Frank was always the gentleman and the boy of business. He had arisen to his feet. He extended his hand, sober as a judge, with the words:
“I am glad to see you, Professor Barrington. We were just going over that matter of yours and I was about to start for your hotel.”
“Good—glad. Then you favor my plan?”
“We are all very much interested,” observed Mr. Strapp. “Will you have a chair, sir?”
The eyes of the little coterie were fixed upon their odd visitor. Knowing Frank as they did, his chums were as one in the conviction that their bright young leader had brought about a situation that promised interesting developments.
It was not the first time that some such an incident had proved the beginning of an important move in the business to which the three boys had been now devoted for nearly two years. From the first day that the movies idea had captivated these close comrades and friends, Frank had been the main mover in discoveries, suggestions and activities that had led them up to the present pleasant and useful position they filled in their own little business world.
It was Frank who had originally found a way to employ their little stock of savings, to obtain an outfit for the starting of their first motion picture venture in their native village of Fairlands, known as the Wonderland, as related in the first volume of the present series, entitled, “The Motion Picture Chums’ First Venture; Or, Opening a Photo Playhouse In Fairlands.”
It was Frank who, when the winter season was past and local trade grew dull, had discovered a promising outlook for a Wonderland No. 2 at Seaside Park. This was a popular outing resort some fifty miles from New York City. Their success with that venture has been told in a second book, called, “The Motion Picture Chums at Seaside Park; Or, The Rival Photo Theaters of the Boardwalk.”
When they retired temporarily from that enterprise with the departing excursion crowds, a higher ambition had led them to seek a wider sphere of action.
In the third volume, entitled, “The Motion Picture Chums On Broadway; Or, The Mystery of the Missing Cash Box,” has been narrated the struggles, trials, and triumphs of the boys in founding their Empire photo playhouse on upper Broadway in New York City. All along the line they had found rivals, even enemies, but friends as well.