CHAPTER IX
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 Hughand the other four scouts came hurrying up to where he was sitting ona rock, fanning himself with his hat, while the dozens of knights,squires and bowmen were puffing cigarettes, and apparently resting upfor the next exciting scene in the wonderfully realistic drama ofolden times.
"Well, you see, sir, we happen to belong to a scout troop over inOakvale," explained Hugh. "We came up here to spend the weekend,and transact some business at the same time. This chap here, AlecSands, has a peculiar old aunt in the city who is anxious to buy justsuch 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 wasto 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 hisforehead. Evidently it mattered little to him that the air was quitechilly, for his duties kept him so much on the jump he was swelteringfrom the perspiration of hard, honest labor.
"Say you so, my young friend?" he exclaimed. "Well, if we leave anypart of the old ruin intact when we're through with this series ofstartling pictures the old lady can doubtless buy it at a smallfigure."
"Does that mean you'll wreck a big structure like this, sir, just toget 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 waterin order to keep up with our rivals. We're going to give them somethingnovel this time, you see."
"How, sir?" Monkey Stallings found the courage to ask, his curiositygetting the better of his modesty.
"This new play isn't really a play at all," said the stout man, witha touch of pride in his voice. "It's a stunt of my own we're pullingoff to-day. You see, the public sometimes expresses a desire to learnjust how these magnificent pictures are done, and we expect to showthem the whole thing from beginning to end. They'll see my companystarting out in a string of motor cars for this place; watch themgetting rigged out in their spic-and-span suits of mail, and old-timestuff; feast their eyes on just such wonderful feats as you have seenpulled off beside these massive walls; and step by step, be takeninto our confidence as we progress, until finally the amazing climaxarrives. Right now you can hear the machine clicking away, as theoperator takes a crack at the players resting between their acts.Perhaps it may please you chaps to know that you'll be seen in thefinished production along with the rest of the troupe."
Billy seemed quite awed at the idea. He was observed to slyly pulldown his vest, and straighten himself up as though on dress parade.If countless thousands of people were going to gaze upon his personthroughout the whole length and breadth of the land, Billy wantedto do his family justice, and not disgrace his bringing up.
Plainly, the stage director seemed to be considerably interested inthe scouts. Possibly he may have had a boy or two of his own in hismetropolitan home who also wore the khaki, and consequently any fellowwho 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 haveseemed like a breath of fresh air, something to temporarily distracthim from the routine of his trying business.
At any rate, he seemed disposed to continue the conversation while hispeople were resting, and making ready for the next act in the drama ofpublicity.
"Although all this seems very wonderful to you boys," he went on toremark, lighting a cigarette as he spoke, at which he took severalpuffs and then nervously threw it away again, "it represents only onelittle event in the bustling activities of my force here, as anyregular member of it could tell you."
"I suppose you must have been around some, sir?" ventured MonkeyStallings, at which the red-faced manager looked queerly at him andthen chuckled.
"Well, it's a hustling age, you know," he told them. "I've been atthis business over four years now, and so far it hasn't quite reducedme to a skeleton in spite of the fierce work. I've taken the leadingmembers of my famous players across the desert in Egypt to the pyramids,explored Spain and the heart of India, traveled across Japan, goneinto China, camped in Central American jungles, wandered into theheart of Africa hunting big game, toured away up in Alaska as wellas traveled all through the Wild West, and in Mexico among the fightingthat's always going on down there. And I've got a few more stuntsmapped 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 sawno reason to disbelieve what he said. The boy realized that in thesemodern days those who would succeed in the midst of fierce competitionmust have something very unusual to offer the fickle public in the wayof adventure and novel effects. Why, the mere fact of this managerlearning about the deserted castle in the lonesome valley, andfetching such an army of players all the way up there to impersonatethe genuine characters of olden days, was proof enough that what hehad just been saying might be considered in the line of reason. Atall events, there was no ground on which to doubt him.
Billy was casting frequent nervous glances over toward the spot wherethe operator was still grinding lustily away, seeking to get a goodpicture of the actors in one of their off-periods, when they weretaking things easy after a recent "engagement."
When, by accident, Monkey Stallings chanced to step in the way, Billyhastily moved his position. When a Worth was being immortalized inthis fashion far be it for a worthy scion of the race to allow a mereStallings to crowd him out. When, presently, the grinding ceased,with the operator hurrying across to report his success to the bustlingstage director, Billy grinned in conscious triumph, for he felt convincedthat he stood out prominently in that picture, so that any one who sawit must notice what a handsome chap one of the Boy Scouts appeared tobe on the screen, at least.
