登陆注册
15290000000061

第61章

What's it all about? What's the matter? Which way did he go?' Say anything you want to, but keep shouting--anything at all. Say 'Thar's gold in them hills!' if you can't think of anything else. Go on, now, boys, do it again and pep it, see. Turn the juice on, open up the old mufflers."The men went back through the rear doors. The late caller would here have left, being fed up with this sort of stuff, but at that moment he descried the Montague girl back behind a light-standard. She had not noted him, but was in close talk with a man he recognized as Jeff Baird, arch perpetrator of the infamous Buckeye comedies. They came toward him, still talking, as he looked.

"We'll finish here to-morrow afternoon, anyway," the girl was saying.

"Fine," said Baird. "That makes everything jake. Get over on the set whenever you're through. Come over tonight if they don't shoot here, just to give us a look-in.""Can't," said the girl. "Soon as I get out o' this dump I got to eat on the lot and everything and be over to Baxter's layout--she'll be doing tank stuff till all hours--shipwreck and murder and all like that. Gosh, I hope it ain't cold. I don't mind the water, but Icertainly hate to get out and wait in wet clothes while Sig Rosenblatt is thinking about a retake.""Well"--Baird turned to go--"take care of yourself--don't dive and forget to come up. Come over when you're ready.""Sure! S'long!" Here the girl, turning from Baird, noted Merton Gill beside her. "Well, well, as I live, the actin' kid once more! Say, you're getting to be a regular studio hound, ain't you?"For the moment he had forgotten his troubles. He was burning to ask her if Beulah Baxter would really work in a shipwreck scene that night at the place where he had watched the carpenters and the men on the sailboat; but as he tried to word this he saw that the girl was again scanning him with keen eyes. He knew she would read the collar, the beard, perhaps even a look of mere hunger that he thought must now be showing.

"Say, see here, Trouper, what's the shootin' all about, anyway? You up against it--yes." There was again in her eye the look of warm concern, and she was no longer trying to be funny. He might now have admitted a few little things about his screen career, but again the director interrupted.

"Miss Montague--where are you? Oh! Well, remember you're behind the piano during that gun play just now, and you stay hid till after the boys get out. We'll shoot this time, so get set."She sped off, with a last backward glance of questioning. He waited but a moment before leaving. He was almost forgetting his hunger in the pretty certain knowledge that in a few hours he would actually behold his wonder-woman in at least one of her daring exploits.

Shipwreck! Perhaps she would be all but drowned. He hastened back to the pool that had now acquired this high significance. The carpenters were still puttering about on the scaffold. He saw that platforms for the cameras had been built out from its side.

He noted, too, and was puzzled by an aeroplane propeller that had been stationed close to one corner of the pool, just beyond the stern of the little sailing-craft. Perhaps there would be an aeroplane wreck in addition to a shipwreck. Now he had something besides food to think of. And he wondered what the Montague girl could be doing in the company of a really serious artist like Beulah Baxter. From her own story she was going to get wet, but from what he knew of her she would be some character not greatly missed from the cast if she should, as Baird had suggested, dive and forget to come up. He supposed that Baird had meant this to be humorous, the humour typical of a man who could profane a great art with the atrocious Buckeye comedies, so called.

He put in the hours until nightfall in aimless wandering and idle gazing, and was early at the pool-side where his heroine would do her sensational acting. It was now a scene of thrilling activity.

Immense lights, both from the scaffolding and from a tower back of the sailing-craft, flooded its deck and rigging from time to time as adjustments were made. The rigging was slack and the deck was still littered, intentionally so, he now perceived. The gallant little boat had been cruelly buffeted by a gale. Two sailors in piratical dress could be seen to emerge at intervals from the cabin.

Suddenly the gale was on with terrific force, the sea rose in great waves, and the tiny ship rocked in a perilous manner. Great billows of water swept its decks. Merton Gill stared in amazement at these phenomena so dissonant with the quiet starlit night. Then he traced them without difficulty to their various sources. The gale issued from the swift revolutions of that aeroplane propeller he had noticed a while ago. The flooding billows were spilled from the big tank at the top of the scaffold and the boat rocked in obedience to the tugging of a rope--tugged from the shore by a crew of helpers--that ran to the top of its mast. Thus had the storm been produced.

