For a moment no one spoke, after the portentous words of Captain Falcon. Men and women looked at each other. The members of the moving picture company glanced from face to face. What would come next?
"Does this mean—does it indicate that we are to take to the boats?" asked Mr. DeVere, solemnly.
"Not necessarily," the captain replied. "I have come to put the matter plainly to you. The fire gained, in the night, and it reached the engine room compartment. We are, therefore, temporarily disabled, and cannot proceed, as we could have done had not this occurred. For we had the first blaze out.
"Now, those who wish will be put into life boats, with such of their belongings as it is practicable to take with them."
"What is the other alternative?" asked Mr. Pertell, as the captain paused, thus indicating that he had another proposition to make.
"The second question is—Will you wait for theBellto come up? She is within about fifty miles of us, I should judge, and can reach us inside of three hours."
"In the meanwhile—the fire may gain?" suggested Mr. Sneed in gloomy tones.
"It may—yes. It probably will, if it reaches the coal bunkers. That is what I am afraid of, and why I speak thus plainly."
"Then I'm going to take to a boat!" exclaimed the "grouch."
"So will I!" put in Mr. Bunn.
"Wait," advised Mr. Pertell. "If possible I wish to keep all the members of my company together. I have not the fear that some of you have. I trust Captain Falcon."
"Thank you!" exclaimed the commander, evidently greatly pleased with this mark of confidence. "At the same time I stand ready to lower boats for those who may wish it. The sea is comparatively calm, and you will have to use boats anyhow, if you are taken off by theBell."
"Must that be done?" asked Alice, in a low voice.
"If we cannot subdue the fire, I am afraid so, Miss DeVere," answered the captain. "But there is no danger in that. It is often done."
"Then I say, let's wait for the other vessel," decided Mr. DeVere. "There may finally be no necessity for leaving our own ship, I take it?" he asked.
"There may—it's a chance."
"Then let's take it!" cried Russ. "How will you summon theBell?"
"By wireless. I was only waiting for your decision to write out the message. She has been expecting a call from us, but she has probably drifted farther off than she was last evening. I will summon her."
A little later the wireless began crackling out its call to the unseenBell, and preparations were made to lower away the boats promptly, in case the fire should suddenly gain greater headway. Then there was nothing to do but wait, and fight the flames.
"I insist, though, on being put in a boat!" cried Mr. Sneed. "I want to get off this dangerous ship."
"I do, too!" exclaimed Mr. Bunn.
"I advise you both to stick to this ship," spoke Mr. Pertell, seriously.
"Never!" cried the grouch, and the former Shakespearean actor echoed the word.
"Let them go," decided Captain Falcon, in a low voice to the moving picture manager. "I can send them away in a boat, with some sailors, and tell my men to row slowly, so as not to take them too far away from us. Then, when theBellcomes up, they can go aboard her, if our fire is not out by then. Let them go."
"All right," agreed Mr. Pertell, and orders were given to lower a boat. Mr. Bunn and Mr. Sneed got together what belongings they could, and entered it.
"I must get a moving picture of this!" cried Russ.
"Do!" said Mr. Pertell.
"I forbid it!" exclaimed Mr. Sneed. Perhaps he did not want to be shown deserting the ship and the company.
But Russ brought out his camera, and soon the film was moving, as the boat was lowered to the surface of the sea. Then it was soon pulling away from theTarsus, and Russ got those views too.
"Wait! Wait for me!" cried a voice, and up on deck came Mr. Towne. He had a valise in each hand, which probably contained his best suits. "Wait!" he cried. "I want to be saved, too."
"There's no danger; you'll be saved more by staying here than by going with them," said Mr. Pertell. "Besides, you might soil your clothing if you went in the small boat. Another ship is coming for us."
"Oh—er—I certainly would not like to spoil any of my suits—the one I fell overboard in is almost ruined. I—er—I ah—shall stay!" and he went below again.
The wireless was still crackling out its call for aid, and soon an answer was received, saying that theBellwas on her way.
"She's coming!" cried the operator, as he gave the dispatch to the captain. Russ, who had enough of the pictures of Mr. Bunn and Mr. Sneed leaving in the boat, filmed the captain in the act of receiving this message of good cheer. Later it was worked into a stirring drama, called "The Burning Ship."
With all else that was going on, the work of fighting the blaze in the hold was not for a moment given up. Water and live steam were turned in among the cargo, the pumping apparatus fortunately not having been disabled when the rest of the machinery went out of commission.
Russ made more moving pictures, since he now had a good light, and as the fire-fighting was in another part of the ship it made a different series of views.
"Oh, isn't this the most awful thing you ever saw, or heard of?" cried Miss Pennington, coming on deck where Ruth and Alice stood. "Fate seems to be against us at every turn!"
She was very pale, and looked wretched, as did her chum Miss Dixon.
"I guess they didn't take time to make up their complexions," whispered Alice.
"Hush!" cautioned her sister.
"I could cry!" declared Miss Dixon. "I never slept a wink all night." She looked it, too.
"Oh, we'll be all right," said Paul. "The other ship is coming for us, and if necessary we can be transferred to her."
"Will we have to go in one of the small boats, like that?" Miss Pennington wanted to know, as she pointed to the one in which were Mr. Bunn and Mr. Sneed, some distance off, now.
"That's the only kind they have on board," said Mr. DeVere, who had shortly before joined his daughters.
"Oh, I never could go in one of those—never!" the former vaudeville actress cried, tragically.
"Ha! Dose is goot boats! I in der German nafy vos," put in Mr. Switzer, "und dey are fery safe."
"Oh, but they look so small, and they hold so little. How can one get enough to eat in them?" asked Miss Dixon, clasping her hands, and looking with her rather effective eyes, first at Mr. Towne, and then at Paul.
"Ha! You dakes along vot you eat!" exclaimed the German. "Pretzels iss fine! Haf one!" and he extended a handful of small ones. Since the company had been snowbound he had always a few in his pocket. He called them his "mascots."