The man who was running all this wonderfully complicated affair lookedjust like a goodnatured, red-faced bank cashier, but Hugh realized thathe must have an amazing capacity for detail work, as well as aremarkable faculty for organization.
Now and then he would refer to a sheaf of papers he carried aroundwith him, fastened together with a little arrangement that allowedof their being rapidly turned over from time to time. Doubtless thiswas his plan of campaign. Hugh would have given something for theprivilege of examining the same, but lacked the assurance to ask sucha favor of one who was an utter stranger to him, and moreover couldnot afford to spend much time with a pack of mere boys.
It could be seen that the players expected to be soon called around themanaging director for instructions connected with motion pictures weretaken. So Hugh pulled at the sleeves of Monkey Stallings, to intimatethat they had better fall back.
Arthur had already left them. Hugh hardly needed to take a look aroundto understand what it was that had drawn the other. Yes, he was overthere where the man in a business suit seemed to be bathing the limbof a super who had suffered more or less severely when the ladder onwhich 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 engagedassisting the doctor wrap some linen bandages about that bruised limb.By his eager remarks he would also arouse considerable interest onthe part of the company's physician, who probably always accompaniedthe troupe wherever they traveled, as his services were in frequentdemand. Indeed, sometimes he became a very busy man.
"I wonder," Billy was saying, becoming more and more audacious, itseemed, on the principle that give one an inch and he will want anell---"I wonder now if he'd listen to me if I asked him to let us havea 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. "St
op andthink for a minute, will you, how silly it would look to see a bunchof Boy Scouts dressed in khaki clothes helping those old-time yeomentackle the walls of that ancient castle. Why, we'd queer the wholebusiness, 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 aleading place in the exposition showing how this famous group ofmotion-picture players did their perilous work.
"Sure he did," retorted the other, with a shrug of his shoulders asif he pitied Billy's ignorance, "but then you must remember that wasintended to show the players resting up between acts, and not at theirwork. There's a whole lot of difference between the two jobs, letme tell you."
Billy made no reply, but it could be seen that he looked greatlydisappointed as he watched the myriad of actors begin to get inposition for the opening of the next scene. This might possiblyrepresent the triumphant entry of the assailants into the castle ofthe enemy, which, in turn, would lead up to the rescue of the lovelyheroine just when the villainous knight was about to hurl her intothe blazing tower.
The chattering began to die away as the harsh voice of the stagedirector was heard through his megaphone, giving directions as to howthis or that group should carry out their parts. Hugh wondered howmany turns it would take before that exacting manager felt like callingit a satisfactory picture. Perhaps they might be forced to repeatthe scene many times, simply because some clumsy fellow did somethingto injure its value.
Alec was busily manipulating his camera, and Hugh chuckled when hefound that the other was taking in the entire scene, showing the operatorwith his instrument, as well as the scouts gathered near by. Billy,too, had made the same discovery, for he was smiling as sweetly as heknew how, and had again assumed that martial attitude which he seemedto 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 somethingto show for their labors. Even if that eccentric relative of Alec'slost the chance to obtain a quiet retreat "far from the madding crowd,"as Billy had once described it, their week-end outing promised tobe well worth the effort it cost them individually and collectively.
They watched everything that was being done. It was astonishing tosee what an amount of stuff the players had fetched along from thecity, in order to carry out the battle scene true to the original,as they understood it. Why, even the rude bridge that had been thrownacross the moat had been fashioned beforehand, and was carried withthem in sections, like one of those ready-built houses Hugh rememberedseeing advertised, that "any boy could put together."
The stage director was fuming, and saying a lot of hard things, asthough some of the stupid acts of the army of _supers_ nearly drovehim distracted. By degrees he managed to whip his forces into theshape he wanted before he gave the warning signal that the fun wasabout to commence.
"Whee!" Billy was saying half to himself as he stared at the bustlingscene, "but wouldn't it be great if only we'd been asked to put onsome suits like those fellows are wearing, and have a chance to climbup 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 forus boys to steal the thunder of those hard-working actors. There,he's going to give the signal for the mimic war to begin. Everybodytake a big breath and sail in! Now, go it, you terriers; the battle'son again!"
Boy Scouts with the Motion Picture Players Page 9