The Moving Picture Girls at Sea | Page 8

lights hissed) were going through their parts in the silent dramas.
"This is my sister," Alice said.
"Oh, yes, I remember now," Jack Jepson said. "There's so much goin' on that I get a bit confused. But I can see you two look alike. Are you goin' to put me reefin' sails or scrubbin' decks?" he asked.
"Neither one," Ruth said with a smile. "I told Mr. Pertell, our manager, that I'd explain what was wanted of you. It is very simple, and----"
"I don't call it simple t' rob an' cheat!" cried Jack with energy, "an' that's what he wanted me to do."
"I'll explain, and I think you'll find it all right," Ruth went on. "My sister and I are in this business," she added, "and I don't believe you think we would do anything wrong."
"Far be it--far be it," said the old salt, earnestly.
"Oh, but before you came, Ruth dear," suggested Alice, "Mr. Jepson was going to tell me----"
"Avast there! Belay! Hold on!" exclaimed the sailor, his voice ringing out through the studio, above the tones of those actors who, to give greater verisimilitude to their work were talking their parts, as well as going through them. They smiled at the old salt's energy.
"Wait a minute, Miss," he went on in lower tones. "I didn't mean t' be so quick, but that Mr. Jepson business won't do. Not at all!"
"Why, isn't that your name?" asked Ruth. "I understood Mr. Pertell to say----"
"Oh, that's my name--at least the Jepson part of it is. But I don't like the mister. I'm not used to it. The only time of late years when I was called Mister was when I was up before the lawyers, and I didn't like it then. Jest please call me Jack Jepson, an' 'twill sound more natural. I ask it as a favor, Miss," and he looked from Ruth to Alice.
"Why of course we'll call you Jack," assented the latter. "It will sound nicer anyhow, I think," she added. "Now go on with your story. You said there was a mystery in it. Has it anything to do with--buried treasure?" and Alice leaned forward eagerly.
"Buried treasure? No, Miss. What made you ask that?"
"The idea!" exclaimed Ruth with a laugh. "I'm afraid you'll think my sister very romantic, Mr.--er--Jack."
"That's better!" he laughed. "Well, I don't know much about romance. My life's been mostly hard work."
"I just mentioned treasure," Alice said with a little laugh, and a glance toward where Miss Pennington and Miss Dixon, having a rest from their moving picture work, were curiously eyeing the old sailor and the two girls.
"Well, my mystery hasn't anything t' do with buried treasure," resumed Jack Jepson. "It's about a mutiny that took place off th' Hole in th' Wall, about five years ago, an'----"
"Hole in the Wall!" interrupted Ruth. "I thought mutinies always took place on the high seas."
"Well, this was the high seas," Jack answered.
"But the Hole--?"
"That's the name of a passage between Great Abaco Island and Eleuthera, in the West Indies," the sailor replied. "I don't know why it's called that, but it is."
"A queer name," murmured Ruth.
"Go on, please," urged Alice.
"Well, I was second mate aboard a five masted schooner engaged in the lumber business," went on Jack Jepson. "We were going down to South America, in ballast t' bring back a cargo of hard woods, an' off the Hole in the Wall th' trouble started.
"Some of the crew kicked on account of the grub--that's the stuff we eat on a ship," he explained.
"Oh, we know something of such talk," said Alice with a laugh. "We haven't been out West among the cowboys for nothing!"
"Well, some of th' hands laid it to the grub, an' others t' th' hard work of sailing th' craft," went on Jack. "She was a mighty poor schooner in ballast, an' owing t' storms an' rough weather we had t' be takin' in or lettin' out reefs all th' while. It wasn't so bad up t' th' time we got off th' Hole in th' Wall, but from then on it was fierce!
"I'd heard rumors that th' crew was goin' t' mutiny an' demand that we put in at some port, an' get better grub, an' more hands, for we was short of sailors. But I didn't pay much attention to th' underhand talk until it was too late. Then, all at once, when we had got away down about off Anegada, th' mutiny broke in full force. The men riz up, an' overpowered th' officers--th' captain was made a prisoner in his cabin, an' I was given my choice of joinin' th' mutineers or walkin' th' plank."
"What's that?" asked Ruth, a bit startled.
"That's when they blindfold a man, and make him walk a plank that is put out over the bulwarks, or side of