"All right," agreed the young operator. "I'll be ready whenever you are. But where are you going to get the auto that goes to smash, Mr. Pertell?"
"Oh, I bought a second-hand one cheap. It's now being painted and fixed up to look as much like the good one as possible."
A few days later all was in readiness for taking the auto smash film. The story to be depicted was part of the big "East and West" drama. Ruth and Alice were supposed to be pursued by persons in another auto, and in the smash both girls were to be "injured."
The two automobiles were on hand at the appointed time on a steep slope of the Orange Mountains, where the road turned suddenly near a steep cliff. It was over this cliff that the "smash" would occur.
The auto that would really come to grief was an old rattletrap of a machine, but it would serve the purpose well enough for the film, since only a momentary glimpse of it, and that showing it going at full speed, would be given. The dummy figures, made up to look like Ruth and Alice, were in readiness.
"Now, girls, take your places, if you please," said Mr. Pertell, waving Ruth and Alice toward their car.
"Oh, I'm so nervous!" exclaimed Ruth.
"What about?" asked her sister, as she buttoned her jacket, for the wind was sharp on the hillside.
"Oh, suppose our car doesn't stop in time? Suppose we go over the cliff, instead of the stuffed figures?"
"Don't suppose anything of the kind!" cried Alice, gaily. "Come on—they're waiting for us."