"No, thank you. I never eat them!" declared Miss Dixon, with turned-up nose.
"Let's go see if there is any further report by wireless from theBell," suggested Ruth, who saw kindling wrath in the eyes of her sister. Alice never could get along well with the two actresses, and she was very likely to say something that might lead to a quarrel.
"I'll come along," said Paul.
"So will I," echoed Mr. Towne. In spite of his affected mannerisms, he could be "nice," at times. It was Ruth who had said this, but then Ruth had such a kind heart that she generally found a good quality in nearly everyone, whatever their failings.
"Yes, she's coming on at full speed," reported the wireless operator. "She'll be with us in about an hour, now. And I guess it's time, too," he added in a low voice.
"Why?" asked Russ, when the girls had passed on.
"Because I believe the fire is gaining. I think it's in one of the coal bunkers now, and that means it will burn steadily, and may eat through the side of the ship."
The operator turned to his apparatus, for he had been told to keep in constant communication with the oncoming rescue ship.
As Paul rejoined the girls, there sounded through theTarsusa dull explosion, that made the ship tremble.
The commander was hurrying along the deck. Many of the passengers, who had gone below to pack their belongings in anticipation of being transferred, now came rushing out of their staterooms.
"What was it?"
"Are we going to blow up?"
"Is the ship sinking?"
"Don't be alarmed!" Captain Falcon exhorted them, but, even as he spoke, there came a second dull rumbling, a trembling of the vessel, and another explosion, louder than the first. There were screams from frightened women and children, and a number of men passengers made a rush for the boats, as the sailors had done before.
"Stand back!" cried Captain Falcon, and again his hand went to his pocket as though to draw a weapon. "Stand back! The same rule applies to you men passengers as to the sailors. Women and children first! Do you hear? Stand back!"
The rush was halted almost before it started. Then Mr. Switzer, who had taken no part in it, said slowly:
"Dot is right. Gentlemen, ve are forgetting ourselves!"
"And it took him—above everyone else—to remind them of it," said Mr. DeVere in a low voice. He had remained by the side of his daughters.
"Mr. Switzer is a bigger man than any of us thought," murmured Ruth. "Oh, Daddy, is the boat going to sink?"
"We are going to be blown up!" exclaimed a big man, who, with others, had made a half start for the boat, and then had hung back shamefacedly.
"If you say that again!" cried Paul, in a fierce whisper, "I'll throw you overboard! This is no time to start a panic!"
The man slunk away. There came another explosion, not so loud as the first, but enough to cause the men to start involuntarily, and to bring frantic screams from the women passengers.
"What is that, Captain?" asked Mr. Pertell.
"Nothing to be alarmed about," was the calm answer.
"They sound alarming enough," declared a woman.
"But they are not," the commander insisted. "They are only slight explosions of coal gas in some of the bunkers. The fire is slowly eating into them but the explosions are not heavy enough to cause any serious damage to the ship.
"TheBellwill soon be up to us. In fact, we could see her now, were it not for the slight haze. And, as it is evident that you will have to be taken off in her, I am going to lower the boats, and let you row away from this ship.
"You will be picked up by theBellas soon as she gets here, and, in any event, you would have to take to the small boats. So you might as well start. I will have all your baggage brought on deck ready for transfer," he added to the moving picture manager.
"Very good," assented Mr. Pertell. "I am sorry this has occurred, but perhaps it is best that we leave the ship."
"It will be better for your peace of mind, though really I think we can conquer the fire," the captain went on. "But we are disabled, and may not be able to proceed for some time."
"What are you going to do when we are gone?" asked Alice, who, with Ruth, had recovered some of her equanimity by this time. "Are you coming with us, Captain Falcon—you and your sailors?"
"I am going to stick by the ship!" he answered, and there was a proud ring in his voice. "I believe I can save her, and then we'll make repairs, and get to port under our own steam. I want to save the owners salvage, if I can."
"There speaks a brave man," murmured Mr. DeVere. "And there are many such unknown, who are going down the sea in ships every day. A brave man!"
"Man the falls!" ordered Captain Falcon to those sailors who were not engaged in fighting the fire. "Man the falls, and stand by to lower the boats!"
"Oh, must we really go in those little things?" cried Miss Pennington, as she heard this.
"Certainly," answered Russ, who was near her. "You wouldn't expect to swim; would you?"
"Horrid thing!" snapped the actress. "Come, Laura. Don't leave me. I'm so frightened!"
"So am I," declared her companion. "It's awful!"
"Their fright hasn't made them pale, at any rate," whispered Alice. "They've taken on color, lately."
"Oh, my dear, you mustn't say such things," chided Ruth.
The work of getting the passengers and their baggage into the boats was soon under way. There was some confusion, not a little evidence of fright on the part of many, and some tears. But among the bravest were little Tommie and Nellie. They thought it all a lark, and probably, in their case, it was the bliss of ignorance.
Russ, who had been standing near Ruth and Alice, suddenly started for his stateroom.
"Where are you going?" asked Ruth, as the call came for them to take their places in a boat.
"For my moving picture camera! I'm going to get views of this. It's too good to miss!"
"It seems so—so—" began Ruth, but Alice interrupted with:
"Why shouldn't he get the film? There is really no danger of death, and it is a chance that he may never have again. A film like this could be worked into a great play!"
"Spoken like a real artist of the movies!" cried Mr. Pertell. "Go ahead, Russ. Get all you can; but don't take any chances."
Then the young operator busied himself with making a film that was afterward said to be one of the best in the world showing a rescue from a burning ship. And the beauty of it was that it was real. There was no posing, and the ship was not an old hulk chartered for the occasion, and set fire to, as has been done more than once.
As the women and children were first helped to the boats, and the craft then carefully lowered to the sea, Russ took picture after picture. Fortunately the sea and weather were both calm, and, after the first little fright, no one made any disturbance.
