ou see this is all new to me--this play-actin', an' shootin'
at folks unexpected like. I wouldn't have tried it, only the captain at
the Sailors' Snug Harbor, over on Staten Island, where I'm berthed,
asked me as a favor to come here. But I don't like it!"

"I didn't at first," said Alice, joining with her sister, in an attempt
to placate the old salt. "But I became used to it."

"Ha! You're pretty young to be in this business," said Jack Jepson, who
evidently said what he thought.

"Oh, I'm older than I look," replied Alice with a smile. "I just love
the sea. I wish you would tell me about some of your voyages, for I'm
sure you must have been on many."

"That I have, Miss, but this is th' queerest cruise I ever started on,"
and he looked around at the many scenes being enacted.

Meanwhile Ruth had slipped to Mr. Pertell's side.

"Give me a brief outline of the play," she suggested. "I think I can
make it plain to him. He is all fussed up because it's something new.
You haven't time to go into details."

"That's right--I haven't," agreed the harassed manager. "Well, this is
enough for you to know just now. There's a plot to sink a ship, and it
is necessary that certain papers appear to be stolen.

"I picked Jepson up, as he says, at a sailors' home, over on Staten
Island. He's a typical salt, but he balks at even a semblance of
wrong-doing."

"I think I can make him understand," Ruth said as she took the
typewritten pages of the scenario, or plot, of the drama from the
manager.

"I wish you would," Mr. Pertell said. "I've a thousand and one things to
do."

Ruth started toward the old sailor. To her surprise her sister Alice was
now in earnest conversation with him. Jack Jepson seemed to have warmed
to Alice at once. And Ruth heard him saying, as she approached:

"Well, Miss, you see it was this way. There was a mutiny, an' I was
accused, but I wasn't guilty. There was a mystery about it when the
captain disappeared, an' that mystery hasn't been solved yet, though I'd
give a good bit if it were. It's hangin' over me like a nightmare, Miss.
Now I'll tell you all about it, if I don't tire you."

"I should love to listen!" exclaimed Alice, with dancing eyes and
flushed cheeks.

CHAPTER IV

THE SAILOR'S STORY

Ruth, on her way to explain to sailor Jack Jepson what was wanted of him
in the matter of acting for moving pictures, paused as she saw Alice and
the aged salt in earnest conversation.

"