The Moving Picture Girls at Sea
L >> Laura Lee Hope >> The Moving Picture Girls at SeaAnd just as the old sailor, who called himself Jack Jepson, was about to
step in front of the ball room scene camera, to the frantic horror of
the operator, one of the cowboys, following out his lines, drew his
revolver, and fired a blank cartridge at the "villain."
In the studio the noise was like that of a small cannon.
"Mutiny!" yelled Jack Jepson, jumping in the air a foot or more.
"Mutiny!"
But he stopped, and just in time. Two steps more would have brought him
in front of the clicking camera.
"Mutiny!" he fairly roared. "What is this! Who's firin' a shot across my
bows? All hands on deck t' repel boarders! Avast there!" and he stood
looking around in bewilderment, while the smoke from the revolver
floated upward.
"Come here!" called Mr. Pertell running forward, and grasping the arm of
the sailor before he could get away to step in front of any of the other
moving picture machines. "You don't understand, Mr. Jepson. I merely
want you to----"
"Yes, I reckon I heard you say what you wanted me to do. Now look here!
I don't know much about you, but you come over t' our Sailors' Snug
Harbor, an' you took some pictures. That was all right, I'm not captain
there an' I haven't anything t' say. You said you wanted an old
able-bodied man for certain work, an' I volunteered. I didn't know where
the voyage was, but I signed on, an' come here; didn't I?"
"You did," said Mr. Pertell. "But let me explain."
"No, you listen to me, first!" exclaimed the old salt, shaking a
thickened and roughened finger at the manager. "I come here, willin' to
do anything from slushin' th' mast, or holystonin' th' decks t' furlin'
sail in a blow. But what do I get; eh? I ask you what do I get? Why an
order to steal shippin' papers, that's what I get! An' that's a serious
crime. I'm not goin' t' be mixed up with it. No sir! Not for Jack
Jepson!" and he tried to break away.
"Wait a minute!" Mr. Pertell begged. "You don't understand. It's only
the business of stealing the papers, you know."
"Well, it's mighty poor business for any man t' be in; that's my
opinion. I was raised honest, an', man and boy, I've lived honest for
fifty years, with one exception, an' that wasn't my fault, and now----"
Again he made an effort to leave, which effort, if not blocked, would
have once more taken him in front of some clicking camera.
"Oh, can't you understand!" cried the manager with a hopeless gesture.
"Perhaps I could explain to him," suggested Ruth in a low voice. "I have
plenty of time, Mr. Pertell, and though I don't know this gentleman----"
"Oh, I forgot. He's going to act with you and your sister, Miss DeVere,"
said the manager. "Come over and be introduced. You too, Mr. DeVere.
He's to have a part in our great sea drama, that is, if I can ever get
it started. I began explaining to Jepson, here, about taking the papers
which have to do with the case, but he can't----"
"You can't make me believe stealin's right, no matter how you go at it!"
interrupted the old salt, doggedly shaking his head.
"Perhaps _I_ can," put in Ruth with a smile, as the manager mentioned
their names to the newest and, seemingly, the most refractory member of
the company.
"Well, Miss," said the sailor, "you look honest. I would believe what
you'd tell me, for I know you couldn't do no wrong. Perhaps I was a bit
hasty, but you 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.
"I think I had better defer my explanations a while," Ruth told herself.
"Perhaps he will be in a bettor frame of mind to listen, after he has
talked with Alice. What a wonderful way she has of making friends!" the
older girl mused as she looked at the interested and flushed face of her
pretty sister. At that moment Alice glanced up and caught Ruth's gaze on
her.
"Do come and listen," she called. "I'm going to hear a wonderful story,
Ruth dear."
The old sailor looked up quickly, stopping in his progress toward a
bench, whither Alice was leading him. It was in a quiet corner of the
studio, some distance away from the various little groups that, in
three-sided rooms (before the open part of which cameras were placed,
and over which big lights hissed) were going through their parts in the
silent dramas.
"This is my sister," Alice said.
"Oh, yes, I remember now," Jack Jepson said. "There's so much goin' on
that I get a bit confused. But I can see you two look alike. Are you
goin' to put me reefin' sails or scrubbin' decks?" he asked.
