es. Don't go more
than ten miles away."

"Oh, I wasn't thinking of going half that distance!" said Mr. Pertell.
"I just want to get a scene or two at some place where the snow is piled
in fantastic forms. The rest of the story takes place around the Lodge
here."

"Is it the one that is something like the story of Lorna Doone?" asked
Alice, who had been reading that book.

"That's the one," said Mr. Pertell. "And I think I shall cast you as
Lorna."

"Oh, how nice!" she laughed. "But who will be John Ridd? We need a great
big man for him!"

"Well, I was thinking of using Mr. Macksey," went on the manager, with a
look at the hunter.

"What? Me have my photograph took in moving pictures!" cried the keeper
of the Lodge. "Why, I don't know how to act!"

"You know how a great deal better than some that are in the business,"
returned Mr. Pertell, coolly. "Present company always excepted," he
added, as Mr. Bunn looked up with an injured air. "What I mean is that
you are so natural," he continued. "In fact, you have had your pictures
taken a number of times lately, when you and your men were clearing away
the snow. So you see it will be no novelty for you."

"But I didn't know when you took my pictures!" objected the hunter.

"No, and that's just the point. Don't think of the camera at all. Be
unconscious of it. I'll arrange to have it masked, or hidden, if you
think you can do better that way. But I have some scenes calling for a
big man battling in the snow to save a girl, and you and Miss Alice are
the proper characters. So I hope you won't disappoint me."

"I'll do my best," promised Mr. Macksey. "But I'm not used to that sort
of work."

However, when the preliminary scenes for the big drama were filmed he
did some excellent acting, the more so as he was totally unconscious
that he was acting.

Several days were spent in making films of the play, for Mr. Pertell
wanted to take advantage of the snow.

"It won't last a great while longer," remarked the hunter. "It's getting
warm, and there'll be a thaw, soon."

He proved to be a true weather prophet for in two weeks there was
scarcely a vestige of the snow left. It grew warm, and rained, and there
was so much water about, from the rain and melting snow, that it was
nearly as difficult to get about as it had been in the big drifts.

But the thaw proved an advantage in one way, for it opened up the roads
that had been well-nigh impassable, and mail and other s