CHAPTER VI
ON THE COAST
The announcement of Mr. Ringold was followed by a silence, during whichJoe and Blake looked at each other. It seemed like too much good fortuneto learn that they would still have the company of their friends in thisnew quest.
"Do you really mean that?" asked Joe. "You're not saying it just to helpus out; are you, Mr. Ringold?"
"No. What makes you think that?"
"Because it seems too good to be true. I wouldn't like anything betterthan to go with your company and make pictures."
"The same here," added Blake.
"And if, at the same time, I can locate my father," went on Joe, "somuch the better, though I don't imagine I will have any trouble findinghim, once I can communicate with the government lighthouse board, andlearn where he is stationed. They have a list of all employees, Iimagine."
"Yes, I think so," spoke Mr. Hadley. "As you say, it will be easy tolocate him. And, boys, I'm very glad you're going to be with us again. Iwouldn't like to break in two new lads, and we will certainly need threephotographers to take all the scenes in the sea dramas that areplanned."
"Will we have to go very far to sea?" asked Macaroni, who was amongthose who had greeted the moving picture boys. The lads' thin assistanthad been kept busy assisting Mr. Hadley while they were after theIndians. "Because if it's very far out on the ocean wave I don't believeI want to go; I'm very easily made seasick."
"Oh, we can arrange to keep you near shore," said the theatrical man,with a laugh.
"He may be drowned, even near shore," put in C. C., with his most gloomyvoice; though he was, at the same time, practicing some new facialcontortions that were sending the women members of the troupe intospasms of laughter.
"Oh, there you go, Gloomy!" exclaimed Mr. Hadley. "First we know you'llbe saying we'll all be smashed in a train wreck going to the coast; or,if not, that we'll be carried off by a tidal wave as soon as we getthere."
"It might happen," spoke the gloomy comedian, as though both accidentswere possible at the same time.
"And it may rain--but not to-day," put in Miss Shay, with a look at thehot, cloudless sky.
"Then it's all settled," went on Mr. Ringold. "It is understood, Joe,that you can have considerable time, if you need it, to locate yourfather. The dramas I intend to film will extend over a considerabletime, and they can be made whenever it is most convenient. After all, Ithink it is a good thing that we are going to the Southern Californiacoast. The climate there will be just what we want, and the sunlightwill be almost constant."
"I'm sure I'm much obliged to you," said Joe. "This trip after theIndian films cost us more than we counted on, and we'll be glad of achance to make more money. We're down pretty low; aren't we, Blake?"
"I'm afraid so. But then, we may get that prize money, and that willhelp a lot."
"That's so," put in Mr. Hadley. "You had better have those filmsdeveloped, and send them to the geographical society. I wouldn't shipthem undeveloped, for they might be light-struck. You were lucky theIndians didn't spoil them."
The boys decided to do this, and during the next few days the reels ofmoving pictures were developed, and some positives printed from them.While the lads had been after the Indians Mr. Ringold had sent for acomplete, though small, moving picture outfit, and with this some of thepictures were thrown on a screen.
"They're the finest I've ever seen!" declared Mr. Hadley, afterinspecting them critically. "That charge of the soldiers can't bebeaten, and as for the Indian dances, they are as plain as if we wereright on the ground. You'll get the prize, I'm sure; especially sinceyou're the only ones who got any views, as I understand it."
Mr. Hadley proved a good prophet, for in due time, after the filmsreached New York, came a letter from the geographical society, enclosinga substantial check for the two boys.
The films were excellent, it was stated, and just what were needed. Oneother concern, aside from Mr. Munson's, and the one the lattermentioned, which had gone to Indian land, had succeeded in getting a fewviews of the Indians in another part of the State, but they were nowherenear as good as those Blake and Joe had secured after such trouble andrisk. The attempt to get phonographic records had been a failure, theofficers of the society wrote, though another attempt would be made ifever the Indians again broke from their reservations.
"And if they do," spoke Blake, "I'm not going to chase after them."
"Me, either," decided Joe. "I've had enough. Now the sooner we can getto the coast the better I'll like it. Just think, my father must be asanxious to see me as I am to find him; but as near as I can understandit, he doesn't even know that I am alive. Think of that!"
"It is rather hard," said Blake, sympathetically. "But it won't be longnow. I heard Mr. Ringold say we would start soon."
There were a few scenes in some of the dramas enacted in Arizona thatyet needed to be filmed, and Joe and Blake helped with this work,Macaroni assisting them and Mr. Hadley.
"And after this, nearly all our work will have to do with the sea," saidthe theatrical man. "I want to depict it in all its phases; showing itcalm, and during a storm, the delights of it, as well as the perils ofthe deep."