"Neither one," Ruth said with a smile. "I told Mr. Pertell, our manager,
that I'd explain what was wanted of you. It is very simple, and----"
"I don't call it simple t' rob an' cheat!" cried Jack with energy, "an'
that's what he wanted _me_ to do."
"I'll explain, and I think you'll find it all right," Ruth went on. "My
sister and I are in this business," she added, "and I don't believe you
think _we_ would do anything wrong."
"Far be it--far be it," said the old salt, earnestly.
"Oh, but before you came, Ruth dear," suggested Alice, "Mr. Jepson was
going to tell me----"
"Avast there! Belay! Hold on!" exclaimed the sailor, his voice ringing
out through the studio, above the tones of those actors who, to give
greater verisimilitude to their work were talking their parts, as well
as going through them. They smiled at the old salt's energy.
"Wait a minute, Miss," he went on in lower tones. "I didn't mean t' be
so quick, but that Mr. Jepson business won't do. Not at all!"
"Why, isn't that your name?" asked Ruth. "I understood Mr. Pertell to
say----"
"Oh, that's my name--at least the Jepson part of it is. But I don't like
the mister. I'm not used to it. The only time of late years when I was
called Mister was when I was up before the lawyers, and I didn't like it
then. Jest please call me Jack Jepson, an' 'twill sound more natural. I
ask it as a favor, Miss," and he looked from Ruth to Alice.
"Why of course we'll call you Jack," assented the latter. "It will sound
nicer anyhow, I think," she added. "Now go on with your story. You said
there was a mystery in it. Has it anything to do with--buried treasure?"
and Alice leaned forward eagerly.
"Buried treasure? No, Miss. What made you ask that?"
"The idea!" exclaimed Ruth with a laugh. "I'm afraid you'll think my
sister very romantic, Mr.--er--Jack."
"That's better!" he laughed. "Well, I don't know much about romance. My
life's been mostly hard work."
"I just mentioned treasure," Alice said with a little laugh, and a
glance toward where Miss Pennington and Miss Dixon, having a rest from
their moving picture work, were curiously eyeing the old sailor and the
two girls.
"Well, my mystery hasn't anything t' do with buried treasure," resumed
Jack Jepson. "It's about a mutiny that took place off th' Hole in th'
Wall, about five years ago, an'----"
"Hole in the Wall!" interrupted Ruth. "I thought mutinies always took
place on the high seas."
"Well, this _was_ the high seas," Jack answered.
"But the Hole--?"
"That's the name of a passage between Great Abaco Island and Eleuthera,
in the West Indies," the sailor replied. "I don't know why it's called
that, but it is."
"A queer name," murmured Ruth.
"Go on, please," urged Alice.
"Well, I was second mate aboard a five masted schooner engaged in the
lumber business," went on Jack Jepson. "We were going down to South
America, in ballast t' bring back a cargo of hard woods, an' off the
Hole in the Wall th' trouble started.
"Some of the crew kicked on account of the grub--that's the stuff we
eat on a ship," he explained.
"Oh, we know _something_ of such talk," said Alice with a laugh. "We
haven't been out West among the cowboys for nothing!"
"Well, some of th' hands laid it to the grub, an' others t' th' hard
work of sailing th' craft," went on Jack. "She was a mighty poor
schooner in ballast, an' owing t' storms an' rough weather we had t' be
takin' in or lettin' out reefs all th' while. It wasn't so bad up t' th'
time we got off th' Hole in th' Wall, but from then on it was fierce!
"I'd heard rumors that th' crew was goin' t' mutiny an' demand that we
put in at some port, an' get better grub, an' more hands, for we was
short of sailors. But I didn't pay much attention to th' underhand talk
until it was too late. Then, all at once, when we had got away down
about off Anegada, th' mutiny broke in full force. The men riz up, an'
overpowered th' officers--th' captain was made a prisoner in his cabin,
an' I was given my choice of joinin' th' mutineers or walkin' th'
plank."
"What's that?" asked Ruth, a bit startled.
"That's when they blindfold a man, and make him walk a plank that is put
out over the bulwarks, or side of the ship," said Alice.
"Why, if he were blindfolded I should think he'd fall off, not knowing
when he came to the end," Ruth remarked, with a little shudder.
"He doesn't know," Alice said. "That's an easy way of sending a man to
his doom."
"That's it, Miss!" chimed in Jack. "You got th' idea!"
