“Queer he didn’t want to go in to New York with us,” said Blake.

“There you go again!” laughed Joe.  “Getting suspicious again.  Take it easy, Blake.”

“Well, maybe I am a bit too fussy,” admitted his chum.

Their trip to, and arrival in, New York was unattended by any incidents worth chronicling, and, taking a car at the Grand Central Terminal, they were soon on their way to the film studios.

“Well, well!  If it isn’t Blake and Joe!” cried C.C.  Piper, the grouchy actor, as he saw them come in.  “My, but I am glad to see you!” and he shook their hands warmly.

“Glad something pleases you,” said Miss Shay, with a shrug of her shoulders.  “You’ve done nothing but growl ever since this rehearsal started.”  Blake and Joe had arrived during an intermission in the taking of the studio scenes of a new drama.

“Is he as bad as ever?” asked Joe of Mabel Pierce, the new member of the company.

“Well, I don’t know him very well,” she said, with a little blush.

“He’s worse!” declared Nettie Shay.  “I wish you’d take him out somewhere, boys, and find him a good nature.  He’s a positive bear!”

“Oh, come now, not as bad as that!” cried Mr. Piper.  “I am glad to see you boys, though,” and really he seemed quite delighted.  “What’s on?” he asked.  “Are you going with us to California?  We’re going to do a series of stunts there, I hear.”

“Sorry, but we’re not booked to go,” said Blake.  “I guess it’s Panama and the Canal for us.”

Mr. Piper seemed to undergo a quick and curious change.  His face, that had been lighted by a genial smile, became dull and careworn.  His manner lost its joyousness.

“That’s too bad!” he exclaimed.  “Panama!  You’re almost sure to be buried alive under one of the big Culebra slides, and we’ll never see you again!”

CHAPTER VIII

OFF FOR PANAMA

There was a moment of silence following Mr. Piper’s gloomy prediction, and then Miss Shay, with a laugh, cried out: 

“Oh, what a shame!  I’d keep still if I couldn’t say anything nicer than that.”

“Not very cheerful; is he?” spoke Joe.

“About the same as usual,” commented Blake, drily.

“Well, it’s true, just the same!” declared C.C.  Piper, with an air of conviction.

“‘The truth is not to be spoken—­at all times,’” quoted Miss Pierce.

“Good for you!” whispered Joe.

C.C. seemed a little put out at all the criticism leveled at him.

“Ahem!” he exclaimed.  “Of course I don’t mean that I want to see you boys caught in a landslide—­far from it, but—­”

“But, if we are going to be caught that way, you hope there will be moving pictures of it; don’t you, C.C.?” laughed Blake.  “Now, there’s no use trying to get out of it!” he added, as the gloomy actor stuttered and stammered.  “We know what you mean.  But where is Mr. Ringold; or Mr. Hadley?”