ck. "Maybe I made a
mistake in bein' so quick. There was nothin' wrong in it?" he
questioned.

"Not the least in the world," said Ruth. "It is just a game, played for
the amusement of the public. I'll explain," and from the typewritten
scenario she held she went over the outlines of the big marine drama, as
one of the authors of the Comet company had written it. As she gave the
details, the simple, kindly face of the sailor cleared. His doubts
vanished.

"Say, wasn't I th' old landlubber though!" he cried. "T' think I thought
I was really committin' a crime. Ha! Ha!"

"Well, your past experience had made you careful," Alice said.

"That's what it had, Miss. It's no fun t' be barred from the ports of
the country that has more of 'em than any nation of the world. It
hampers a man. But I daren't go on British soil."

"Could they come here and take you?" asked Ruth.

The old man looked around before replying.

"They maybe wouldn't know me," he hoarsely whispered. "I've grown a
beard since those days."

"Well, then, how would the British authorities know you?" asked Alice
with a smile.

"I'm not takin' any chances, Miss," was the answer. And though it might
seem to an outsider that it would be safe, under those circumstances,
for Jepson to visit British ports, if he kept away from the island where
he had been imprisoned, he could not see it that way.

"No sir!" he exclaimed. "No British ports for mine!"

By this time Mr. DeVere, who had been engaged in finishing a few scenes
in a play that had started the day before, came up to join his
daughters.

"Well, how is the great marine drama coming on?" he asked, his voice
being more hoarse than usual. He had done some talking, as he found it
helped to give a better idea of the characters he portrayed, but it was
not necessary, in these picture plays, to get his voice "over the
footlights."

"There has been a halt," explained Ruth with a smile. "This is Jack
Jepson, Father. He is to have one of the principal parts, but he balked
at some underhand work, and--"

"Pleased t' know you," Jack broke in with a jerky bow. "Your daughter's
a smart gal," he said. "She made everything as clear as daylight t' me.
I'm goin' on with th' play now."

"That is when Mr. Pertell is ready," put in Alice. "He seems to have
found some difficulty in that cowboy drama."

This was evident, for the Western play had been stopped, and the camera
operator, with a weary look on his face, w