"But Alice, how did _you_ know that dreadful thing?" her sister
wonderingly demanded.
"Read it in a book. Go on please, Mr.--er--Jack."
"Of course I didn't want t' walk no plank," resumed the sailor, "so I
temporized. I thought maybe I could beat th' mutineers after all. So I
pretended t' join 'em. Things got pretty bad. Many of 'em was for
puttin' th' captain away--tossin' him overboard, an' there was a fight
about it. Matters got t' such a pass that pistols were fired, an' th'
captain would have been shot, an' killed, only a fellow named Mike
Tullane, a rough character, an' one of the leaders of th' mutiny,
stepped up sudden like an' saved th' captain's life by knockin' aside
th' ruffian's gun.
"Well, of course there was a fight then, but Mike seemed t' come out all
right, bein' a leader, an' havin' th' men pretty well with him. Anyhow,
th' mutineers were in charge of th' ship, an' off Anegada, one of th'
little British Islands of the West Indies, we were put about t' run for
port. Jest what was t' be done no one seemed to know. After the men got
th' ship they didn't know what to do with her.
"Then came th' mystery. One night th' captain an' Mike Tullane
disappeared. They was seen in th' cabin, talkin' together, an' some of
th' hot-headed ones thought Mike was goin' back on his pals. They was
for makin' him walk th' plank.
"But cooler heads made 'em wait. They said they wanted t' give Mike a
chance to explain. But he never got it."
"Do you mean they--" began Alice, somewhat horrified.
"I mean that night he an' th' captain disappeared," Jack said. "They
couldn't be found anywhere. No boat was taken, so they couldn't have
gotten off in one of them craft, an' we wasn't near enough land t' make
swimmin' safe. But they totally disappeared, an' that was th' mystery.
Whether they had a fight, an' jumped overboard together in th' darkness,
no one ever knowed, for them mutineers didn't keep extra good watch.
"But anyhow they was gone--mysteriously missin' as they say in the
paper. That sort of took the heart out of some of th' mutineers and they
got careless. First we knew a British vessel overhauled us, and, not
likin' th' looks of things, began to ask questions. Of course there
wasn't any captain, such as there should be on a ship, an' that made it
look suspicious. Th' worst of it was that nobody could say where the
captain was. None of us knew.
"Then th' story of th' mutiny came out, of course, an' it was all up.
The Britisher took charge of us. I was arrested as the ringleader of the
mutiny, an' put in chains! An' I had no more to do with it than a baby,
Miss. No more than a baby!" and Jack Jepson looked from Ruth to Alice,
his blue eyes expressing the indignation he had felt at the time.
"An' that's th' story of th' mystery, as I said I'd tell your sister,"
he added turning to Ruth.
CHAPTER V
THE MARY ELLEN
During the silence that followed the rather sudden ending of the old
salt's story, Ruth and Alice looked at each other with wonder in their
eyes. On all sides of them could be heard the clicking of the moving
picture cameras, the loud directions issued by the men who were managing
the different little dramas, and occasionally the sound of shots from
the cowboy play that was going on in front of where our friends were
seated on the bench, though at some distance away, for the studio was
large.
"But that can't be all of it," said Alice, at length.
"All of what, Miss?" Jack Jepson asked.
"The mystery."
"That's all there is to any mystery, Miss," he said. "A mystery is a
mystery, an' if it isn't solved, it's a mystery still, an' nobody can
make any more of it. Th' captain and Mike Tullane completely
disappeared, an' were never heard of afterward. That's th' mystery, an'
all there is to it, jest as I told you."
"But about yourself?" asked Ruth. "You said you were put in chains,
under arrest, as the ringleader of the mutiny."
"So I was."
"But what became of you?"
"Well, I escaped, Miss. It may not be a very nice thing to confess, but
I escaped. Th' British ship took us to a jail on some island--I forget
th' name of it. Anyhow I was locked up, an' so were a lot of th' others.
We were tried, an' I was accused of startin' th' mutiny. Some of th'
worst men on th' ship put th' blame on me, an' I wasn't a bit guilty.
But it was no use in denyin' it. They was all banded together t' accuse
me t' save themselves. I was found guilty, though I wasn't at all, an' I
was sentenced to a long imprisonment. I just escaped hanging by a hair,
for mutiny on th' high seas is a serious crime.
