“When Hooley tries to shoot the picture again we must send somebody up into that island to watch for the old fellow. He’d better be under confinement, anyway, if he’s crazy.”
“The poor old thing.” Ruth sighed. “I don’t think he means any harm—”
“He’s harmed us all right,” grumbled the president of the Alectrion Film Corporation. “I tell you, a day’s work like this—with such salaries as we pay, and supplies and all—mounts into real money.”
“Oh,” said Ruth, “some of the film can be saved. All that until the Frenchmen land—”
“We won’t dare risk it. In a costume story like this somebody is sure to get his dress, or armor, or something, different next time from what it was to-day. And if we try to save any part of this piece of film the change will show up in the finished picture. Every critical spectator will see the break and will comment upon it. Might as well make up our minds to take the loss; but we must be sure that a similar accident does not occur again.”
“Will Mr. Hooley risk taking the scene over on that island?” asked Ruth thoughtfully.
“Why not? It is a fine location—couldn’t be beat. We’ve got to shoo that old man out of it, that’s all.”
The girl had an idea that if she could meet the queer old man again she might be able to convince him that some other island would serve quite as well for his “kingdom” as that particular isle. At any rate, she hated the thought of his being abused or roughly treated.
Soon after the fiasco in the projection room, Tom Cameron arrived by motor-boat from the town across the bay. Now, Ruth was secretly very glad to see Tom. She always would be glad to see his sunny face, no matter how or when. But she could not approve of his being here at the Thousand Islands at this particular time.
Tom had grown up to be one of those young men who do not know what they want to do in life, and the reaction from the strain of his military life had, as was natural, intensified this tendency to drift. After the time that he had determined to be a soldier, then to go West and hunt Indians and grizzly bears, and then shifted to the desire to be a pirate or a policeman, Tom Cameron had really expressed very little taste for any commercial pursuit.