The Moving Picture Boys on the War Front

The Moving Picture Boys on the War Front, by

Victor Appleton This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: The Moving Picture Boys on the War Front Or, The Hunt for the Stolen Army Films
Author: Victor Appleton
Release Date: February 10, 2006 [EBook #17744]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Cori Samuel and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS ON THE WAR FRONT
OR
The Hunt for the Stolen Army Films
BY VICTOR APPLETON
AUTHOR OF "THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS," "THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS UNDER THE SEA," "TOM SWIFT AND HIS MOTOR-CYCLE," "TOM SWIFT AND HIS AERIAL WARSHIP," ETC.
ILLUSTRATED
NEW YORK
GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS

Copyright, 1918, by GROSSET & DUNLAP
The Moving Picture Boys on the War Front
[Illustration: IT TOOK ALL THE NERVE OF THE THREE LADS TO STAND AT THEIR POSTS AND SEE MEN KILLED.]
=CONTENTS=
* I A CALL TO BATTLE 1
* II THE ACCIDENT 11
* III MONSIEUR SECOR 20
* IV ALL ABOARD 29
* V ANXIOUS DAYS 39
* VI A QUEER CONFERENCE 47
* VII "PERISCOPE AHOY!" 56
* VIII BEATEN OFF 65
* IX SUSPICIONS 72
* X THE FLASHLIGHT 80
* XI THE DEPTH CHARGE 88
* XII IN ENGLAND 97
* XIII UNDER SUSPICION 105
* XIV IN CUSTODY 114
* XV THE FRONT AT LAST 121
* XVI THE FIRING LINE 130
* XVII BOWLED OVER 138
* XVIII TRENCH LIFE 145
* XIX GASSED 153
* XX "GONE!" 161
* XXI ACROSS NO MAN'S LAND 170
* XXII CAPTURED 179
* XXIII THE AIRSHIP RAID 189
* XXIV BURIED ALIVE 199
* XXV THE END OF LABENSTEIN 206

=THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS ON THE WAR FRONT=
CHAPTER I
A CALL TO BATTLE
"Come on now, ready with those smoke bombs! Where's the Confederate army, anyhow? And you Unionists, don't look as though you were going to rob an apple orchard! Suffering snakes, you're going into battle and you're going to lick the boots off the Johnnie Rebs! Look the part! Look the part! Now, then, what about the cannon? Got plenty of powder in 'em so there'll be lots of smoke?"
A stout man, with perspiration running down his face, one drop trickling from his nose, was hurrying up and down the field.
On one side of him was a small army composed of what seemed to be Civil War Union soldiers. A little farther back was a motley array of Confederates. Farther off was an apple orchard, and close beside that stood a ramshackle farmhouse which was soon to be the center of a desperate moving-picture battle in the course of which the house would be the refuge of the Confederates.
"The old man is sort of on his ear this morning, isn't he, Blake?" asked Joe Duncan of his chum and camera partner, Blake Stewart. "I haven't heard him rage like this since the time C. C. dodged the custard pie he was supposed to take broadside on."
"Yes, he's a bit nervous, Joe; but----"
"Nervous isn't the word for it, Blake. He's boiling over! What's it all about, anyhow? Is he mad because I was a bit late getting here with the extra reels of film?"
"No, he didn't say a word about that. It's just that he can't get this battle scene to suit him. We've rehearsed it and rehearsed it again and again, but each time it seems to go worse. The extras don't seem to know how to fight."
"That's queer, considering all the war preparations that have been going on here since we got in the game against Germany," observed Joe Duncan, as he made some adjustments to his camera, one of several which he and Blake would use in filming part of a big serial, a number of scenes of which were to center around the battle in the apple orchard. "With all the volunteering and drafting that's been going on, soldiers quartered all over and as thick as bees around the cities, you'd think these extra fellows would know something about the game, wouldn't you?"
"You'd think so; but they seem to be afraid of the guns, even though they are loaded with blanks. Here comes Mr. Hadley again, and he's got fire in his eyes!"
Mr. Hadley, producer of the Consolidated Film Company, approached Jacob Ringold, a theatrical manager who was in charge of the company taking the parts in "The Dividing Line," which was the name of the Civil War play.
"Look here, Jake!" exclaimed Mr. Hadley, "is this supposed to be a desperate, bloody battle, or a game of tennis?"
"Why, a battle scene, of course, Mr. Hadley!"
"Well, I'm glad to know it! From the way most of your people just rehearsed it, I thought I might be in the wrong box, and looking at