"But I was innocent, an' I knew it, an' when I found th' trial goin'
against me, I took a chance that offered, an' planned t' escape. I found
a French vessel puttin' t' sea an' as they was short handed I signed on.
Since then I've been in many vessels, but I always keep away from
English ones, and from English ports, for I would be arrested the minute
I set my foot on shore in one. A big reward is out for me."
"How long ago was all this?" asked Ruth.
"Oh, some years."
"But isn't the unjust charge outlawed now?" Alice wanted to know.
"I'm afraid not, Miss. Such things are never outlawed. I daren't go t'
an English port, an' that's hampered me. I have to take what berths I
can get."
"Can't you disprove the mutiny charge?" asked Ruth.
"Not unless some of them involved was to confess, Miss. An' land knows
where those fellers are now. They've disappeared with th' captain an'
Mike Tullane. Of course if I could find either one of them, I could
prove my innocence, an' then I'd be free t' go where I pleased. But I've
about given _that_ up, Miss.
"So I sort of come t' anchor in th' Sailors' Snug Harbor, an' when I
heard about this movin' picture business, and th' chance it gave t' make
a little money, I took it. But when it comes t' doin' some crime for it,
I draws th' line. As I said, I've always lived honest, man and boy, for
many years, an' that one charge is th' only one against me. I'm not
goin' t' take them papers, and substitute false ones."
"But you don't exactly understand," Ruth said with a smile. "I am going
to explain it to you. Mr. Pertell said I might. Now here is the story we
are supposed to act out; and, mind you, it is only _supposing_--make
believe, as we children used to say."
"Oh, it's make believe; is it?" asked Jack Jepson.
"Yes, just make-believe."
"I had a little gal once--long years ago," he said softly, "an' she used
to be great on make-believe games. Is this takin' of them papers a make
believe game?"
"Exactly!" chimed in Alice. "My sister and I have to pretend every day.
It's fun!"
"Well, of course I didn't know _that_," said Jack. "Maybe I made a
mistake in bein' so quick. There was nothin' wrong in it?" he
questioned.
"Not the least in the world," said Ruth. "It is just a game, played for
the amusement of the public. I'll explain," and from the typewritten
scenario she held she went over the outlines of the big marine drama, as
one of the authors of the Comet company had written it. As she gave the
details, the simple, kindly face of the sailor cleared. His doubts
vanished.
"Say, wasn't I th' old landlubber though!" he cried. "T' think I thought
I was really committin' a crime. Ha! Ha!"
"Well, your past experience had made you careful," Alice said.
"That's what it had, Miss. It's no fun t' be barred from the ports of
the country that has more of 'em than any nation of the world. It
hampers a man. But I daren't go on British soil."
"Could they come here and take you?" asked Ruth.
The old man looked around before replying.
"They maybe wouldn't know me," he hoarsely whispered. "I've grown a
beard since those days."
"Well, then, how would the British authorities know you?" asked Alice
with a smile.
"I'm not takin' any chances, Miss," was the answer. And though it might
seem to an outsider that it would be safe, under those circumstances,
for Jepson to visit British ports, if he kept away from the island where
he had been imprisoned, he could not see it that way.
"No sir!" he exclaimed. "No British ports for mine!"
By this time Mr. DeVere, who had been engaged in finishing a few scenes
in a play that had started the day before, came up to join his
daughters.
"Well, how is the great marine drama coming on?" he asked, his voice
being more hoarse than usual. He had done some talking, as he found it
helped to give a better idea of the characters he portrayed, but it was
not necessary, in these picture plays, to get his voice "over the
footlights."
"There has been a halt," explained Ruth with a smile. "This is Jack
Jepson, Father. He is to have one of the principal parts, but he balked
at some underhand work, and--"
"Pleased t' know you," Jack broke in with a jerky bow. "Your daughter's
a smart gal," he said. "She made everything as clear as daylight t' me.
I'm goin' on with th' play now."
"That is when Mr. Pertell is ready," put in Alice. "He seems to have
found some difficulty in that cowboy drama."
This was evident, for the Western play had been stopped, and the camera
operator, with a weary look on his face, was leaning against a post, as
if in despair of ever completing that day's run of film.
