The Moving Picture Girls at Rocky Ranch | Page 9

a long way off.

CHAPTER IV
A CLOUD OF SMOKE
Below, in the crowd that had gathered to watch the test, were Ruth and
Alice. Russ, of course, was there with his moving picture camera, and
Paul saw the little lens-tube aimed in his direction, like the muzzle of
some new weapon.
"Now, don't get nervous," directed the inventor, after he had explained
the mechanism to Paul, and also to the city officials who had gathered
to pass upon its merits.
"You can't make me nervous," declared the young actor. "I've gone
through too much in this moving picture business, though I will admit I
never jumped from such a height before."
"Don't look down," the inventor warned him. "You won't get dizzy then.
And don't think of the height. With this apparatus it is impossible to get
hurt. You will go down like a feather."
"That's comforting to know," laughed Paul. "Well, I may as well start, I
guess."
The belt was adjusted about him, and as it was done in the open
window Russ was able to get views of it, and of all that went on. Then
Paul got out on the sill. There he paused a moment.
"I--I can't bear to look at him!" murmured Ruth.
"Don't be silly," exclaimed Alice.
"But suppose--suppose something happens?"
"Don't be a Mr. Sneed!" retorted her sister, with a laugh. "I don't
believe anything will happen, and if--if he should fall--see!" and she
pointed to where a detachment of city firemen stood ready with their
life net.

"Oh, I didn't notice them before," confessed Ruth. "That makes it
safer."
"All ready down there, Russ?" shouted Paul, through a megaphone.
"Shall I go?"
"Jump! I'm all ready for you," was the answer.
Paul paused but for a moment, and then he jumped from the sill, and
out away from the building. The coil of rope in the metal case had been
swung out from the side of the structure on an arm, so as to enable Paul
to clear the lower window ledges.
For the first few feet he went down like a shot, and for one horrible
moment he felt that something had gone wrong. In fact the crowd did
also, for there was a hoarse shout of alarm.
"Oh!" gasped Ruth, faintly.
"I--I----" began Alice, as she, too, turned aside her head. Then someone
yelled:
"It's all right!"
Alice looked then.
She saw Paul descending as the rope payed out. He was coming down
gradually.
"That will make a good film," commented Russ to Mr. Pertell, for the
manager had come to witness the fire escape scene.
"Indeed it will."
Paul came down several stories, and the success of the apparatus
seemed assured when, at about the fourth story from the ground,
something suddenly went wrong.
Once more the young actor shot downward and this time it seemed that

he would be seriously injured.
Russ felt that he must rush forward to save his friend, but he had an
inborn instinct to stick to his camera--an instinct that probably every
moving picture operator has, even though he does violence to his own
feelings.
"He'll be hurt!" several in the crowd cried.
Ruth and Alice both turned aside their heads again, but there was no
need for alarm.
For the firemen, at the word of command from their captain, had rushed
forward with the life net. They were standing only a few feet away
from where Paul dangled in the air, but even at that they were only just
in time.
Paul fell into it heavily, for the mechanism depended on to check the
speed at which the rope payed out, did not work. But the firemen knew
just how to handle a situation of that sort, and they held firmly to the
net. It sagged under the impact of Paul's body, but he bounded upward
again in an instant, and then was helped out of the net and to his feet.
"Mighty lucky you fellows were here," observed the young actor, as the
cheers of the crowd died down.
"I was afraid something like that might happen," spoke the fire captain.
"I've seen too many accidents with these patent escapes to take any
chances. Now there's another inventor who will have to make quite a
few changes in his apparatus."
The man who had patented the fire escape had been in a frenzy of fear
when he saw Paul slipping, and, now that he knew the young actor was
safe, he began to explain how something unforeseen had occurred, and
that it would never happen again.
"Did you get that, Russ?" the manager wanted to know, for he thought
the operator, in his anxiety over Paul, might have forgotten to turn the

handle of the machine.
"Every move," was the reassuring answer. "It