bad for your health. But I certainly need your services, and
those of your daughters, in this sea drama. Otherwise I would not ask
you to run any risks with your throat.

"But I will say this. We shall not be afloat until Summer, and, as we
shall be in a warm climate, perhaps the bad effects will not be so
pronounced."

"No, I think so myself," the old actor admitted. "It may even do me
good. I will doctor up in the meanwhile. And I realize that if I do not
go, my daughters cannot. I would not like to have them miss this fine
opportunity."

"Oh, Daddy! We wouldn't go if it harmed you!" Alice cried.

"Oh, I dare say I can manage," her father replied. "The new treatment I
am taking seems to agree with me. Who knows? Perhaps, when it comes time
to sail, my throat may not trouble me at all."

"Let us hope so," Alice broke in. "I do so love the water, and the
Southern sea will be a dream!"

Perhaps if Alice could have looked ahead, and seen what lay before her,
she would not have been so enthusiastic in anticipating the future.

Mr. Pertell saw that the other plays under way in the studio were
running smoothly, and then prepared to take Mr. DeVere, his daughters,
and the old sailor over to Erie Basin, to inspect the _Mary Ellen_, as
she lay in her slip, being refitted for another voyage--her last--for
she was to rest beneath the waves when she had played her part in the
moving picture play.

"I wish I were going with you," said Russ Dalwood, as Ruth passed him
where he was having a moment's respite from grinding away at the crank
of a camera.

"I wish so, too," she answered, in a low voice.

"But I've got to stay here, and grind away at this film," he said
hopelessly.

"We'll see you to-night," she called to him, as she went out.

Paul Ardite waved to Alice as she "twinkled" her fingers at him. Paul
was in a cowboy costume, playing a scene in the cowboy story, which
seemed to be giving more and more trouble as it proceeded.

"This is the fifth time we've done that act," Paul called to Alice in an
aside as she passed. "And all because Mr. Bunn is so fussy. They'll take
him out, if he isn't careful. Where are you going, Alice?"

"Over to see _Mary Ellen_."

"Who's she? A new actress?"

"Yes, she's a 'she' I suppose, and she's going to have a big part in a
drama. I'll tell you about it later."

The _Mary Ellen_ certainly did not present a very trim appearance as the
little party went aboard her at the dock