"No, no, Mr. Bunn, you must not do it that way," the manager was saying.
"When Ardite, in the character of the young outlaw, shoots at you, stand
up without flinching. That's your part--to be indifferent to gunfire."
"Oh, that's my part, is it? Just to be shot at!" cried the old "Ham"
actor. "Well, it's a mighty poor part, that's all I've got to say! It
will be the last time I ever take a part like that. Oh, why did I ever
leave the legitimate stage?"
"Ha! Maybe it was because the stage would have left you, had you not
left it," said Mr. Switzer, who was dressed up as a German comedian, and
taking part in another play.
"Ha! What is that?" asked Mr. Bunn pompously. But Mr. Switzer did not
repeat his remark. He was called to resume his part.
"Now Mr. Bunn, stand up and be shot at!" commanded Mr. Pertell. "Come,
come! We can't lose all day on this little play. I've got to get busy on
the marine drama, and I want some of you in that. Ready with that gun
now, Paul!"
"Yes, shoot him!" murmured Mr. Pepper Sneed, the human grouch. "Aim it
right at him. Of course they are only blank cartridges," he added
cheerfully, "but if the wadding hits you Bunn, lockjaw is almost sure to
follow. Go on and shoot. I know something will happen," and he looked as
though he would be disappointed if his prophesy were not borne out. "Go
on, shoot!"
"No! No! I protest! I withdraw from this play!" cried Mr. Bunn, looking
around for his tall hat, without which he seldom was seen. It was his
one remnant of departed glory.
"No, you'll not withdraw!" cried Mr. Pertell. "We've got half the film
run off with you on, and you've got to stick it out. Go on, Paul. And,
Mr. Sneed, you needn't trouble to stand here and look on, as you're not
in this cast. You have a--depressing effect."
Mr. Sneed certainly did. However, he moved away, and the play went on.
It was successfully filmed, and then Mr. Pertell was free to take up,
where he had left off, the discussion of the preliminaries of the marine
drama. "Out on The Deep" it was to be called.
"Well, how about it?" asked the manager, as he approached the moving
picture girls, their father and sailor Jack. "Have you succeeded in
convincing him?"
"That's what they have, Mr. Pertell," the old salt said. "I'm sorry I
made such a fuss about those false papers. I didn't know it was only
make-believe."
"Well, if that difficulty is over with, we'll go on, though we can do
only a few of the simple scenes today," the manager said.
"Do you understand the play?" he asked of Mr. DeVere.
"Not altogether. I will look over the scenario."
"I can save you the trouble," the manager went on. "I'll outline it
briefly for you. 'Out on the Deep,' is, as you can tell by the name, a
marine story. Part of it will take place in a sailors' home. That will
be the Snug Harbor, where I found Jack Jepson. We will go over to
Staten Island some day and film those scenes.
"Another part of the drama will take place in a shipping office. Of
course that will be a studio scene, taken right here. I was starting in
on that when Jack balked."
"Well, I won't again," the sailor promised.
"Glad to hear it," came from the manager. "But the big part of the play
will actually take place on deep water," Mr. Pertell resumed. "We are
going out in a big schooner, and----"
"A real schooner?" asked Jack, eagerly.
"Yes, a real schooner. It isn't a very good one, but it will answer our
purpose, especially as we have to wreck her, and she will be a total
loss. I had to pay pretty high for her, too. But I think it will be
worth it. The shipwreck scenes, in the storm, ought to be great. And
now, as I have decided to postpone the rehearsal of the play for a
while, I think it would be a good plan for some of us to go and look at
the _Mary Ellen_, and get familiar with her layout."
"The _Mary Ellen_!" cried Sailor Jack.
"Yes, that is the name of the schooner I have purchased to use as a
shipwreck," said the manager.
"Why--th' _Mary Ellen_!" cried Jack. "That was th' name of th' vessel
where th' mutiny was!" and he started to his feet in great excitement.
CHAPTER VI
CAPTAIN BRISCO
"Mutiny! What do you mean?" demanded Mr. Pertell, a little startled by
the action of the old sailor.
"That's just what I mean, sir! Oh, I forgot you don't know. But I told
these young ladies about me being in a mutiny, an' I'm under suspicion
in connection with it still. I can't go in an English port, and that's a
nice blight to put on a man!" he said indignantly.