The boat containing Mr. Bunn and Mr. Sneed had returned part way to the ship, the sailors having heard the explosions, and desiring to aid in the work of saving the passengers if there was any need, for their craft could hold many more.
But there was no need. There was ample room in the other boats, and, as Captain Falcon had said, the explosions were really of little moment—at least, for the present.
Boat after boat was loaded and lowered away, and not an accident marred the work. True, Mrs. Maguire, in her anxiety to see that Nellie and Tommy were safe, nearly fell overboard, but a burly sailor caught her just in time.
"How are you coming on, Russ?" asked Mr. Pertell who, with Pop Snooks, was seeing to the bringing up of the baggage, and the other property of the moving picture company.
"Fine," answered the young operator. "This will be a great film!"
"Glad to hear it! It will be our turn soon."
"I'm going to stick till the last boat. I want to get all the views I can."
Russ spoke simply, but he well knew the danger he ran in remaining until the last boat was sent away. The ship might be in no real danger; even as Captain Falcon had said; but, on the other hand, the fire might have spread more than the commander realized. But Russ, like many another picture operator, was not afraid to do his duty as he saw it, even in the face of danger.
Suddenly a great shout arose.
"Wonder what's happened now?" remarked Mr. Pertell. He knew a moment later, for the shout took to itself words:
"The ship!"
"The rescue ship!"
"There comes theBell!"
Sweeping up through the mist came the ship that had responded to the wireless calls for aid. On she came at full speed, and when she caught sight of theTarsusshe sent out a reassuring blast from her great whistle. It was answered in kind.
"Now you're all right!" cried Captain Falcon over the side, to those in the small boats. "Row the passengers over to her," he ordered the sailors, "and then come back to your ship!"
"Aye, aye, sir!" was the answer. And be it said to the credit of those sailors that not one of them shirked, or tried to desert, which might have been easily forgiven in the face of the danger.
"I've got to get a picture of her!" cried Russ, as he focused the camera on the oncoming ship. And a fine picture he obtained.
"Oh, now we're all right, Daddy!" cried Ruth, as she nestled close to her father. Mr. DeVere had been allowed to go in the boat with his daughters, as there was plenty of room, and all the other women had been provided for.
"I wasn't worrying," declared Alice.
"Oh yes, it's easy to say that now," sighed Ruth. "But I'm sorry for poor Captain Falcon."
"He is a brave man," said Mr. DeVere, again.
TheBellcame as close as was safe, and a little later the small boats rowed to her accommodation ladder, which had been lowered. Then began the risky work of getting from the small boats to this ladder, and so aboard theBell. For there was now a little sea on, and the boats rose and fell to a considerable degree.
But the sailors were skillful, and soon all the passengers and baggage were transferred. Russ was the last to leave theTarsus, and the last to go aboard theBell, for he wanted every view he could get.
He was received with a cheer, given not only by his friends, but by the passengers and crew of theBell.
For Mr. Pertell had told of the devotion to duty of the young operator, and his act was duly appreciated.
Back to the burning vessel—perhaps, for all they knew, back to their doom—rowed the sailors of theTarsus. The chief mate of theBell, at the request of his commander, went to consult with Captain Falcon. On returning, the mate reported that Captain Falcon felt he could get the fire under control, and also make repairs to enable him to get his ship to port.
"Then we will proceed," said Captain Blackstone, of theBell. He gave the signal to go ahead, and soon the ill-fatedTarsus, with the smoke pall hanging about her, was left behind.
But it is a pleasure to record that, after a hard fight, Captain Falcon and his men did subdue the flames, and, after harder work, temporary repairs enabled them to limp into port. Thus the commander saved his ship, and also avoided the payment, on the part of the owners, of heavy salvage. Later he was suitably rewarded by his superiors.
"Oh, but what an experience!" lamented Miss Pennington, as she sank into a steamer chair after the rescue. "I wonder what sort of a stateroom we'll have here, Laura?"
"They'll be lucky if they get even a berth," grumbled Paul. For theBellcarried a number of passengers, and the addition of those from theTarsusrather crowded her.
But accommodations were found for all, though the quarters were rather cramped. TheBellwas bound direct for St. Augustine, and in due season, and without further mishap, the moving picture company reached that oldest city in the United States.
"Oh, isn't it beautiful!"
"The most gorgeous place I ever saw!"
Alice and Ruth were standing in the doorway of the hotel to which the moving picture company had been taken. They were looking out into the ladies' court—into a sun-lit and palm-girded garden, wherein a fountain played, the water falling with a musical tinkling.
Birds flitted here and there amid the bright flowers, but to the moving picture girls the palms seemed the most wonderful of all. Such palms!
"I never realized that the great Creator could make anything so beautiful," murmured Ruth, reverently. "And, Oh! Alice; to think thatwecan enjoy it!"
"Yes, isn't it wonderful, after all the storm and stress of the fire, to be in this lovely, calm place?"
"And the best part of it is that we're gettingpaidfor it!" observed a voice behind the two girls. They turned, with a start, for they had lost themselves in a dreaming reverie, to find Russ and Paul smiling at them. It was Paul who spoke.
"It does seem a shame to take the money under these circumstances," added Russ, with a laugh.
"It's like a vacation," agreed Alice. "Oh, but isn't it just—just too—"
She was evidently searching for a fitting simile.
"Alice," warned Ruth, gently. She was endeavoring to wean her sister from the habit of using slang expressions; but Alice always boasted that she liked to take "short cuts," and that slang—that is, her refined variety—offered the best method of accomplishing this very desirable object.
"Oh, I was only just going to say—scrumptious!" laughed the younger girl. "You don't mind that; do you, sister mine? This is really the most scrumptiously scrumptious place I've ever seen!"
"I'm afraid you're hopeless," was the smiling retort.
