ose we aren't?" asked Alice. "The wind and the sea are rising, and
if we are swept off the rocks----"

"Don't be so tragic about it!" broke in Ruth. "If we are to go to sea,
and be in a shipwreck, even if it is only pictured, we must learn to
face perils. And here we are only a little way from shore."

"That's right!" cried Paul. "That's the way to look at it, Alice.
There's no danger!"

"That's easy enough for you to say--you two who haven't a lame ankle,"
the younger girl said, seriously enough. "But I don't believe I can even
swim!"

"There will be no need of that," Paul said. "They are sure to come back
and see our plight soon. I can't see what's keeping Russ. He promised to
come back as soon as he fixed up another camera. It's very strange."

Later they learned that when Russ and Mr. Pertell got back to the beach,
leaving, as they supposed Ruth, her sister and Paul safe on the rocks,
Pop Snooks, the veteran property man, discovered a certain nook that
would answer for an important scene in the play. Wishing to take
advantage of it at once, while the light was good, Mr. Pertell ordered
the entire company over there to go through the prescribed "business."
He took Russ and the two other camera operators with him, to make sure
of getting at least one film.

That is why the beach opposite the rocks where the three were marooned
by the rising tide, was deserted just then. For the time both Mr.
Pertell and Russ forgot their three friends, or, if they thought of them
at all, it was to think that they were perfectly safe, and would come to
no harm by waiting a bit.

The tide rose higher and higher. In a few minutes it would lap the feet
of the three marooned ones. A desperate resolve came into Paul's mind.

"I'll swim, or wade, to shore," he said, "and get a boat."

"And leave us here?" demanded Alice.

"Yes. There is nothing else to be done," he answered, desperately.

"No, please don't go!" begged Alice, putting a detaining hand on his
arm. "I can't bear to be left here."

"But it will be only for a few minutes," Paul said, "and the tide isn't
rising so fast that it will sweep you away in that time."

"I know--but--don't go!" begged Alice, her voice trembling.

Paul looked at Ruth.

"Perhaps you _had_ better stay," suggested the older girl. "They are
sure to come back soon, and--well, we don't want to be left here."

"All right," agreed Paul. "But I think I could get back with a boat in
time."

Howev