ms often occur.

"I want to get some pictures of the breakwater," Blake had said,
since he and his chum were to present, in reels, a story of a
complete trip through the Canal, and the breakwater was really the
starting point. It extends out into the Caribbean Sea eleven
thousand feet.

"And you are taking pictures now?" asked Mr. Alcando, as Blake and
Joe set up a camera in the bow of the boat.

"That's what we're doing. Come here and we'll give you lesson
number one," invited Blake, clicking away at the handle. "I will
gladly come!" exclaimed the Spaniard, and soon he was deep in the
mysteries of the business.

There was not much delay at the breakwater, as the boys were
anxious to get to the Canal proper, and into the big locks. A
little later their tug was steaming along the great ditch, five
hundred feet wide, and over forty feet deep, which leads directly
to the locks. This ditch, or start of the Canal proper, is about
seven miles long, and at various points of interest along the way
a series of moving pictures was taken.

"And so at last we are really on the Panama Canal!" cried Joe as
he helped Blake put in a fresh reel of unexposed film, Mr. Alcando
looking on and learning "points."

"That's what you are," the captain informed them, "and, just ahead
of you are the locks. Now you'll see something worth 'filming,' as
you call it."

CHAPTER XII

ALMOST AN ACCIDENT

"What's that big, long affair, jutting out so far from the locks?"
asked Blake, when the tug had approached nearer.

"That's the central pier," the captain informed him. "It's a sort
of guide wall, to protect the locks. You know there are three
locks at this end; or, rather, six, two series of three each. And
each lock has several gates. One great danger will be that
powerful vessels may ram these gates and damage them, and, to
prevent this, very elaborate precautions are observed. You'll soon
see. We'll have to tie up to this wall, or we'll run into the
first protection, which is a big steel chain. You can see it just
ahead there."

Joe and Blake, who had gotten all the pictures they wanted of the
approach to the lock, stopped grinding away at the handle of the
camera long enough to look at the chain.

These chains, for there are several of them, each designed to
protect some lock gate, consist of links made of steel three
inches thick. They stretch across the locks, and any vessel that
does not stop at the moment it should,