"Hen Lacomb is evidently someone in power," decided Alice, though she said nothing to her sister or father, or even Jack. She managed to learn, by judicious questions, that Hen, as she began to think of him, was a friend of Captain Brisco, and a sort of pa.s.senger-helper on the _Mary Ellen_.

And now that the voyage was really started, those who were to take part in the play began to consider their roles.

In brief the plan was this. The schooner, under her own sail, would proceed to the warm West Indian waters and clime, and there, when suitable surroundings were found, the taking of the main scenes in the big drama would begin.

I shall not weary you with an account of the trip down. In spite of her age, the schooner proved a good sailor, for she had been well refitted, even if she was to be wrecked. Day after day pa.s.sed and the sun shone warmer as they came farther and farther south.

Some few scenes were filmed aboard the craft, but there was not much work for anyone, and the time was most enjoyable. Even Mr. Sneed, the "human grouch," consented to smile, now and then.

They pa.s.sed Key West, but did not dock, and kept on. Alice wondered if they would come near the "Hole in the Wall," but she did not like to ask, for fear of making trouble for Jack. She did not know how much of his story he wanted known to those aboard the ship.

It was a warm, sunny day, and Mr. Pertell had announced that he would begin some of the more important scenes of the drama in a short time.

The _Mary Ellen_ was plowing through the blue waters, bending over under a good wind. Nearly all the members of the company were out on deck, under awnings. Alice saw Jack Jepson at some work on the port rail, and noticed Hen Lacomb and the captain stroll toward him. The two latter seemed to converse for a few minutes, when suddenly there was a heavy lurch and roll to the craft.

"Mind your helm there!" sang out Captain Brisco angrily to the steersman. At the same time there rang out a cry from Hen Lacomb.

"Man overboard! Man overboard!"

Alice, startled, leaped to her feet. Jack Jepson had disappeared!

CHAPTER XV

"SAIL HO!"

Alice DeVere was not an ordinary sort of girl. She may have been, once, but that was before her advent in moving pictures. There had been times when a sudden emergency would cause her to feel faint, if not actually to succ.u.mb to that interesting ailment, which is so useful, especially in stories and books.

But Alice, who was the nearest to the scene of what had just happened, neither fainted, nor became unduly excited. She had seen too many emergencies in the work of taking moving pictures to become "rattled,"

which is not used in a slangy sense at all, but merely to indicate that one's nerves vibrate too rapidly. Consequently, after her first scream, Alice was almost as calm and collected as could be expected of a veteran sailor.

"Man overboard!" Alice cried, echoing the shout of Hen Lacomb, who, she noticed, after his first hesitation, began lowering a boat, or trying to, for it needed two at that task.

"I'll help!" cried Alice rushing to the aid of the strange man who seemed so friendly with Captain Brisco.

"Oh--you----!" he exclaimed, with a swift look at her. Then he resumed the work of loosing the ropes so they would run freely in the pulley blocks of the davits.

Meanwhile Captain Brisco had bawled out an order to the helmsman to bring the ship up in the wind. A sailor had tossed overboard a life-ring, and then came to help Lacomb lower the boat, for Alice found it beyond her strength, eager as she was.

"There he is!" cried Russ, as he rushed to the rail beside Alice. He pointed to the water. Fortunately the sea was smooth, and rising and falling on the waves could be seen the head of the old sailor.

"Oh! Oh!" gasped Ruth, who glided over to the side of Alice. "If--if a shark should come now."

"There aren't any around here!" declared Russ. He did not know whether there were or not, but he said that to make the girls feel more comfortable. After all, if there were sharks, whatever he said would be of no effect, and it was better to take the best view of it, he thought.

"Lower away!" cried Hen Lacomb, and the boat went down to the water.

Two sailors, beside himself, slid down the ropes into it, and took the oars. They cast off the davit blocks, and began rowing toward the bobbing head. Old Jack could swim well, it seemed, in spite of his age.

The water was warm, and it was broad daylight, so he was in comparatively little danger--except from sharks and from the fact that he had on his clothes, which would soon become soaked and hamper him.

But no sharks appeared; that menacing triangular fin which marks them was not seen cutting the water, and no big twelve-foot man-eater was observed to turn on his back in order to bring his curious, under-shot mouth with its rows of keen teeth to bear on poor Jack Jepson.

If a shark had appeared, it would probably have put an end to the plans of Mr. Pertell to have his company give an idea of shipwreck by leaping into the water. No one would have jumped into those waters had they been shark-infested. But, as I have said, none of the tigers of the deep showed, and, a little later, Jack was being lifted into the small boat.

They had reached him just when his strength was about exhausted.

"Oh, have they saved him?" asked Miss Pennington, coming on deck very pale. Alice said afterward she had not had time to put on her "war paint."

"I--I can't bear to look!" faltered Miss Dixon, following her friend.

"Tell me dear--is he--is he dead?" she asked of Alice.

"Dead! No, of course not!" said Alice, none too politely. "Don't be silly! He just fell overboard, and they got him back again; that's all."

Miss Dixon looked angry and flounced back to her cabin with her chum.

Jack and his rescuers were hoisted up in the boat, the other sailors hauling on the ropes, the blocks of which were hooked fast to rings in the bow and stern posts of the rowing craft.

"Well, you tried to leave us rather suddenly," said Mr. Pertell. "Don't go trying that again, Jack--at least until we finish making the pictures," he went on with a whimsical smile. "You're in too many important scenes to be lost that way."

"I haven't any fancy that way myself," said Jack, who seemed little the worse for his unexpected bath.

"How did it happen?" asked Captain Brisco of his mate, though it seemed as though he had been near enough to have seen for himself.

"Why, I was standing near the rail," Jack explained, "talkin' to Mr.

Lacomb, here," and he indicated the strange man, "when, all at once the ship gives a lurch, and--well, I went over, that's all I guess," and he looked at Lacomb, as though to get him to confirm the account.

"Yes that's right," said the other. "I--I tried to grab him, but I was too late. I nearly went over myself," he added, grimly.

"Yes," a.s.sented the old salt, "you did," and he shot a look at the other.

Did Alice fancy it, or did Lacomb wince, and shrink back? And did a look pa.s.s between him and Captain Brisco--a look full of meaning?

Alice was puzzling over these questions in her own mind, when the helmsman spoke.

"It wasn't _my_ fault," he said. "I was steering all right, but Captain Brisco came and spoke to me and handed me a paper. I took one hand off the wheel, and the----"

"No one has said it was your fault," broke in the commander quickly. "I was giving you a copy of the sailing orders for the day. I wouldn't have bothered you if I had known a puff of wind and a big wave were coming along together, to s.n.a.t.c.h the wheel out of your grip. But it wasn't your fault. However, no harm is done. You had better get below, Mr. Jepson, and put on some dry clothes. Mr. Lacomb will stand watch until you feel all right again."

"Oh, I'll be all right in a little while," Jack said. "I don't need no one to stand my trick on deck. I'll be back shortly."

He went below, the water dripping from him. The ship was put back on her course. The excitement had not lasted long.

"Too bad you didn't have a camera ready, Russ," said Paul to the operator, when matters were normal aboard the _Mary Ellen_ once more.

"You might have filmed a good rescue scene."

"I was too much excited to think about that," Russ admitted. "Besides, we are going to have plenty of rescue stuff in a few days, and this wasn't a particularly thrilling one. Poor old Jack! I wonder how it feels to fall overboard?"

"Not very pleasant," Paul said. He had done it more than once in the interests of the pictures.

Alice, going below for something a little later, met the old salt on his way to the deck again, he having changed to dry garments.