or that he really is what he seems to be--just a
sailor on a spree."
They had a long and tedious wait for the time to come when the
all-important film should be begun. What was reeled off first had
little interest for any of them. The three Scouts all liked the moving
picture shows well enough, but they preferred the other kind, the sort
shown in the better houses uptown, and they could not get up much
interest in the pictures that seemed to delight those who were seated
all about them.
The place grew constantly more and more crowded. It was evidently a
popular diversion near the river, and the attraction of the local
scenes film, with the chance that any spectator might suddenly find
himself a part of the performance, was what pleased them the most and
attracted the greatest attention.
At last it was time for that particular film to be begun. It was quite
a long one, as it turned out, and it was not until a number of pictures
had been shown that Haskin suddenly leaned forward and pointed to a
little pier, beside which a motor boat was bobbing up and down.
Jack, with a gasp, and a queer little thrill running up and down his
back, recognized three men who stood by the boat. They were quarreling
about something, and were by no means still, but there was no mistaking
them. They were three of the men that he had seen in the little
station on the night that the attempt to wreck the Limited had failed.
And, from the edge of the screen, another man was walking toward them.
"There," said Haskin, "that's the fellow I want you to watch. Is that
Broom? If it is--"
He couldn't finish. There was a sudden sputtering by the film. The
lights went out--only to give place to a dark, red glare near the film.
And, at the same moment, there was a wild shriek from the back of the
hall--"Fire!"
The lights winked on again in a moment, and then went out and on again,
alternating for two or three minutes, so that at one moment the little,
crowded theatre was black as ink and the next as light as day. Most of
those in the audience were women and children, and they were in a panic
in a moment.
"Come on, Scouts!" roared Dick Crawford. "If they don't stop crowding
and pushing, not one of these people will get out of this place alive."
The three Scouts knew what to do and how to do it. They were prepared
for this as well as for any other emergency. They were, perhaps, the
only cool-headed ones in the place. Adding
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