ut of the scene.

"I really will," answered Mr. Pertell. "That's a promise!"

CHAPTER XVIII

A HIT

"Ruth, I do hope it's a success; don't you?" asked Alice.

"Of course I do. It means a whole lot."

"You mean to Mr. Pertell?"

"And to us, dear."

"What do you mean? Tell me."

The two girls were resting after the performance of the play "A False
Count." The last scene had been filmed, and the long strips of
celluloid, with the hidden pictures, sent to the dark room for
development. Not until then could it be told whether the affair had
been a success from a mechanical standpoint. And then, later, would
come the test before the great public.

"Did you hear what Mr. Pertell said to me?" asked Ruth.

"Well, he said so much, directing us, and all that--I'm sure I don't
recall anything special. What was it?"

"Why, he told me that if this play was a success--I mean if we showed
up well in it--he'd give us parts in a big drama he's getting ready.
Won't that be splendid?"

"Of course it will. But I liked this one very much. I wish I could
see the real pictures."

"You can!" exclaimed a voice back of the girls, and, turning they saw
Russ. "I'll take you to see them when the positives are made," he
said.

"Oh, but I mean in a regular moving picture theater," went on Alice.
"I'd like to see how the public takes us."

"I'll do that, too," agreed Russ. "As soon as the pictures are
released we'll find some place where they are being shown, and you
can watch yourself doing your act."

"That will be fine!" cried Ruth.

"What does 'released' mean?" asked Alice.

"Well, you know the moving picture business is something like the
Associated Press," explained Russ. "The Associated Press is an
organization for getting news. Often news has to be gotten in
advance--say a thing like the President's message, or a speech by a
big man.

"The Associated Press gets a copy in advance, and sends duplicates of
it out to the newspapers that take its service. And on each duplicate
copy is stamped a notice that it is to be released for publication
on a certain day--or at even a certain hour. That is, it can't be
used by the newspapers until that time.

"It's somewhat like that with moving pictures. The reels of new plays
are sent out to the different theaters, and to fix it so a theater
quite a distance from New York won't be at a disadvantage with one
right here, which would get the film sooner, there is a certain d