But there—­What’s the use of being mean and telling on a good chap?

The pictures taken, they strolled on.  At Fort Marion, on the banks of the Mantanzas River, they found much of interest; but agreed to explore it more in detail at another time.

“You’ll have to be filmed here, anyhow,” Russ told the girls.  “There’s an important drama, with several scenes, laid here.”

“Are we in it?” asked Ruth.

“Yes, the whole company; and Mr. Pertell said he’d have to hire some supers, too.”

By this Russ meant that the manager would have to engage extra persons to impersonate the unimportant characters in the play, as is often done in “mob” scenes in the theaters.

“Now for the orange grove, and then—­the Fountain of Youth!” cried Paul, as they came out of the old fort.

“What a delightful combination!” exclaimed Alice.

“Youth—­and—­orange blossoms!” and she clapped her hands, her eyes shining.

“Be careful,” warned Ruth in a low voice, as the young men went on ahead.

“Why, sister of mine?”

“Don’t talk so much of orange blossoms.”

“Pooh!  I’m not thinking of getting married!”

“Oh, Alice!”

“Well, wasn’t that what you meant?”

“Not at all, I only meant—­”

“I don’t believe you knew what you did mean.  Come on, we’ll be lost!” and she caught Ruth by the arm and hurried on after Russ and Paul.

CHAPTER IX

IN THE DUNGEON

“Oh, if we could only stay here forever!”

“It would be Paradise!”

Thus Ruth and Alice exclaimed as they entered the orange grove, a short distance from the city gates.  And indeed the scene that greeted them, and the sweet odors, might well call for this praise and desire from even the most blase tourist.

Even Russ, grown accustomed by his calling to odd scenes, was impressed by the wonderful sight, and as for Paul, who had something of the romantic nature of Ruth, it was a pure delight to him.

“I wonder if they will take any pictures here?” said Ruth, softly—­at first it seemed as if one must talk in whispers so as not to disturb the beauty of the place.

“Oh, I’m going to film you here,” announced Russ.  “Stand still a moment and I’ll snap you now.  There’s a pretty place.”

Ruth and Alice assumed graceful poses, and soon their likenesses were registered on the film.  Russ never tired of taking pictures, and when he was not making moving ones he was using his small hand camera.  How many times he had taken the likeness of Ruth it would be hard to estimate.

They wandered about the orange grove, and the young men bought some of the delicious fruit, right from the trees, and fully ripe.  It had a flavor all its own.

“Let me show you how to eat an orange,” suggested one of the men of the grove, as he saw the young people going about, “in the way it is usually done when no orange spoons are to be had.”