"Well, it's certainly swell—that's my word for it," answered Russ, with a frank laugh.
Indeed, Mr. Pertell had not spared expense in taking out his moving picture company. And he had a method in going to one of the largest and finest hotels in St. Augustine. He intended to stage some scenes of one of the Southern plays there, and having his actors and actresses right in the hotel made it much more practical.
"Let's take a walk," proposed Russ. "There's nothing to do to-day."
It was the morning after their arrival and Mr. Pertell was not quite ready to proceed with making films. The fire aboard theTarsus, and the necessity of taking another vessel, had rather upset everyone, so a day or so of rest had been decided upon.
"Where shall we go?" asked Alice, readily falling in with the proposal. "You'll come, won't you, Ruth?"
"I think so—yes."
"There are lots of places to see," suggested Paul. "This is the oldest city in the United States. I've got some guide books up in my room, and a lot of views. We'll pick out some points of interest and visit them."
"We'll have plenty of chance to see the sights," remarked Russ. "I understand there are to be a number of films made in the city and vicinity, so you'll probably have to act out around Fort Marion and at Fort Mantanzas, as well as in the slave market. I'll be with you in a minute. I just want to get my little hand camera, to make a few snap-shots."
While waiting for him and Paul to return, the girls slipped up to their room a minute.
"Just to freshen up," as Alice put it, though really there was no need in her case, nor on the part of Ruth, either. The day was perfect—like summer—and the girls, knowing they were coming to the land of the palm and orange blossom, had brought suitable dresses.
Ruth wore white, with a mere suggestion of trimming in blue, and with her fair hair and blue eyes she was a picture that made more than one man—elderly as well as young—turn for a second look.
The darker beauty of Alice was well set off by her dress of light tan pongee with maroon trimming, and her sparkling brown eyes were dancing with life, and the love of life, as she came out to join her sister and the young men.
"Primping, as usual," mocked Russ, but with a laugh that took the sting out of his words.
"Naturally," agreed Alice, determined not to let him "fuss" her.
They strolled out under the beautiful loggia, through an avenue of palms and many tropical plants, and breathed deeply of the perfumed air.
"Oh, it is perfect—just perfect!" sighed Ruth. "I think the Garden of Paradise must have been in Florida."
"There you go!" cried Alice. "First you know you'll want to go off and live the simple life under a palm tree, with bananas for lunch and oranges for dinner. And when your—er—your hero—we'll say, comes riding on that milk-white steed I so despise, you'll be so thin that he won't know you."
"Thank you!" returned her sister. "But asveltefigure is much to be desired these days."
"Not that you're getting stout!" declared Alice. "Really it is I who ought to diet on bananas and—"
"Orange blossoms," finished Paul.
"Thanks," and she bowed gracefully to him.
"Well, Paul, where is it to be—you're the guide?" asked Russ, as they emerged on King street. "Where's your map?"
"I have it. What do you say we go out to the old city gates, and then to Fort Marion?"
"Wherever you say," agreed Alice. "It is all new to us."
They soon reached the north bend of St. George street and stood before the old city gates. These once formed part of the northerly line of defence of the ancient city.
"Built in 1743," declaimed Alice, as she read from the bronze tablet set in the masonry by the D.A.R. "My, how long ago that seems; doesn't it?"
"A mere trifle!" replied Russ, airily. "Get together there, and I'll snap you," he invited. "If you think that's old we'll go to the Fountain of Youth a little later, and renew our youngness."
"Oh, is that really here?" cried Ruth, with such sudden interest that they all laughed.
"Yes, my ancient sister, it is," said Alice. "Dost wish to quaff a cup?"
"Merely for the novelty of it—yes," answered Ruth, and she too, laughed. Her cheeks were the color of bridesmaid roses, and Russ, as he looked at her, wished—
But there—What's the use of being mean and telling on a good chap?
The pictures taken, they strolled on. At Fort Marion, on the banks of the Mantanzas River, they found much of interest; but agreed to explore it more in detail at another time.
"You'll have to be filmed here, anyhow," Russ told the girls. "There's an important drama, with several scenes, laid here."
"Are we in it?" asked Ruth.
"Yes, the whole company; and Mr. Pertell said he'd have to hire some supers, too."
By this Russ meant that the manager would have to engage extra persons to impersonate the unimportant characters in the play, as is often done in "mob" scenes in the theaters.
"Now for the orange grove, and then—the Fountain of Youth!" cried Paul, as they came out of the old fort.
"What a delightful combination!" exclaimed Alice.
"Youth—and—orange blossoms!" and she clapped her hands, her eyes shining.
"Be careful," warned Ruth in a low voice, as the young men went on ahead.
"Why, sister of mine?"
"Don't talk so much of orange blossoms."
"Pooh! I'm not thinking of getting married!"
"Oh, Alice!"
"Well, wasn't that what you meant?"
"Not at all, I only meant—"
"I don't believe you knew what you did mean. Come on, we'll be lost!" and she caught Ruth by the arm and hurried on after Russ and Paul.
"Oh, if we could only stay here forever!"
"It would be Paradise!"
Thus Ruth and Alice exclaimed as they entered the orange grove, a short distance from the city gates. And indeed the scene that greeted them, and the sweet odors, might well call for this praise and desire from even the mostblasétourist.
Even Russ, grown accustomed by his calling to odd scenes, was impressed by the wonderful sight, and as for Paul, who had something of the romantic nature of Ruth, it was a pure delight to him.
"I wonder if they will take any pictures here?" said Ruth, softly—at first it seemed as if one must talk in whispers so as not to disturb the beauty of the place.
"Oh, I'm going to film you here," announced Russ. "Stand still a moment and I'll snap you now. There's a pretty place."
Ruth and Alice assumed graceful poses, and soon their likenesses were registered on the film. Russ never tired of taking pictures, and when he was not making moving ones he was using his small hand camera. How many times he had taken the likeness of Ruth it would be hard to estimate.
