"I see," said Uncle John, catching the idea; "it's a scheme to destroy competition."
"Exactly," replied young Jones.
"What does the Continental do, Maud?" asked Patsy.
"I don't know," answered the girl; "but perhaps Aunt Jane can tell you."
"I believe the Continental is a sort of trust within itself," explained Mrs. Montrose. "Since we have been connected with the company I have learned more or less of its methods. It employs a dozen or so producing companies and makes three or four pictures every week. The concern has its own Exchange, or middleman, who rents only Continental films to the theatres that patronize him."
"Well, we might do the same thing," proposed Patsy, who was loath to abandon her plan.
"You might, if you have the capital," assented Mrs. Montrose. "The Continental is an immense corporation, and I am told it has more than a million dollars invested."
"Two millions," said A. Jones.
The girls were silent a while, seriously considering this startling assertion. They had, between them, considerable money, but they realized they could not enter a field that required such an enormous investment as film making.
"I suppose," said Beth regretfully, "we shall have to give up making films."