A spidery, youngish man from one of the platforms built out from the scaffold, now became sharply vocal through a megaphone to assistants who were bending the elements to the need of this particular hazard of Hortense. He called directions to the men who tugged the rope, to the men in control of the lights, and to another who seemed to create the billows. Among other items he wished more action for the boat and more water for the billows. "See that your tank gets full-up this time," he called, whereupon an engine under the scaffold, by means of a large rubber hose reaching into the pool, began to suck water into the tank above.

The speaker must be Miss Baxter's director, the enviable personage who saw her safely through her perils. When one of the turning reflectors illumined him Merton saw his face of a keen Semitic type.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 不去曾经堕落

    不去曾经堕落

    掌管地狱的地狱神却处处收到上帝的碾压,原本都谋划好了造反计划,却还没实施就被抓起来关在了天堂的监狱,直到遇到聚聚神,为帮其取一把名为轻郁的上古凶剑,却陷入一个难以解开的谜中。。。
  • 总裁情未了

    总裁情未了

    发烫年代悲情出发,带着照片隐情插队。落魄赢得真情抚慰,返城并非忘情失信。未婚先孕殉情嫁人,为爱甘心痴情守望。人工受精偷情生子,打拼商海激情演绎。上学撞车亲情输血,亿万富豪乡情感恩……审视青春岁月的苦乐,仰视纯真年代的爱情。正视承诺守信的忠义,凝视城市乡村的对话。透视人物命运的悲喜,揭示身世背后的隐秘。窥视富豪家庭的隐秘,剖视人性本质的善恶。扫视商海潮涌的波澜,探视励志人生的梦想。
  • 伤寒法祖

    伤寒法祖

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 剑鸡

    剑鸡

    屌丝的世界,抛弃现实社会来到属于他们的侠义世界。
  • 桃花颜

    桃花颜

    她堂堂一只只会结桃子的桃花妖,今生何其有幸,竟碰上了一个温柔腹黑自恋男。最后的最后,她果真被那猴子给吃了……“我说,你不是只喜欢吃桃子的么,干嘛抱我上榻吃我嘴?”“对啊,我原本是只喜欢吃桃子的,你是桃花妖岂不是全身都是桃子?所以我吃你是理所当然的。”还有理由,桃夭竟无言以对……(本文结局HE,略虐,并且简介无能,请点正文!)大家可以加群哦:476296909,敲门砖书中任意人名哦,请大家踊跃加群,谢谢。
  • 擒天志

    擒天志

    混沌未分天地乱,茫茫渺渺无人见。欲知故事会如何,需看擒天释厄传。
  • 圣樱四少PK四公主

    圣樱四少PK四公主

    三公主和王子的邂逅,结局是完美还是悲剧呢?敬请期待.......(作品名称错误,应该是《天使公主的爱恋》
  • 君似月光,我为秋霜

    君似月光,我为秋霜

    她是炮火声中穿越而来的战地医生,他是多智近乎妖、淡漠寡情的一朝臣子。他是她浮生所遇最美的男子,是她心中可望而不可即的白月光。一朝泥足深陷,她情系于他。奈何一腔深情被辜负,他另娶她人,她选择忘却往昔重新来过。再相遇,她已是他人之妻,二人伉俪情深。这一次,他该作何选择?
  • 福妻驾到

    福妻驾到

    现代饭店彪悍老板娘魂穿古代。不分是非的极品婆婆?三年未归生死不明的丈夫?心狠手辣的阴毒亲戚?贪婪而好色的地主老财?吃上顿没下顿的贫困宭境?不怕不怕,神仙相助,一技在手,天下我有!且看现代张悦娘,如何身带福气玩转古代,开面馆、收小弟、左纳财富,右傍美男,共绘幸福生活大好蓝图!!!!快本新书《天媒地聘》已经上架开始销售,只要3.99元即可将整本书抱回家,你还等什么哪,赶紧点击下面的直通车,享受乐乐精心为您准备的美食盛宴吧!)
  • 邪王狠狠宠:腹黑小王妃

    邪王狠狠宠:腹黑小王妃

    她是二十一世纪杀手界的第一杀手,也是医学界的神医。一朝穿越沦落为父母双亡的废材小姐空北倾。斗亲戚,修魂力,收神兽。他是人界王爷,也是魔界之王,冷漠嗜血,却唯独独宠她一人。溺水三千,只取佳人一瓢。蓦然回首,你仍在灯火阑珊处。