They wandered about the orange grove, and the young men bought some of the delicious fruit, right from the trees, and fully ripe. It had a flavor all its own.
"Let me show you how to eat an orange," suggested one of the men of the grove, as he saw the young people going about, "in the way it is usually done when no orange spoons are to be had."
"Somebody has said," went on the man, "that you need to lean over a bathtub to eat an orange this way, but it's worth while. You get a little smeared up doing it; but you can wash in the spring over there," and he pointed to one amid a pile of stones.
Then with his keen knife he cut the orange in a peculiar spiral manner, with the skin left on so that eventually he had a long yellow strip, with the sections of orange clinging to the yellow rind.
"Now, all you've got to do is to run your mouth along that strip," he directed, "and you get all the juice—that is, all you don't miss. It takes a little practice; but I've got some black boys that can get every drop. Watch!"
Rapidly he ate along the extended strip of skin, to which clung the cut sections of orange. In a moment it was clean.
"It's an awfully crude way of doing it—but, as long as we're in an orange grove, let's do as the orange 'grovers' do," laughed Alice.
"I'm game!" cried Paul.
"Same here!" put in Russ, and they cut their oranges as the man had done. The latter then prepared one each for Ruth and Alice, and amid much laughter—the girls and the young men leaning far over so as not to drip the juice on their clothes—they finished the delicious fruit.
"Now bring on your bathtub!" cried Russ.
"There's the spring," the man said. "There's a basin near it, and it's clean."
Laughing over the new way of eating oranges, but voting that it was worth while, even if it was a bit "smeary," the young folks washed their hands and faces, and kept on through the grove, growing more and more glad at every step that they had come to Florida.
"And now for the Fountain of Youth!" cried Paul.
"I don't feel that I need it, after that delicious orange," laughed Ruth.
"Indeed, if you get any younger, you'll go back to kindergarten days," remarked Paul.
"Thank you. I don't want to be quite as young as that."
The Fountain of Youth, one of the curiosities of St. Augustine, is on Myrtle avenue, two blocks north of the orange grove, and the four laughing young people were soon there.
"Is this really the fountain Ponce de Leon thought would give eternal youth?" asked Ruth, half-seriously, as they stood near the little roofed-over spring.
"That is the legend," declared Paul. "Of course that's not saying it's so. But the spring has one peculiar quality."
"What's that?" asked Russ.
"The waters rise and fall without any particular cause. Sometimes they are higher than at others, and none of the other wells, or springs, in this vicinity do that. So you see it may be miraculous after all."
"Let's try it," suggested Alice, who was always ready for anything new.
"Oh, but perhaps it isn't good water," objected Ruth, more cautious. "We may get typhoid, or something like that."
"Nonsense!" laughed Alice, but she looked questioningly at Paul.
"Lots of people drink the water," he said. "Allow me," and he lowered a small bucket attached to a rope made fast to the roof of the well.
He drew it up, brimming over, and with a low bow handed some of the water to Alice, pouring it into a small collapsible cup he happened to have with him.
"Drink! And may you never grow old!" he said, and there was more of meaning in his eyes than in his words.
"We'll all sample it!" cried Russ, and as Ruth was induced, just for the fun of the thing, to try some, they heard the murmur of voices behind them.
"Save some for us!" was the call, and Miss Pennington and Miss Dixon came up.
"We'll all be young together," said Alice. Though she and her sister were not very chummy with the two former vaudeville actresses, they were not exactly unfriendly. And who could be unfriendly in that beautiful spot, and on the reputed site of the Fountain of Youth?
"The more you drink the younger you get!" bantered Paul, as Miss Dixon asked him for a second cup.
"Gracious, then I'll turn into a baby," exclaimed Miss Pennington. "I've been here once before this morning, and I took several glasses."
"Back to juvenile rôles for yours!" cried Russ. "Mr. Pertell will have to look for another leading lady."
"I haven't noticed any effect yet," she said, as she took out a vanity box, and surreptitiously used her chamois, leaving a more brilliant tint on her face.
"It takes time," went on Russ, half-seriously. "You will awaken in the morning, crying for a rattle."
Thus they made merry near the well, with its queer square stones built into pillars to hold up the roof.
"Poor Ponce de Leon," sighed Ruth. "How disappointed he must have been when he found out that his life was slipping away in spite of the Fountain of Youth. I wonder if he really believed he had found it?"
"He couldn't have—when he came to die," remarked Russ, practically.
"But it is a pretty story," Ruth said, softly. "Poor Ponce de Leon!"
"The Indians told him this was the fountain," said Paul, who had been reading history. "Near this fountain was found a large coquina cross. The cross was located by the discovery of a silver casque, which contained documents telling of the matter, and one seems to fix the date of the first visit of Ponce de Leon to Florida. That was in 1513, according to the documents found in the casque.
"Am I boring you?" he asked quickly, for he thought the two former vaudeville actresses looked as though they wanted to talk of something else besides dry historical facts.
"No, indeed!" cried Alice. "I just love to hear about this."
"Do go on," urged Ruth, and even Miss Pennington condescended to say:
"It sounds interesting."
"I'll read you what one of the old documents said," went on Paul. "'As we bore down upon him we found him to be an Indian, in a skin boat with a skin sail, running to a point twenty feet in the air, with a bow at the top. In the boat, which I describe in my descriptive image, I went ashore with the Indian. We landed near a spring that they call the Fountain of Youth; there they had a temple built where they worshipped the sun, and there I built a cross out of coquina, which is a natural formation of the sea, and I laid it with the rising and setting sun. In the heart of the cross I placed a descriptive image of myself, and took possession in the name of our beloved Catholic King.'
"That's in the document," went on Paul, "and the paper was given to the United States, through courtesy of the Governor of Sevilla, in 1908."
