“I don’t know. Nobody seems to know who he is about Herringport. He was living in an old fish-house down on the Point when we came here last week with the full strength of the company. And I have made use of the old fellow in your ‘Seaside Idyl’.
“He seems to be a queer duck. But he has some idea of the art of acting, it seems. Director Jim Hooley is delighted with him. But they tell me the old fellow is scribbling all night in his hut. The scenario bug has certainly bit that old codger. He’s out for my five hundred dollars,” and the producing manager laughed again.
“I hope you get a good script,” said Ruth earnestly. “But don’t ask me to read any of them, Mr. Hammond. It does seem as though I never wanted to look at a scenario again!”
“Then you are going to miss some amusement in this case,” he chuckled.
“Why so?”
“I tell you frankly I do not expect much from even those professional actors. It was my experience even before I went into the motion picture business that plays submitted by actors were always full of all the old stuff—all the old theatrical tricks and the like. Actors are the most insular people in existence, I believe. They know how plays should be written to fulfill the tenets of the profession; but invention is ‘something else again’.”
The young people who had motored so far were welcomed by many of Mr. Hammond’s company who had acted in “The Forty-Niners” and had met Ruth and her friends in the West, as related in “Ruth Fielding in the Saddle.”
The shacks that had been built especially for the company’s use were comfortable, even if they did smell of new pine boards. The men of the company lived in khaki tents. There were several old fish-houses that were likewise being utilized by the members of the company.
Beach Plum Point was the easterly barrier of sand and rock that defended the beautiful harbor from the Atlantic breakers. It was a wind-blown place, and the moan of the surf on the outer reef was continually in the ears of the campers on the Point.
The tang of salt in the air could always be tasted on the lips when one was out of doors. And the younger folks were out on the sands most of the time when they were not working, sleeping, or eating.