of it. It isn't patented yet. And all we need is the working model, and we can make one like it and patent it ourselves.

Are you with me?"

"I guess so--yes!" was the answer.

"Good, then we'll get the model to-night and start a patent of our own. I know where he's taken it."

There was a sc.r.a.ping of chairs, indicating that the men were leaving.

Ruth and Alice gazed at each other with startled eyes.

CHAPTER XXII

THE WARNING

"Did you hear that?" asked Ruth of Alice, in a whisper.

"Yes! Hush! Don't let them hear you!"

Ruth looked apprehensively over the back of her chair, but beheld no one. The noise made by the men as they were going out grew fainter.

Alice rose from her chair.

"What are you going to do?" asked Ruth, laying a detaining hand on her sister's arm.

"I'm going to see who those men are."

"Don't. They may----"

Alice made a gesture of silence.

"I'm pretty sure who one of them is," she whispered, as she bent down close to Ruth. "But I want to make certain."

"But Alice----"

"Now, Ruth, be sensible," went on Alice, as she pa.s.sed around back of her sister's chair. "You heard what was said. I'm sure those men have some designs on that patent Russ has worked so hard over. We must tell him about them, and put him on his guard."

"You may get into danger."

It was curious how, in this emergency--as she had often done of late--Alice took the lead over her older sister. And Ruth did not object to it, but seemed to follow naturally after Alice led the way.

"Danger!" laughed Alice softly, as she came to a position behind the screen, whence she could note who the men going out were. "There's no danger in a public restaurant like this. And I'm only going to make sure who that man is. Then we'll go tell Russ."

Ruth made no further objection, and turned to watch her sister. The men had come to a halt at the desk of the cashier, to pay their checks, and their backs were toward Alice. An instant later, however, one of them had turned around and faced toward the rear of the restaurant.

Alice darted behind the screen with a quick intaking of her breath.