CHAPTER XII
WHEN SWORDS CLASHED
"I wonder if that winds up the whole show?" asked Billy Worth, a shorttime later, as Alec and Monkey Stallings joined him, while there wasan unusual bustle among the numerous retinue of the hard-workingstage manager.
"Not on your life, Billy," observed Alec, "though I'm all in myselfso far as taking any more wonderful pictures goes, because I've usedmy last film, which I consider hard luck. Hugh just told me the worstis yet to come."
"What! are they going to make out to burn the old castle down? Is thatworrying you, Alec?" asked the Stallings boy.
"Sure it is," frankly confessed Alec. "Of course, the fire will bea whole lot of a fake; that is, much smoke, and no real danger to thegirl shut up in that high turret room; but, all the same, it's goingto do considerable harm to the building, which may queer it for AuntSusan's purposes."
"Well, what can you say?" demanded Billy. "These people have putup the money to cover any damage they may do, and money talks everytime. Here comes Hugh back to tell us what the programme is. He'sjust left that hustler of a director, and the chances are Hugh knowsall about it, because he's made a big hit with the manager."
"Hugh always does make people look up to him, somehow," mused Alec,as though it often puzzled him to know just how the other managed it.
"There, Arthur has joined him, too, and is coming along," Billy wenton to say. "He's about finished helping the doctor take care of thewounded yeomen who had the bad luck to be caught when that treacherousold wall caved in."
The scout master, accompanied by Arthur, quickly joined them, to begreeted by a shower of eager questions.
"I can tell you all about it, fellows," said Hugh, making as if toward off an attack. "Mr. Jefferson, the manager, says he figureson completing his work in the one visit, and has made all necessarypreparations. It's a tremendous job to fetch his big company allthe way from New York up here. If they make good to-day they expectto go back in the morning, or perhaps to-night, if they can catchthe late train. Otherwise they'll have to make another try to-morrow.Personally, I think they'll make good to-day."
"What's the next stunt, Hugh?" asked Alec, his voice more or lessbetraying the eagerness and concern he felt.
"Oh, from what I can gather," answered the scout master, smilingly,"it runs about like this: The forces headed by the hero knight havecarried the outer works of the fortress castle in which the villainhas the fair heroine shut up in that turret room. The invaders, havingmade a breach in the walls and swarmed over in various places, willnow pursue the few desperate defenders of the castle through thispassage; and that, with many a desperate hand-to-hand fight. Alwaysthe knight in armor is seen hewing his way steadily through all opposition,with one object in view. Of course this is to meet the scoundrel,and finish him, which he eventually does after a dreadful sword fight."
"Whew!" gasped Billy, listening with round eyes to the stirring story.
Alec, too, was deeply interested, but his professional instinct causedhim to remark:
"They'll have to burn heaps and heaps of flashlight powder to get allthose inside effects. Wish they'd let me see just how they manage it,but it would be apt to queer the value of the picture to have, a modernBoy Scout appear in it. If I get a good chance, though, I've a notionto ask Mr. Jefferson."
"You'll never be able to make it, Alec," Hugh told him. "He's thebusiest man on earth. He has to be thinking of fifty things at once."
"Go on, Hugh, and tell us the rest," urged Billy, pawing at the sleeveof the other, which action he doubtless meant to be an urgent secondto his appeal.
"Every once in a while there will be glimpses shown of Rebecca in herdungeon, looking out of the little opening, and carrying on as ifnearly frightened to death, for gusts of smoke will be circling aroundher, and she is supposed to know that the fire is getting closer allthe time."
"Wow, that must make it a thriller for fair!" exclaimed Monkey Stallings,who was known to love exciting stories, though his watchful motherkept a tight rein on his propensity to indulge along those lines, andcensored all books he brought into the house before allowing him todevour them.
"Of course," remarked Alec, flippantly. "It goes without saying thateventually knight in shining armor, Ivanhoe, or whoever he may be,gets to the locked door of the turret tower room, bursts his way through,and saves the lovely maiden, like they always do in stories of thoseolden times. But here's hoping the fire doesn't get out of control,and set in to destroy the best part of this wonderful castle. Suchthings have been known to happen, I've read."
"Gosh!" ejaculated Billy with morse than his accustomed vigor, "you'reonly thinking of the humbug old castle, Alec, and what chance therewould be for your rich aunt to buy the same if half burned down.Guess you forget the poor girl shut up in that lonesome turret room;what d'ye suppose would become of _her_ if the fire got beyond control?"
"And not a ladder in sight, either," added Monkey Stallings, dismally,as he swept his eyes around in a nervous way. "As for a fire company,there isn't one closer than Danbury, which is all of ten miles away.Whew! I'm beginning to wish the whole business was over with, boys, andthe troupe jogging along back to the town they came from in all thosebig automobiles."
Hugh made no remark just then, but perhaps this suggestion of possibletrouble cause him a little concern. He could be seen looking gravelytoward the immense pile of real and imitation stone as though mentallyfiguring what it might be possible to do in a sudden emergency.