"How interesting," murmured Alice. "And to think that we are standing on such historic ground! Think of the ancient Indians worshipping the sun here," and she looked up at the flaming orb.
"The sun is paying altogether too much attention to me!" complained Miss Pennington, with a laugh. "It will spoil my complexion, in spite of the Fountain of Youth. I must be going."
"Oh, by the way, Russ," she called back over her shoulder, "Mr. Pertell was looking for you."
"Was he?" asked the young operator. "Then I'd better be getting back."
"I fancy we all had," spoke Ruth. "It must be near lunch time. Come along, Alice."
Russ, back at the hotel, found that the manager had decided to make as the first film one showing some of his players at Fort Marion, and he wanted Russ to go out there with him and plan the scenario, which would be undertaken in a day or two.
The time quickly passed, for it was so lovely in St. Augustine, and there were so many things to see, that night seemed to follow quickly on the heels of morning.
Arrangements having been made, the company one morning went to the old fort and there Russ filmed many scenes. The play was to be called "The Spanish Prisoner," the background of the old fort being most effective.
The players were filmed, going through their various parts on what was once the drawbridge in front of the portcullis, near the old watchtower on the stairway that was originally an inclined way, by which artillery was hauled up to theterre plein.
Ruth and Alice were in many of the scenes, but there came a rest for Alice who, always interested in matters of antiquity, wandered about the old fort by herself, Ruth and Mr. DeVere being engaged.
The girl finally made her way to what had been the old guard room and dungeon. In the guard room was a table and some chairs, for the fort is in charge of a detachment from the United States Army, and accommodations are provided for visitors.
Alice sat down in one of the chairs, and looked at the big open fire-place at one end of the guard rooms. She recalled some of its history that Paul had read to her that morning.
The dungeon was accidently discovered in 1835 and two iron cages, containing the skeletons of a man and woman, were found fastened to the wall.
"Poor creatures! What a horror it must have been!" thought Alice, as she looked toward the narrow opening to the black dungeon.
"Ugh! It's getting on my nerves, staying here!" she exclaimed, for she was all alone. "I'm going!"
As she rose she heard a noise near the doorway by which she had entered. Turning quickly, expecting to see one of the company, she was horrified to see by the light which entered through a barred window, an aged colored man facing her. He did not approach, but bowing before her exclaimed in quavering tones:
"Den I find yo', my Missie! Old Jake look eberywhere fo' you,' but he find yo'! I knowed I'd find yo' some day, an' now I has, but it's been a pow'ful long time, honey! A long time!" and with outstretched hands, as he took a battered hat from his head, he approached her. Alice screamed and got behind the table.
With wildly beating heart, Alice watched the approach of the colored man, and then, somehow or other, it came to her in a flash that she need not fear him.
His bearing was most deferential, as of some old slave toward a cherished mistress. His manner was gentle and, after advancing a short distance toward her, he stopped, bowed again, placed his battered hat over his heart, and said:
"I knowed I'd find yo' some day, Missie, an' now I has. Yo' ain't gwine t' send po' ole Jake away; is yo', Missie?"
Alice, having repressed the desire to scream, was now more calm and, as quietly as she could she said:
"You must go out of here, Jake. Go out, and I will come out, too."
"Yes'm, Missie, dat's what I'll do," he said. "Ole Jake'll do jest as his missis says. Oh, but it' pow'ful good t' see you' once mo', Missie!"
"You must go now," repeated Alice, firmly.
And, without another word, he turned and shuffled out. But he had no sooner reached the entrance to the dungeon than Alice, who had remained behind the table, not knowing whether to go out or not, saw the old colored man seized by a soldier—one of those detailed at the fort.
"Here now, Jake!" the soldier exclaimed, "haven't I told you time and again to keep away from here? You know you haven't any right to come in this part of the fort!"
"Yais, sah, Cunnel, I knows it, sah," replied the aged negro, with a low bow. "But yo' see, I done found mah li'l Missie what I'se been lookin' fo' so long! Dat's why I come heah!"
"Great Scott! Have you been bothering some of the women visitors?" cried the soldier and, wheeling about on his heel, he hurried into the dungeon, which Alice had just decided to leave. He met her coming out, and by her agitated manner must have guessed that something had happened.
"I beg your pardon, Miss," began the soldier, with a salute, "but has old Jake annoyed you?"
"Oh, not at all," she answered, as calmly as she could. "He only startled me for a moment; that is all. I was here alone, foolishly, perhaps—"
"Oh, no, that's all right," interrupted the soldier. "We want the visitors to go about as they please, alone or in company. Old Jake's as harmless as a kitten. He isn't just right up here," he said, touching his head, and speaking in low tones.
"I thought as much," responded Alice, with a smile.
"He's perfectly harmless," went on the soldier, looking out to see the aged negro shuffling off. "You see, he used to be a slave in some Southern family," the army man explained. "He was given his freedom, but never took it, and they say he went insane when his mistress died. He had taken care of her since she was a baby, and he took it very much to heart."
"Poor old man," murmured Alice.
"Yes, we all like him around here," the soldier continued. "He has a notion now that his 'little mistress,' as he calls her, is only lost, and he keeps searching for her. Sometimes he scares the lady visitors, so we try to keep him out of the lonely parts of the fort. But he must have slipped in here when no one was watching. I'll give him a good lecture."
"Oh, please don't be harsh to him!" pleaded Alice. "Really he did nothing!"
"But he scared you, Miss."
"Oh, not much. Only for a second. Then I guessed what his trouble was. Please say you won't scold him!" she pleaded.
"Well, I guess I'll have to, if you ask me that way, Miss," said the soldier with the air and manner of a Southern colonel. "We can't refuse the ladies anything, you know," and he bowed and smiled in a frank manner that pleased Alice.
"Then you won't punish him?" she asked.
"Punish him? Oh, no, Miss. Old Jake is just like a child. He sort of lives in the fort. No, I won't do any more than tell him to keep away from here, for them's the captain's orders, Miss."
