CHAPTER VI
THE AUTO SMASH
"The scene will be spoiled!" exclaimed Alice, as she saw a crowd surge up when the officer grasped Paul.
"Too bad!" declared Ruth.
"Keep away—get back, please!" cried Russ, as he saw his camera screened by the throng.
"You come along with me!" the officer kept insisting to Paul, dragging him along toward the doors of the station. "Hi, Jim!" he called to a man in plain clothes, evidently a detective. "Grab the other fellow; will you? I've got the pickpocket!" and he nodded to Mr. Bunn, who could not seem to understand that from a simulated robbery it had turned out to be a "real" one.
"I tell you we're moving picture actors!" Paul cried. "There has been no theft!"
"And you expect me to believe that!" sneered the policeman. "You can't get away with that story."
"Well, there's the man who is taking the pictures!" Paul went on, pointing to Russ, who, with a look of chagrin on his face, stood idle beside the camera. He did not want to take a film with this scene in it, for the whole plot of the story would have to be changed to make the policeman fit in.
"Yes, I see him," agreed the officer, nodding at Russ, "and I guess he's in the game with you. I'll take him into custody, too."