ring a period when he was not engaged in one of the plays he
had gone into the room, permission to enter which was not often granted,
even to favored members of the Comet Film concern--at least until after
the release of the film was decided.

"Don't let that man get way!" cried Mr. Pertell, sharply, as he saw
Wilson edging toward the hallway. "Lock the doors and we'll search him!"

There was some confusion for a moment, but the doors were locked, and
Pop Snooks seized the new actor.

And, while preparations are being made to search the man I will trespass
on the time of my new readers sufficiently to tell them, as briefly as I
can, something about the previous books of this series, and of the main
characters in this one.

The initial volume was entitled "The Moving Picture Girls; Or, First
Appearances in Photo Dramas." The girls were Ruth and Alice DeVere, aged
respectively seventeen and fifteen years. Their mother was dead, and
they lived with their father, Hosmer DeVere, in the Fenmore Apartment
House, New York. Across the hall from them lived Russ Dalwood, a moving
picture operator, with his widowed mother, and his brother Billy.

Mr. DeVere was a talented actor in the "legitimate," as it is called to
distinguish it from vaudeville and moving pictures. But the recurrence
of an old throat ailment made him suddenly so hoarse that he could not
speak loud enough to be heard across the footlights. He was already
rehearsing for a new play when this happened, and after several trials
to make himself audible, he was finally forced to give up his
engagement.

This was doubly hard, as the DeVeres were in straitened circumstances at
this time, money being very scarce. They had really entered upon a
period of "hard times" when Russ, a manly young fellow, whose first
acquaintance with the girls had quickly ripened into friendship, made a
suggestion.

"Why don't you try moving pictures?" he had said to Mr. DeVere. "You
can act, all right, and you won't have to use your voice."

At first the veteran actor was much opposed to to the idea, rather
looking down upon moving pictures as "common." But his daughters induced
him to try it, and he came to like them very much. The pay, too, was
good.

Thus Mr. DeVere became attached to the Comet Film Company. Mr. Frank
Pertell, as I have said, was manager, and Russ was his chief operator,
though there were several others. There were, too, a number of actors
and actresses attached