CHAPTER XIX
DISABLED
"How much longer you going to be?" asked Mr. Pepper Sneed, as he saw Russ change slightly the position of the camera.
"Oh, not much longer now," was the answer. "I have about all they'll want, I guess. This is only a sort of 'cut-in' effect, anyhow—a preliminary to the grand performance that is to come later. Poor old Mary Ellen, we'll soon see the last of her, I expect."
"Burr-r-r!" exclaimed Mr. Sneed as he shifted his helm. "Don't talk that way. It sounds rather prophetic, you know, seeing the last of the ship, and all that, you know."
"Well, I meant that they're going to sink her. You knew that, didn't you?"
"Oh, yes, worse luck! I'm to be one of the last to jump over the side, I believe. I don't like it."
"Well, it won't be for long," Russ said. "It will be all over in a few minutes—I mean the shipwreck proper, though there'll be a lot of rescue scenes, and then the castaways on an island, and all that sort of thing. Put me over a little more to the left, Pepper. I can get a fine view that way, with the light shining on the passengers at the rail."
He clicked away at the camera crank, and then exclaimed: