Victor Appleton

“ The tree trunks had been felled, and were in readiness. They would make but poor life preservers at best, but better than nothing.
Inch by inch the water rose. Birdie Lee, Miss Shay and some of the other actresses were in a group, looking at each other with tear-stained faces. It seemed the end of everything.
Suddenly, through the moisture-laden air, came a shrill whistle.
“What’s that?” cried Blake.
“Sounded like a steamboat!” answered Joe.
“It is a steamboat!” called Birdie Lee, as she looked down the flooded river. “See! There she comes! Oh, we are saved!” ”

“ The fire was in a large apartment house, and the flames had gained great headway. Thrilling rescue scenes were going on, and, from some of the upper stories, men and women were dropping into the life nets, about which, in a circle, stood the sturdy firemen, and volunteer helpers.
“Got to get this!” cried Blake. “Is there plenty of film in her, Joe?”
“I think so. But I’ll get more. There’s a photo-supply house about three blocks away. You start grinding away at the crank, and I’ll chase down there and get another reel of film in case we want it. I guess they’ll be open yet.” ”

“ Blake, Joe and the two men stood beside their little heap of belongings, looking at one another with solemn faces.
For a moment no one spoke. They looked at the logs, rushing on down the river, and then Blake said:
“Well, things haven’t stopped happening yet.”
“I should say not!” cried Joe. “This is worse and more of it. What next?”
“No telling,” said C. C., gloomily. “We’ll probably starve here.”
“Oh, I hope not!” said Mr. Ringold, with assumed cheerfulness. “There’s probably a restaurant around the corner. We’ll go there and have some roast chicken. Don’t all speak at once.” ”

“ Ringold cried:
“A cotton barge!”
“And struck by lightning, too!” added Blake, a second later, as, despite the downpour of rain, flames burst from several places on the loaded boat.
The lightning had indeed set fire to the cotton, which was floating down the river. It had probably broken away from the place where it had been moored, or from the tug that was towing it. Rapidly the flames gained headway, and, as there came a sudden cessation to the rain, which might have extinguished them, the tongues of fire leaped higher and higher. ”

“ It was not very choice, but it was better than nothing, consisting of canned stuff, and, with what our friends had managed to take off their sinking boat, would do for a while.
A fire was soon crackling in the rather dilapidated stove, and the odor of coffee, fragrant and appetizing, filled the air.
“Well, this isn’t so bad,” remarked Blake, as he sat munching a canned corned beef sandwich. “We’re pretty snug in here.”
“Yes, and we don’t have to worry about running a motor, or sinking,” added Joe. “We can’t sink. I really like this better than the Clytie, after all.” ”

“ As our friends sat down to breakfast, they could see the alarmed villagers working frantically at the levee. For the rising waters were already lapping the top of it.
Long lines of men, carrying bags and baskets of dirt and stones, piled them along the bank—the frail bank that alone stood between the flood and their homes! The boys took some pictures of the work, and then, casting off the mooring line, the trip down the river was resumed.
Although it rained, Blake and Joe were not idle. ”

“ With a powerful searchlight at her bow, her stern light, and the red and green side lamps, as well as the cabin lights, aglow, the craft now presented a more cheerful aspect, and she was certainly safer. The lights, too, helped to take away the really terrifying effect of the vivid lightning.
The place at the wheel was partitioned off, and that little pilot house, as it were, was left in darkness, to enable Blake and Mr. Ringold to see to steer.
They could do little, however, save to try and cross the current in a diagonal direction, to make their way to some sheltered cove. ”

“ The wheels groaned and whined under the pressure, and the train came to a quick stop.
“There!” cried the gloomy comedian. “What did I tell you? That’s what you get for wishing for an accident!”
“I didn’t wish for one,” replied Blake, quickly, as he reached for the carrier containing his moving picture camera, “and I don’t believe it is an accident. Anyhow, nothing has happened to us,” he added. “But I’m going to see what it is. Come on, Joe.”
The two boys, as well as Mr. Ringold, the actor, and several other passengers, hurried from the car, as the train had now come to a full stop. ”

“ Those aboard the Clytie saw, a moment later, a woman pulled from the flood, and taken into the small boat.
At the same moment another body shot from a window of the first burning house, and this person, too, was rescued.
“After all, the water is a good thing,” remarked Blake, as he hastily oiled the motor. “They couldn’t jump on the hard ground, but the flood saves them, even if it does destroy their houses.”
“They are certainly having their own troubles,” observed Joe.
“We’ll help them all we can!” cried the manager. “Get out some of the life preservers, boys, and the cork rings. ”

“ With one stroke of his keen-bladed knife, Blake severed the cable, and the boat drifted away from the house.
And, no sooner was the craft free than, amid a great swirl of the waters, the dwelling turned right-side up again, the furniture and kitchen utensils inside falling from ceiling to floor with a crash. ”

“ Baker, who had taken quite a liking to her two young boarders.
“Got to be!” exclaimed Blake. “We’re going to try and catch the afternoon train for New York.”
“New York! My sakes alive! You’re not going; are you?”
“Got to,” explained Joe. “I think we can make it if we hurry. Some friends of ours are lost in that Mississippi flood, and we’ve got to go and help find and save them if we can. No time to lose!” ”

“ But we never yet tackled a flood,” went on Joe, with ever-growing enthusiasm. “And you know moving water always shows up well on the films.”
“Oh, I can see what all this is leading to,” broke in Blake. “Good-bye to all the fine, lazy times we’ve been having the last two weeks. No more lying in bed as long as you like—no more chicken dinners—we’ll be lucky if we can hold a sandwich in one hand and grind away at the crank of the moving picture camera with the other. Good-bye to a good day’s fishing in the brook. No more cherry pie, and no more lemonade in the shade. ”

“ THE MOTOR BOAT “There she comes!”
“And see! It’s all she can do to stem the current!”
Joe and Blake were watching the approach of a small steam tug, that was coming up the stream. Powerful as she looked, it was all she could do to make headway, so forceful was the swollen river.
“We can’t all get aboard her,” declared Mr. Piper, who, with the boys, Mr. Ringold, and some others, was standing in the rain, near the abutments of the vanished bridge. “If we try to she’ll sink.”
“Say, please don’t talk that way!” begged the manager. “We are going to have troubles enough, without that.” ”

“ The two chums were seated in a railway train, on their way to New York to meet Mr. Ringold, and do what they could to rescue the unfortunate members of the moving picture company. They did not know what was before them, but they had stout hearts, and they had made up their minds to brave any danger in order to save their friends.
“Poor Birdie Lee!” murmured Blake. “I can’t help but think of her.”
“Same here,” agreed Joe. “She certainly was a dandy little chum and comrade. Always willing to do anything that was asked, to make a good film.” ”

“ Joe said, as he rose from the table in the dining car. “We’d better get our things together, Blake.”
“That’s right. Say, it’s raining again!”
“So it is!” agreed Joe, looking out of the car window. “This is fierce! Isn’t it ever going to let up?”
It had rained at intervals for the last two days, and that fact, coupled with the knowledge that it had been pouring more or less steadily before that, did not give much assurance that the flood would soon abate.
“The Mississippi will be higher than ever,” murmured Blake. “It’s going to make it bad all around—bad for us and bad for those who are lost. ”

“ THE RELIEF TRAIN “What are your plans, Mr. Ringold?” asked Blake, as he and his chum, with C. C., sat in the Pullman car, talking over the situation.
“I really haven’t had time to make any very definite ones,” answered the manager. “I’m taking out a supply of money, I don’t mind saying that,” he went on, and Mr. Piper suddenly gave a quick look about the coach, and uttered a stagy hiss, as a caution to be silent.
“What’s up now?” asked Joe.
“I don’t think it’s wise to speak so plainly about money,” replied the gloomy comedian. ”

“ Then, looking back up the hill, the company of players saw Joe, Mr. Ringold and C. C. Piper.
“How did you get here?”
“Where did you come from?”
“Were you looking for us?”
These were some of the questions rapidly fired back and forth.
“Say!” cried Blake, at length. “Have you anything to eat? We’re most starved—nothing but some pilot biscuits that we found in a tin.”
“There!” cried Birdie Lee. “I knew we left those biscuits behind. We must have dropped them when we moved our camp. And I did so want them with the canned clam chowder.”
“Clam chowder!” cried Joe. “Say, where is it? ”

“ As several of the completed films of the Western dramas had been lost in the flood, Mr. Ringold decided to have others made, and to accomplish this he would have to hire more players. But he thought he could engage them in the West, and so, save for a few leading characters, like Mr. Piper, he took only a few actors and actresses with him.
“Well, we’re off,” murmured Joe, as, the next day, he and Blake took their places in the train that was to bear them to the West, and the flood. ”

“ Once more they were under way, and a little later they came in sight of the town, which was the principal shipping port for cotton in that vicinity.
“Say, there’s a big crowd working there!” exclaimed Joe, as they headed for the levee, only a small part of which was out of water.
“Yes, there’s a big crowd there, but look at the few who are working at the cotton,” spoke Blake. “There’s a big pile of it, and it’ll take those few men a good while to move it. The water’s rising fast, too.” ”

“ The only thing I see to do is to go direct to Hannibal, and see if we can get on the trail of the missing ones there.”
“That does seem to be about the only thing to do,” agreed Blake. “I wish we were there now. It’s maddening to know you’ve got a lot to do, and not be able to do it. I want action!”
“And so do I!” cried his chum.
However, there was nothing for it but to wait until they reached the flooded district. On and on sped their train, making but few stops. When they did reach a large city, the boys would go out and buy the latest papers, to get news of the flood along the Mississippi. ”

“ Piper.
“His liver is still good,” murmured Joe. “Otherwise he’d have said that it would never clear. He isn’t so bad—at times.”
“No, not at times,” admitted Blake, with a grin.
The abutment on which one end of the bridge had rested, served as a pier for the boat, which was, after some difficulty, made fast to it.
“All aboard,” called the captain. “We’ll take as many as we can, and come back for the rest. It isn’t a very long trip, nor is it an easy one. All aboard.”
To the delight of Mr. Ringold, he, the boys and Mr. Piper were among the first selected to go. ”

“ But business was practically at a standstill now, for everyone who could was working at the levee. There were anxious looks on the faces of all—men, women and children. But women and children were about the only ones in the streets, the men all being at the river front.
“Look!” exclaimed Joe, pointing to a moving picture theater. It was closed, probably from lack of patronage during the flood season, but in front were some advertising lithographs.
“Some of our films!” cried Blake, as he saw some gaudily-colored representations of those pictures he and Joe had taken in earthquake land. ”

“ How is she running, Blake?” he asked, for Blake was attending to the motor, while Joe focused the camera.
“Fine,” answered the young engineer. “She’s a powerful engine, all right.”
“She’ll need to be,” was the grim comment of the manager. “There is some power to this current,” and he looked over the side of the bow, at the onrushing, muddy Mississippi. Though they were in the upper reaches of the big stream, it had so increased in size that it was almost a constant menace to the motor boat. ”

“ We can pack up to-day, and start West to-morrow. We’ll have to have the cameras sent on from New York. We can order them and a supply of film by telegraph. I guess we could telephone the message in. That will save a trip to town, and we haven’t much time,” added Joe.
“There you go! Off with a rush! Telephones and telegrams. Walking will be too slow for you! Everything bang-up! Let her go!” cried Blake, swinging his arms to indicate progress. “Good-bye, vacation!” he cried. “The strenuous life from now on!” ”

“ By going toward shore they were not in such a strong current, and soon the motor boat was cruising along through what had been business streets.
“This is like being in Venice,” remarked Joe, as the Clytie puffed slowly along between rows of stores and houses, from which men, in boats, were removing goods and furniture.
“Looking for someone?” called a man, who had, in a big scow, an odd collection of household effects, and stuff from a general store.
“For a company of moving picture players,” answered Mr. Ringold. ”

“ A COLLISION “Man overboard!” yelled Joe, more from a sudden instinct than because there was anyone beside himself on the boat to be informed of the fact. Then, with a leap, Joe was outside the pilot house, and standing in the bow of the still-moving craft.
Joe had caught up, in his rush, a cork life ring, attached to a rope, one being kept on the forward deck in readiness for any emergency in the flood. The young operator shoved the fallen camera to one side, and peered eagerly down for a sight of his chum.
“Here you go, Blake!” ”

“ We must save ourselves.”
“And our outfit—if we can,” said Joe. “What shall we do?”
A hasty examination showed that the jagged front logs of the raft had been driven completely into the motor boat, staving in her planking, through which the water was rushing. And, so violent had been the blow of the collision that the Clytie was actually impaled on the floating tree trunks, that were bound together with ropes.
“Take to the raft!” cried Mr. Ringold. “It’s our only chance!”
“That’s right!” shouted C. C. “Come on, boys! Load all we can on the raft!” ”

“ While this motor boat is a good one, she may be wrecked, especially when we get down to the lower river, where the flood is sure to be worse. There’ll be more debris there, and we may easily be stove in, crushed or upset.”
“Say, you’re worse than he is, lately,” cried Joe, with a nod at Mr. Piper, who was out on the stern deck.
“No, I only want to take all precautions,” Blake went on. “We’ve got some valuable films here, and if they fall into the water they’ll be spoiled. It was bad enough for Munson, or whoever it was, to take our other films, and I don’t want to lose these in the flood. ”

“ It seems some of his company are lost in the Mississippi flood, and he wants me to go out there with him. Some of the dramas will have to be done over again, as the films were lost, and he’s going to try to find the missing folks.”
“We’re on the same errand,” remarked Joe. “Mr. Ringold cut short our vacation, too, by long distance. We’re in the same boat.”
“Boat? Yes!” snorted the gloomy comedian. “And I guess we’ll have to use a boat out on the Mississippi. We can’t wade or swim, and there’s sure to be a lot of trouble. I wish I’d never gone into this business! It’s awful!” ”

“ UNIFORM STYLE OF BINDING. INDIVIDUAL COLORED WRAPPERS. Moving pictures and photo plays are famous the world over, and in this line of books the reader is given a full description of how the films are made—the scenes of little dramas, indoors and out, trick pictures to satisfy the curious, soul-stirring pictures of city affairs, life in the Wild West, among the cowboys and Indians, thrilling rescues along the seacoast, the daring of picture hunters in the jungle among savage beasts, and the great risks run in picturing conditions in a land of earthquakes. ”