be right along. He's
planning something with Mr. Pertell."

The table was nearly prepared when a step was heard in the hall.

"There he is now!" cried Alice, as she flew to open the door before her
father could get out his key. But as he entered, and Alice reached up to
kiss him, she cried out in amazement at the look on his face.

"Why, Daddy! Has anything happened?" she asked.

"Yes," he said in his hoarse voice--a hoarseness caused by a throat
affection. "Yes, something has happened, or is going to. I'm in serious
trouble!"

CHAPTER II

AN UNPLEASANT VISITOR

Ruth overheard the question asked by Alice, and her father's answer. She
came in swiftly, and put her arms about him, as her sister had done.

"Oh, Daddy dear, what is it?" she asked, anxiously.

"I--I'll tell you--presently," he replied, chokingly. "I am a little out
of breath. I am getting too--too stout. And my throat has bothered me a
good deal of late. Would you mind getting me that throat spray and
medicine Dr. Rathby left? That always helps me."

"I'll get it," offered Alice, quickly, as her father sank into a chair,
and while she searched in the medicine closet for it, there was a dull
ache in her heart. More trouble! And there had been so much of it of
late. The sun had seemed to break through the clouds, and now it had
gone behind again.

And while the girls are thus preparing to minister to their father, I
will tell my new readers something of the previous books of this series,
and a little about the main characters.

In the initial volume, entitled "The Moving Picture Girls; Or, First
Appearances in Photo Dramas," I related how Mr. Hosmer DeVere, a
talented actor, suddenly lost his voice, by the return of an old throat
affection. He had just been "cast" for an important part in a new play,
but had to give it up, as he could not speak distinctly enough to be
heard across the footlights.

The DeVere family fortunes were at low ebb, and money was much needed.
By accident Russ Dalwood, a moving picture operator, suggested to one of
the girls that their father might act for a moving picture film company,
as he would not have to use his voice in such employment.

How Mr. DeVere took the engagement, and how Ruth and Alice followed him,
as well as their part in helping Russ to save a valuable camera
patent--all this you will find set down in the first book.

In the second volume, entitled "The Moving Picture Girls at Oak Farm;
Or,