“You tried to throw cold water on what the boys did,” she reminded him.
“Water! Say, if anybody says water to me again to-day, I don’t know what I will do!” exclaimed Blake. “Shame on you, C. C.! You ought to be more careful.”
“Oh, well, I didn’t mean anything. I guess those pictures will be all right—if the salt spray doesn’t spoil the celluloid,” he added, as he moved off.
“You’re hopeless,” declared Miss Lee. “I’ll never speak to you again.”
The nonsensical talk served to raise the spirits of those who had been rather plunged in gloom ever since the wreck. Mr. Duncan was given a room to himself where he could be quiet and recover from the shock of having been so near death.
The moving picture boys found plenty to do. In addition to getting off to the developing studio the films they had taken that day, they had to prepare for a hard day’s work to follow, for, now that he had the wreck scene, Mr. Ringold declared that he needed some others to go with it to round out the drama of the sea that he had in mind when coming to the coast.
It may seem that it would not pay to go to such big expense to make a single films play, or even one or two, but I assure my readers that it is not uncommon for a concern to spend ten thousand dollars in making a single play, and some elaborate productions, such as Shakespearian plays, and historical dramas, will cost over fifty thousand dollars to get ready to be filmed.
Months are spent in preparation, rehearsals go on day after day, and finally the play itself is given, often not lasting more than an hour or half hour on the screen, yet representing many weary weeks of work, and the expenditure of large sums of money. Such is the moving picture business to-day.
The boys were kept busy nearly all the rest of that week, and then came a period of calm. Joe sought out his father, who had steadily gained in strength after his sensational rescue, and began to question him as to his experiences, for Mr. Duncan had only given a mere outline of his experiences up to this time.
“You must have had some strenuous adventures,” said Blake, who went with his chum.