thers, with every sign of fear and dismay, properly
"registered" for the benefit of those who would later see the film in
the darkened theaters, gathered together their personal belongings, and
entered the wagon.

Meanwhile Russ was kept busy getting different views of the big scene.
Sometimes there would be shown the raging fire sweeping onward, the
black clouds of smoke rolling upward, and the red tongues of flame
leaping out. In reality the fire was only a small one, but by cleverly
manipulating the camera, and taking close views, it was made to appear
as if it was a raging conflagration.

As Russ would have difficulty in showing alternate views of the fire
itself and the preparations at the slab hut to flee from it, Mr.
Pertell, at times, worked an extra camera himself. Thus the time was
shortened, for the fire was something that could not be held back, as
could something of purely human agency.

"Ride! Ride for your lives!" now shouted Mr. Sneed, as he sat on his
heaving horse, ready to ride back and help fight the fire. With dramatic
gestures he pointed ahead, seemingly to a place of safety. "Ride for
your lives!"

"But you? What of you?" cried Miss Pennington, as she held out her hands
to him imploringly. She was supposed (in the play) to be in love with
him.

"I go back--to do my duty!" he replied, as his lines called for.

There was a dramatic little scene and then Miss Pennington,
"registering" weeping, went inside the "prairie schooner," as the big
covered wagon was called.

Paul, on the driver's seat, cracked his whip at the horses and the
vehicle lumbered off, Ruth, Alice and the others who were inside,
looking back as if with regret at the home that was soon to be
destroyed.

Mr. Sneed remained for a moment, posing on the back of his horse, and
then, with a farewell wave of his hand he rode back to join Mr. Bunn
and the others in fighting the fire that had been "made to order." Mr.
DeVere, too, after seeing his family off in the wagon, leaped on a horse
and also galloped back to help fight the flames. There had been a
dramatic parting between him and his daughters--for the purposes of the
film, of course.

"Say, this fire's gettin' a little hot!" cried Baldy, who, with the
other cowboys, had been detailed to put out the blaze. Mr. Pertell was
there to get a film of them, while Russ, a considerable distance away,
was to film the on-rushing wagon containing those fleeing from the
blaze. The pict