Hugh had eyes for nothing else after making that thrilling discovery.  He watched with his nerves on edge, and at the same time began to think within that active brain of his what his plan of campaign must be should the worst that he feared come to pass.

Those hoarse shouts of the combatants, the clang of steel smiting steel, the roar of the manager’s voice through his big megaphone, the shrieks of the women connected with the troupe, induced by the real excitement of the occasion—–­all these sounds fell upon deaf ears as Hugh gripped his chum Arthur by the arm and called his attention to the impending peril, becoming greater with every second.

“The wind, don’t you see it’s whipped around, and is coming from a new quarter?” was the tenor of what he called in the other’s ear.  “If that fire gets away from those supers it’s going to give them a heap of trouble!  Yes, it will chase those fighters out of the passages in a hurry, and I’m afraid it’ll even cut off the poor girl who is supposed to be locked in that turret room.”

“Hugh, look! look!” ejaculated Arthur, in sudden excitement; “Just as you said, I do believe the fire has got beyond their control already.  Listen to the way everybody is whooping it up now.  It’s real fright that we hear, and no make-believe!”

CHAPTER XIII

Well done, scouts!

Hugh was glad that he had foreseen just such an emergency as the one that now confronted the motion-picture players.  It afforded him a chance to get busy without wasting any precious time in laying out plans.

The men who had been inside the building began to come rushing out, some dragging comrades who may have temporarily found themselves unable to walk, owing to the fatigue influenced by their recent terrific efforts, and also the weight of the armor which they were wearing.

Everybody looked alarmed and distressed, and with reason, for it was now seen that the wing where the girl was shut up in that turret room was enveloped in real flames, which, whipped by the rising wind, threatened to consume the whole structure in so far as it consisted of wood made to resemble genuine stone.

The director was again shouting hoarsely through his megaphone, but he was now up against a situation that none of them had foreseen, so that consequently no preparations had been made toward meeting it.  Men ran this way and that as though they had temporarily taken leave of their senses.  Women could be seen wringing their hands, and shrieking wildly.

Although the outside camera man undoubtedly realized that this was anything but a sham now, he never once ceased grinding away at his machine.  Long experience in these lines had convinced him of the great value of a stirring scene like this; and besides, his services were hardly needed in the work of saving the one whose life seemed to be in deadly peril.