"All right," she answered. "And now I think I had better join my friends. What a horrible place this is!" she added, with a backward look at the dungeon.
"You may well say that, Miss. But it isn't so bad now as it must have been in the old days. It's a queer world, that men would make such a place to put a fellow creature in," and with this somewhat philosophical remark the soldier saluted again, as Alice bade him good-bye.
"Why, where have you been?" Ruth asked, as sister appeared. "We have been looking all over for you. Where were you?"
"In jail!"
"Jail! Alice, don't joke about such things."
"No, sister mine, I was only in a deep, dark dismal dungeon, and I had such a romantic adventure."
"Oh, do tell us about it!" begged Miss Pennington.
"Did you meet a handsome prisoner?" asked Miss Dixon.
"Yes, a regular Othello."
"Othello? Who speaks of Othello?" interrupted Mr. Bunn. "I have played him many times!" and he threw back his shoulders, and tried to give himself the airs he was wont to assume in the theater.
Alice told her story, minimizing her fright as much as possible.
"Itwasromantic," said Ruth, softly, as her sister concluded. "Only, dear, you musn't go off in any more strange dungeons alone."
"I won't," was the promise, given readily enough.
The making of moving pictures was soon over for the day, and the company returned to the hotel. Some of the members went to their rooms, while the others sat about in the beautiful tropical garden, listening to the mingled music of the band and the fountain.
"Good stunt on for to-morrow," said Russ, coming up behind Ruth, and taking a chair near her.
"What is it?" asked Paul, who was with Alice. "Any more fort stuff?"
"No, but it's out near the fort. Mr. Pertell is arranging for a motor boat race, with you girls in rival boats. You know there is a speed course on Mantanzas Bay, and he's hired two of the fast boats. It's going to be a regular race, for the two fellows who run the boats are real water rivals.
"Mr. Pertell has induced them to act the parts for him, and there'll be some fun. Part of our company is to be in one boat, and part in the other, and some will be on the fort wall, outside the old moat, watching the boats come up. It ought to make a dandy picture."
"I'm sure it will," declared Ruth, who was always interested in the mechanical end, as well as in the artistic side. Russ had taught her considerable about the technical part of the business of making moving pictures.
"A motor boat race will be simply fine!" Alice exclaimed. "I hope the boat I am in wins."
"There's no telling," Russ went on. "As I said, the men who own the boats are real rivals, so each will do his best to come out ahead. There'll be no fake about this—if you'll excuse the use of slang," he added.
That evening, seated in the palm garden, Mr. Pertell explained to his company something of the plans for the next day, telling of the plot of the play in which the motor boat race was to figure.
"That sounds interesting," commented Mr. DeVere.
"Do those boats go very fast?" inquired Mr. Sneed.
"Rather—they are two of the fastest boats in the world," answered the manager.
"Then there's sure to be an accident," predicted the grouchy actor. "I think you may count me out of this play, Mr. Pertell. I have had enough of water stuff."
"Well, you're due to have a bit more," observed Mr. Pertell, drily. "For you fall overboard from one of the boats, at the conclusion of the race."
"I fall overboard!" was the startled exclamation.
"Yes, and Mr. Bunn dives in after you. You are both good swimmers—you remember you told me so."
The use of the dock of the St. Augustine Power Boat Club had been loaned for the making of the moving picture, and next day, with such of his company as were to go in the boats, Mr. Pertell went to the float. Others of the players took their places on the wall of the fort.
Two cameras were to be used, Russ working one to show the start and finish of the race, and Pop Snooks the other, to depict the action of the players not in the boats.
The motor boats were powerful and handsome craft. The skippers of each were at the wheel as the players took their places, and each boat carried a blackened and greasy mechanician, as looking after high-powered motors was no simple matter.
"Well, are we all ready?" asked the manager, as he assigned the players to their places.
"All ready, sir," answered Mr. DeVere.
Alice was in one boat, well up in front beside the captain-owner, while Ruth occupied a similar position in the other craft.
"You may start, if you please," said the manager, with a nod at Russ and another at the skippers.
A moment later the air was filled with the thundering, rattling exhaust of the motors as the boats swept away from the float.
The motor race was on.
The staccato explosions of the motor boats, the cheers of the spectators, of whom there were many; the clicking of the camera operated by Russ, and the shouts of the picture-players themselves as they went through the "business" prescribed for this act of the play, made the scene a gay one.
"This will make a fine film," declared Mr. Pertell, who was in the boat with Alice, Mr. Bunn, Mr. Sneed and Mr. DeVere.
"I think so," agreed the latter. "I am glad we came to Florida."
"Is your throat better?" the manager asked.
"Indeed yes—much better. That is, it does not pain me, but I still retain my hoarseness, as you notice."
"Yes, and I am selfish enough to wish that it will stay with you a little longer," the manager said. "That is, only so that you will not leave me and go back to the legitimate," he added, quickly. "For I want you in moving pictures. I have some other plans when we finish work here, and you and your daughters will be much needed."
"I am glad you have such a good opinion of us," murmured the veteran actor.
"Where are we going from here?" asked Alice.
"That's a secret," laughed the manager. "I haven't it all worked out myself, as yet."
The boats sped on, the rival skippers striving to gain the lead. The men in charge of the motors, too, did everything in their power, in the way of changing the gasoline mixture, or by means of copious oiling, to get one more revolution out of their engines. But the boats seemed very evenly matched. A big wave was thrown up on either bow of each boat.
Russ, after getting pictures of the start, had gone with his camera, by a short cut, to a little promontory on shore, where he got other views of the boats racing through the water. Then he went farther on and, getting into another motor boat, took his place near the finish line, to film the end of the race.
"Oh, I do hope we win!" exclaimed Alice, to her captain.
"I'm going to do my best," he answered, grimly, as he glanced across to where the other boat was forging through the water.
