The Moving Picture Girls at Sea | Page 3

fragrant food perfumes that now filled the apartment.
The key clicked in the lock, the door opened, and a rather imposing figure of a man entered, laying aside his hat and light overcoat, for the Spring day was a bit chilly.
"Hello, Daddy!" called Alice, putting up her face to be kissed, as she came in from the kitchen with a plate of delicately browned toast. "You're just in time. And it's such a lovely rarebit!"
"That's good, my dear."
"Oh, Father, how hoarse you are!" cried Ruth. "Is your throat bad again?"
"Well, this harbor dampness isn't just the best medicine for it. But I shall spray it, and it will be better."
He sank somewhat wearily into a chair as he spoke, and Ruth glided over to him.
"Daddy," she said, "you look worried. Has anything happened? Is anything wrong at the moving picture studio?"
"No, nothing wrong, but--"
It was evident that something out of the usual had occurred. Even light-hearted Alice sensed it.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Oh, nothing so much," her father said in weary tones. "I suppose I shouldn't make such a fuss over it. But Mr. Pertell has finally decided to film the great marine drama, and that means we shall have to go out on the water, more or less. And with my sore throat that isn't just the best thing in the world for me."
"A marine drama!" cried Alice. "Oh, I shall just love that!"
A look of worry still clouded Mr. DeVere's face.
"Father, there is something else," insisted Ruth. "You haven't told us all about this sea film."
"No, I--I haven't," he said. "And, to tell the truth, I'd rather we weren't going to be in that marine drama."

CHAPTER II
JACK JEPSON
Hosmer DeVere's words and manner alike were alarming to his daughters. Seldom had they seen him so moved, especially over such a seemingly simple matter as the announcement of a new moving picture drama. He and the girls, in common with the other members of the Comet Film Company, had to portray many different scenes in the course of a season's work, and though some of it was distasteful, it was seldom objected to by anyone, unless perhaps by Pepper Sneed, the "grouch," or perhaps by Mr. Wellington Bunn, an actor of the old school, who could not reconcile himself to the silent drama.
"Why, Daddy, what is the matter?" asked Alice. "I think it will be perfectly fine to have a little trip out to sea, especially now that Summer is coming on."
"But not if the damp salty air is going to irritate his throat," declared Ruth.
"Oh, it isn't so much that," Mr. DeVere said, "but you girls evidently don't know that the big scene in this drama is a shipwreck, and what follows. I am to be 'cast' in that, and so are you."
"Well, what of it?" asked Alice. "It won't be a real shipwreck; will it?"
"Real? Of course not!" exclaimed Ruth. "The idea!"
"I certainly hope it won't be real," Mr. DeVere said, "But--Oh, well, I suppose I may as well admit the truth. You'll probably call me fussy and all that, and laugh at the superstition of an old actor. But you know we have our traditions, though I am free to confess that I have lost many of them since entering on this moving picture work. But I had a dream about this same shipwreck, and that was before I knew we were to be in it, for I might mention that Mr. Pertell has included you girls in the drama, and has prominent parts selected for you."
"Oh, I'm glad!" cried Alice enthusiastically.
"I'm not," her father said, and he did not smile. "As I said I had a dream about this drama before I knew we were to have parts in it. And in that dream I saw----"
"Oh, Daddy! Now don't tell a depressing dream before tea!" begged Alice, slipping her arms about his neck, and imprinting a kiss on a spot, which, if it were not already bald, was fast becoming so. "Wait until after supper--the rarebit will spoil if we don't eat it at once. Wait, Daddy dear!"
"All right, I will," he assented with a sigh. "Perhaps I may have a less gloomy view of it after a cup of tea."
And while the little family party is gathered about the table, I shall take just a moment to tell my new readers something about the previous books of this series.
Ruth and Alice DeVere were moving picture girls, which you have probably guessed already. That is, they were actresses for the silent film dramas that make so much for enjoyment nowadays. Mr. DeVere was also an actor in the same company. He had been a semi-tragedian of the "old school," but his voice had failed, because of a throat ailment, and he could no longer declaim his lines