In this fashion the runners managed to come close up before there was a sudden cessation to all the tumult of hideous war, and the actors, laughing and evidently enjoying it to the utmost, began to crowd around the stage director as if to learn whether the scene had met with his approval.

CHAPTER IX

WITH THE MOTION-PICTURE PEOPLE

“Where did you boys spring from, I’d like to know?”

It was the perspiring stage manager who asked this question when Hugh and the other four scouts came hurrying up to where he was sitting on a rock, fanning himself with his hat, while the dozens of knights, squires and bowmen were puffing cigarettes, and apparently resting up for the next exciting scene in the wonderfully realistic drama of olden times.

“Well, you see, sir, we happen to belong to a scout troop over in Oakvale,” explained Hugh.  “We came up here to spend the weekend, and transact some business at the same time.  This chap here, Alec Sands, has a peculiar old aunt in the city who is anxious to buy just such a quiet retreat as this place, where she wouldn’t hear a sound, for she’s got a case of nerves, you see.  And one of our objects was to take some pictures of the castle, as well as spy around a bit.”

The red-faced stage-director laughed even as he kept on mopping his forehead.  Evidently it mattered little to him that the air was quite chilly, for his duties kept him so much on the jump he was sweltering from the perspiration of hard, honest labor.

“Say you so, my young friend?” he exclaimed.  “Well, if we leave any part of the old ruin intact when we’re through with this series of startling pictures the old lady can doubtless buy it at a small figure.”

“Does that mean you’ll wreck a big structure like this, sir, just to get a picture of it being blown up?” asked Alec, dismayed.

“Oh, that doesn’t cut any figure in the bill!” he was told flippantly.  “The public demands the best there is, and money must flow like water in order to keep up with our rivals.  We’re going to give them something novel this time, you see.”

“How, sir?” Monkey Stallings found the courage to ask, his curiosity getting the better of his modesty.

“This new play isn’t really a play at all,” said the stout man, with a touch of pride in his voice.  “It’s a stunt of my own we’re pulling off to-day.  You see, the public sometimes expresses a desire to learn just how these magnificent pictures are done, and we expect to show them the whole thing from beginning to end.  They’ll see my company starting out in a string of motor cars for this place; watch them getting rigged out in their spic-and-span suits of mail, and old-time stuff; feast their eyes on just such wonderful feats as you have seen pulled off beside these massive walls; and step by step, be taken into our confidence as we progress, until finally the amazing climax arrives.  Right now you can hear the machine clicking away, as the operator takes a crack at the players resting between their acts.  Perhaps it may please you chaps to know that you’ll be seen in the finished production along with the rest of the troupe.”