Before leaving Flagstaff it was decided to give a few exhibitions ofsome of the moving pictures, so that the residents there, and a numberof the cowboys and Indians who had taken part in the plays, might seehow they looked on the screen. A suitable building was obtained, and itwas crowded at every performance.
The Indians were at first frightened, thinking it was some new andpowerful kind of "medicine" that might have a bad effect on them. Withone accord, when the film the boys had taken, showing the charge of thesoldiers on the Moquis, was put on, the redmen rushed from the building.And it was some time before they could be induced to return.
"Say, there's my uncle, as plain as anything!" exclaimed Joe, when theexcitement had calmed down, and the reel was run over again. "There'sSergeant Duncan, close to Captain Marsh!" and he indicated where thetrooper was riding beside the commander of the cavalry.
"That's right," agreed Blake, as the pictures flickered over the screen,the figures being almost life size. "And he looks like you, too."
"I wonder if my father looks like that?" said Joe, softly.
There were busy days ahead of them all now, and there was much work tobe done in transporting all the "properties" to the coast, and arrangingto move the picture outfit, the cameras and the entire company. The boyshad little leisure, but Joe managed to get a letter off to thegovernment lighthouse board, asking for news of his father, NathanielDuncan.
In reply he got a communication stating that a Mr. Duncan was stationedas assistant keeper at a light near San Diego, and not far from PointLoma.
"That's where we want to head for, then," said Joe, as he talked thematter over with his chum. "I wonder if that will suit Mr. Ringold?"
It did, as the theatrical manager stated, when the subject was broachedto him. Accordingly arrangements were made to ship everything there.
The day came to bid farewell to Flagstaff, which had been the stoppingplace of the theatrical troupe for several months. They had made manyfriends, and the Indians had become so used to taking their parts in thedramas, and in getting good pay for it, that they were very sorry to seethe "palefaces" leave. So, too, were the cowboys, many of whom hadbecome very friendly with our heroes and the theatrical people.
"But we've got to go," said Blake, as he shook hands with hisacquaintances.
"Indeed, if we didn't leave soon," said Joe, "I'd be tempted to startoff by myself. I've sent a letter to my dad, telling him all about howstrangely I found him, and I'm just aching to see him. I guess he'll bepretty well surprised to get it."
"I should imagine so," agreed Blake.
"One last round-up to say good-bye!" cried one of the cowboys, as theparty started away from the quarters they had occupied. "Everybody getin on this. Whoop her up, boys!"
He leaped to his steed, flourished his hat, and beg
an riding around in acircle, firing his big revolver at intervals.
"That's the ticket!" shouted the others, as they followed his example.
Soon two score of the light-hearted chaps were riding around the littlecrowd of the boys and their friends, saluting them, and saying farewellin this lively fashion.
"Whoop her up!"
"Never say die!"
"Come again, and we'll exterminate a whole band of redskins for you!"
"And have a cattle stampede made to order any day you want!"
These were only a few of the many expressions from the cowboys.
"Say, if they don't kill themselves, they'll make us deaf, with all thatnoise," predicted C. C.
"This isn't a funeral," declared Mr. Hadley. "It's a jolly occasion,Gloomy Gus!"
"Huh! Jolly? First you know some one will be hurt."
But no one was, in spite of the direful predictions, and soon thecowboys drew off, with final shots from their revolvers, dischargingthem in the air. The Indians, too, had their share in the farewell,though they were not so demonstrative as were their companions.
"And now for the coast!" cried Blake, as they reached the train.
"And my dad," added Joe, and there was a trace of tears in his eyes,which he did not attempt to conceal. Blake knew just how his chum felt,and he found himself wishing that he, too, was going to find somerelative. But he knew the only one he had was his aged uncle.
Little of incident occurred on the trip to San Diego, which had beendecided on as headquarters until a suitable location, away from anytown, could be selected directly on the ocean beach. I say little ofmoment, but C. C. was continually predicting that something wouldhappen, from a real hold-up to a train wreck.
"And if that doesn't happen, a bridge will go go down with us," he said.
But nothing of the kind occurred, and finally the boys and their friendsreached the coast, going to the boarding place they had engaged.
"And there's the old Pacific!" exclaimed Joe, as he and Blake went downto the shore of the bay on which San Diego stands. "It isn't very rough,however, and Mr. Ringold said he wanted tumbling waves as a background."
"It gets rough at times, though," remarked a fisherman. "Of course, ifyou want to see big waves you'll have to go beyond this bay. It's prettywell land-locked. Oh, yes, the old Pacific isn't always as peaceful asher name."
The Moving Picture Boys on the Coast Page 6
