ticular one was to be filmed.

"That's it," said Russ. "Don't forget your bonnets!" he laughed as he
focused the camera.

"All ready now!" called Mr. Pertell, the manager of the company, and
also the chief stage director, a little later. "Take your places, if you
please! Mr. DeVere, you are not in this until the second scene. Mr.
Bunn, you'll not need your high hat in this act."

"But I thought you said----" began an elderly actor, of the type known
as "Hams," from their insatiable desire to portray the character of
Hamlet.

"I know I did," said Mr. Pertell, sharply. "But I have had to change my
mind. You are to take the part of a plumber, and you come to fix a burst
water pipe. So get your overalls and your kit. You have a plumber's kit;
haven't you, Pop?" the manager called to Pop Snooks, the property man,
who was obliged, on short notice, to provide anything from a diamond
ring to a rustic bridge.

"All right for the plumber!" called Pop. "Have it for you in a minute."

"And, Mr. Sneed," called the manager to another actor. "You are supposed
to be the householder whose water pipe has burst. You try to putty it up
and you get soaked. Go over there in the far corner, where the tank is;
we don't want water running into this Quaker scene."

"Oh, I get all wet; do I?" asked Mr. Sneed, in no very pleasant tones.

"That's what you do!"

"Well, all I've got to say is that I wish you'd give some of these tank
dramas to someone else. I'm getting tired of being soaked."

"You haven't been really wet since the trip to Florida," declared Mr.
Pertell. "Lively now, we have no time to lose. Come on, Russ!" he called
to the young operator. "You're to film the Quaker scenario. I'll have
Johnson make the water pipe scene. All ready, ladies and gentlemen!"

Various plays were going on at once in different parts of the studio.
Ruth and Alice DeVere took their places in one where a Quaker story was
being portrayed. Later they posed in a church scene, in which a number
of extra people, or "supers," were engaged to represent the
congregation.

Mr. Pertell, once he had the various scenes going, took a moment in
which to rest, for he was a very busy man. He sat down near Alice, who,
for the time being, was out of the scene. But hardly had the manager
stretched out in a chair, resting one shirt-sleeved arm over the back,
when he started up, and looked intently toward one corner of the studio.

"I wonder why he is going in there?