And in her boat Ruth was saying the same thing.
Each skipper had been holding something in reserve in the way of power, and now the mechanicians were signalled to use this.
The boats were nearing the finish line now, for the race, for the purpose of the moving pictures, was only a short one.
But, as it happened, the captain of the boat Alice was in, got his signal a little ahead of his rival, so that he shot forward, and thus gained an advantage the other motor boat could not cut down.
"Oh, we're going to win!" cried Alice in delight, clapping her hands as she saw Russ, in his boat at the finish line, operating his camera. "We're going to win!"
Miss Pennington and Miss Dixon, who, with Ruth, were in the other boat, looked glum. As for Ruth she was of that gentle nature which is willing to lose, that others may enjoy even a brief pleasure, and she rejoiced in the delight of her sister.
"Well, I guess he's got me!" regretfully admitted the captain of the losing boat. "He was a little too quick for me."
And so it proved, for the boat containing Alice shot across the line a winner.
"I knew we'd do it!" she cried.
"Good for you!" shouted Russ.
"It's time for you to fall overboard now, Mr. Sneed," directed the manager. "Make a good fall, and put plenty of splash into it."
"Oh dear!" groaned the actor. "I suppose I must!"
In anticipation of this he had donned an old suit of clothes, as had Mr. Bunn, and the latter, for one of very few times, did not wear his tall hat.
"Be ready with your rescue leap," ordered Mr. Pertell to the older actor. "Make it as natural as you can."
The boats had now lost headway, and were coming to a point where Russ could get pictures of the "overboard act."
"I say!" cried Mr. Sneed, as he paused in his preparations to fall, "I have just thought of something!"
"What is it?" asked Mr. Pertell, sharply. "Quick, we are losing time, and getting out of position."
"There are no alligators in this bay; are there?" and Mr. Sneed looked anxiously at the captain of the motor boat.
"Not one," was the laughing answer. "You're safe."
"Then here I go!" cried the grouch, as he toppled overboard, having first "registered" a faint, as directed in the plot of the play.
"Now get him, Mr. Bunn!" cried the manager, and there was another splash, while aboard the boats the proper bits of acting were gone through with, that the camera might catch them.
Once they were in the water Mr. Bunn and Mr. Sneed acted their parts well, and the result was a good film. Then, once more aboard the boats, a start was made for the fort, where the final act was to take place.
"I say, me deah fellah!" complained Mr. Towne, as he moved away from Mr. Bunn, who sat near him; "keep a bit off, that's a good chap! I don't want to wet this suit, you know."
"Oh, all right, I beg your pardon," spoke the other.
But Mr. Towne's anxiety for his garments was wasted, for at that moment Mr. Sneed, taking off his coat, wrung some water from it, and of this a considerable quantity splashed on the light suit of Mr. Towne.
"Oh, I say!" the latter cried in dismay. "This won't do, you know!"
"Humph! It seems to me it's already done," observed Paul, with a chuckle.
During the rest of the trip Mr. Towne was kept busy trying to dry up the wet spots with his perfumed handkerchief.
Pop Snooks, the property man, who had little to do when outdoor scenes were being made, was busy with the other moving picture camera on the fort wall, and presently, on the arrival of the company at that place, the final scenes were filmed.
"Wasn't it a dandy race?" cried Alice, as she and her sister, with Russ and Paul, started back to the hotel.
"It was for you because you won, I suppose," remarked Miss Pennington, in a disagreeable tone.
"Not at all," returned Alice, promptly. "It was a glorious race anyhow. Winning didn't count; it was all for the picture."
"That's the way to look at it," said Paul, in her ear. "But, all the same, I'm glad your boat won."
"Thanks," she replied, as she tripped along beside him.
Miss Pennington and Miss Dixon, pausing a moment to "readjust their complexions," as Alice said (for which she was reproved by Ruth), went on by themselves.
The company of players remained in St. Augustine several days, and many fine films resulted, the scenery lending itself particularly well to the camera.
One act in a play took place at the alligator "farm," on Anastasia Island. There Ruth and Alice saw 'gators in all stages, from tiny ones just emerging from the shell, to big fourteen-foot ones—regular "man-eaters" they were told.
"Ugh! the horrid creatures!" exclaimed Ruth, who could not repress a shudder.
"They aren't very pleasant," agreed Alice. "And to think that perhaps those two girls may be—"
"Oh, my dear! Don't mention it! I can't bear to think of such a thing. It's too horrible!"
"But I suppose there must be many such as that one, in the wilds of the swamps and bayous," said Alice in a low voice, as she pointed her parasol at a huge saurian.
"If there are any such, I don't want to know it—or see them," murmured Ruth, again shuddering. "Oh, I hope we don't go too far into the wilds."
"So do I," agreed her sister.
That afternoon, calling his company of players together, Mr. Pertell said:
"Friends, we will leave in two days for the interior. I want to get some views along the rivers and bayous, where the scenery is wilder than it is here."
"And where are we going, may I ask?" inquired Mr. DeVere.
"To a place called Sycamore, near Lake Kissimmee," was the answer.
"Oh, Ruth!" exclaimed Alice, impulsively, when she heard this.
"Yes, dear, what is it?"
"Why, that's where those two girls were from—the ones who were lost, you know!"
"Hush! Yes. You know we agreed to say nothing about it, for fear of causing undue alarm. Miss Pennington and Miss Dixon might refuse to go, you know," she went on in a low voice, "and that would make trouble for Mr. Pertell."
"Oh, but isn't it a strange coincidence?" remarked Alice.
"It certainly is. But perhaps the girls have been found by this time."
"Our destination will be Lake Kissimmee," proceeded Mr. Pertell. "We will take some pictures on the lake, some on the Kissimmee River, that connects the lake of that name with Lake Okeechobee, and then we'll go a little way into the wilds, on various streams."
Ruth and Alice looked at each other apprehensively.