k.

This suggestion came from young Russ Dalwood, who, with his widowed
mother and little brother, lived across the hall from the DeVere family,
in the Fenmore Apartment on one of the West Sixty streets of New York.
Russ had invented a new attachment for a moving picture camera, and he
himself was a camera operator of ability.

At first Mr. DeVere had refused to consider moving picture work, but he
finally consented, and even allowed his daughters to take their parts in
the silent drama. In the initial book of the series, "The Moving Picture
Girls," I related their first experiences.

All was not smooth sailing. Though Mr. Frank Pertell, manager of the
Comet Film Company, was a most agreeable man, the other members of the
theatrical company were like those of any other organization--some were
liked, and some were not. Among the former, at least from the standpoint
of Ruth and Alice, was Russ; Paul Ardite, who played juvenile leads; Pop
Snooks, the property man and one who did all the odd tasks; and Carl
Switzer, a round-faced German, who was funny without knowing it.

But neither Ruth nor Alice cared much for Laura Dixon and Pearl
Pennington, two former vaudeville actresses who thought they were
conferring a favor on the cameras to pose for moving pictures. Mr. Bunn,
an actor of the kind styled "Hams", was in like case.

Mr. Bunn was always bemoaning the fact that he had left the "legitimate"
drama with a chance of playing "Hamlet", to take up moving picture
work. But he might have been glad--especially on paydays--for he had
made more out of camera work than he could have done on the regular
stage.

Pepper Sneed was never satisfied. He was of a gloomy nature, and always
looking for trouble. Sometimes he found it, and for a time he was happy
in saying "I told you so." But more often he proved a dismal failure as
a predicter of calamities.

This was the company, with others whom you will meet from time to time,
in whose fortunes Ruth and Alice DeVere had cast their lots.

After the girls' first introduction to the camera they went to Oak Farm
where a series of pictures were taken, and, incidentally, a mystery was
cleared up. Getting snowbound was another experience for our friends,
but they forgot the cruelties of Winter in the happy days under the
palms. And they had only recently come back from Rocky Ranch, where a
number of Western dramas had been filmed, when the little scene of our
opening chapter took plac