“And so I guess I’d better not say what I was going to,” mused Blake.  Then, to Monsieur Secor he replied: 

“I’m sorry, but we’re not supposed to talk about our work without the permission of the commanding officer.  You see——­”

“Ah, I comprehend!” exclaimed the Frenchman, with another bow—­a bow altogether too elaborate, Joe thought.  “That is as it should be!  Always obey orders.  I asked, casually, as I am much interested in this motion picture work, and I have observed some of it in my country.  So it was your films that I had the misfortune to spoil?  I greatly regret it.  I suppose it made much extra work for you.”

“It did, Monsieur Secor,” replied Joe rather shortly.  “That is the work we are doing now.”

“And if you will excuse us,” went on Blake, “we shall have to leave this place and go to the other side of the parade ground.  I’m sorry we cannot tell you more of our work, but you will have to get an order from——­”

“Non!  Non!” and the blue-uniformed officer broke into a torrent of rapid French.  “It does not matter in the least,” he began to translate.  “I asked more out of idle curiosity than anything else.  I will watch as much of your work as is permissible for me to see.  Later I shall observe the finished films, I hope.”

“If you don’t bust ’em again!” murmured Macaroni, when out of the officer’s hearing.  “I wouldn’t trust you any too much,” he added, as he and the two chums moved away to get views of the soldiers from a different angle.

“What’s wrong between you and Monsieur Secor?” asked Joe.  “I mean, aside from his having run into you, which he claims was an accident?”

“Well, maybe it was an accident, and maybe it wasn’t,” said Charles.

“But that isn’t all.  I know you, Mac.  What else do you mean?” demanded Blake, as Joe began to set up the camera in the new location.

“Well, I don’t want to make any accusations, especially against a French officer, for I know they’re on our side.  But I heard that Sim and Schloss are pretty sore because you fellows got this work.”

“Sim and Schloss!” repeated Blake.  “That Jew firm which tried to cut under us in the contract for making views of animals in Bronx Park?”

“That’s the firm,” answered Macaroni.  “But they’re even more German than they’re Jews.  But that’s the firm I mean.  One of their camera men was telling me the other day they thought they had this army work all to themselves, and they threw a fit when they heard that Hadley had it and had turned it over to you.”

“It goes to show that Duncan and Stewart are making a name for themselves in the moving picture world,” said Blake, with a smile.

“It goes to show that you’ve got to look out for yourselves,” declared Charlie Anderson.  “Those fellows will do you if they can, and I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that this frog-eating chap was in with them, and maybe he spoiled your films on purpose, by running into me.”