As numerous events in the past had proved, Hugh Hardin was always agreat hand for mapping out things beforehand. He believed in theprinciple of preparing for war in times of peace, so as not to betaken unawares.
"A man insures his home," Hugh often said in explanation of this habit,"when everything seems lovely and safe, not when the fire is raging,and his property going up in flame and smoke."
The stage manager had determined that there was no need of repeatingthe last wild scene where the castle was taken, and a tottering wallfell unexpectedly in the midst of the furious struggle. Let it stand,he had determined, accident and all. It appeared to be almost perfect"copy," and would show up as a faithful portrayal of the stupendousperils attending the efforts of his company in enacting just one phaseof a romantic drama of the days of chivalry.
"I notice that they are meaning to use two machines and a couple orcamera men, so as to get all the excitement down pat," ventured Alec,presently, as they stood and watched the hurrying people of the playin their remarkable attire suggestive of those feudal days of old.
"One is to be kept busy outside," explained Hugh, "while the othertakes pictures of the fighting going on through the corridors andapartments of the castle, while the knight and his valorous retainersare battling their way closer and closer to the place where the captive'maiden' is held fast behind the locked door. I got all that stuffstraight from Mr. Jefferson, and those are his own words, so don'tlaugh."
"Huh! it's too serious a business to do much laughing," grunted Billy."I'm just itching all over to see how it comes out. There, that musthave been the signal to start. I can see some of the men beginningto make an awful smoke with the apparatus they're handling. What agood imitation of the real thing it is!"
"Whoopee! listen to the big swords clashing inside the castle, willyou?" cried Monkey Stallings. "Say, we're missing great stunts,believe me, in having to stay out here. I've got half a notion-----"
However, Monkey did not finish the sentence, whatever rash notion wasflitting through his active mind. Possibly he had indulged in a wilddream that for one of his climbing abilities it might prove feasibleto reach a window above, and by thrusting his head through theaperture see something of the wonderful things going on in thepassages where the crowd was thronging.
It was the fact of Hugh looking meaningly at him that caused Monkeyto stop in the midst of his sentence, for he saw by the expressionon the face of the scout master that Hugh would not permit any meddling
.The enormous expense and labor attending the taking of that picturemust not be wasted through any injudicious act on the part of himselfor one of his chums.
As the minutes passed the confusion became almost a riot, so it seemedto Billy. The shouts of the fighting men grew hoarse with constantrepetitions, for naturally they had to give vent to their emotions,or else much of their efforts would have lacked in the genuine feeling.How those swords did whack and beat upon each other as slowly butsurely the defenders of the castle were being cut down one by one!
It was terribly realistic, too, with the vast volumes of smoke risingup in billows, and here and there what seemed to be a red tongue offire shooting through the appalling waves of black vapor.
Presently, as the boys understood, matters would reach a climax. Thiswas when the hero knight attained the goal for which he was strivingso valiantly.
Then he would be seen attacking the fastened door furiously, whileinside and out that ominous smoke curled in wreaths about him. Inthe end, just when it seemed as though all would be lost, of course,the knight must batter his way in through the broken door, and thedashing rescue would be complete.
Hugh was beginning to feel nervous, and with a reason. While hischums' were wholly wrapped up in observing the numerous excitingincidents that fell under their observation, and connected with thework of the laboring players, the scout master had made a suddendiscovery that worried him.
It was a very small matter, and would never have been noticed by anyone whose training had not been that of a scout, accustomed to observingeverything happening around him. But small matters may become _deciding_factors.
The wind had shifted all of a sudden, and besides coming from a newquarter was rapidly growing in violence. Hugh knew this from the waythe smoke had turned and was now sweeping toward the southeast. Thisfact, while trifling in itself, might, as he well knew, assume aterrible significance when it was remembered that a dozen industrioussupers were playing with fire, and causing it to appear that the wholewing of the castle were enveloped in flames, real or make-believe.
Hugh had eyes for nothing else after making that thrilling discovery.He watched with his nerves on edge, and at the same time began tothink within that active brain of his what his plan of campaign mustbe should the worst that he feared come to pass.
Those hoarse shouts of the combatants, the clang of steel smitingsteel, the roar of the manager's voice through his big megaphone,the shrieks of the women connected with the troupe, induced by thereal excitement of the occasion---all these sounds fell upon deafears as Hugh gripped his chum Arthur by the arm and called his attentionto the impending peril, becoming greater with every second.
"The wind, don't you see it's whipped around, and is coming from anew quarter?" was the tenor of what he called in the other's ear."If that fire gets away from those supers it's going to give them aheap of trouble! Yes, it will chase those fighters out of the passagesin a hurry, and I'm afraid it'll even cut off the poor girl who issupposed to be locked in that turret room."
"Hugh, look! look!" ejaculated Arthur, in sudden excitement; "Just asyou said, I do believe the fire has got beyond their control already.Listen to the way everybody is whooping it up now. It's real frightthat we hear, and no make-believe!"
Boy Scouts with the Motion Picture Players Page 12