“Oh, that is too much,” protested the actor.

“Indeed it is not!” declared Mr. Pertell.  “I am also going to give each player a bonus on his or her salary, and to Mr. Bunn, for what he suffered, a special bonus.”

A day or so later the film, in which Mr. Bunn had figured in the quicksand, was finished, and then came the announcement that they would proceed on down the river to a new location, so as to get a different scenic background for the filming of a new drama.

Some of the scenes of this took place on the steamer, and then, when the captain announced that he would have to tie up for half a day to enable the “roustabouts” to go ashore and cut wood for the boiler, Mr. Pertell said: 

“Then we’ll go ashore, too.  I want to get some pictures in which a small boat will figure.  So we’ll take the camera along, Russ, and get some of those views I spoke of.”

Some scenes ashore were filmed, and then, carrying out the idea of the drama, Ruth and Alice, with Paul Ardite, got into a small boat.

They were to go down stream a little way, and there go through certain “business” called for in the play.  Paul was to row.

The boat floated under the arching moss and vines that trailed from the trees on the bank.  Now and then a snag would be struck, and on such occasions Ruth would start nervously, and cry out: 

“Alligators!”

“Oh, please stop!” begged Alice, after two or three of these scares.  “I don’t believe there’s an alligator within ten miles of us.”

“Of course not,” agreed Paul.

All this while Russ was getting films of the boat containing the two moving picture girls.  He was following in another boat.

“Steady there!” he called, at a certain point.  “Better toss over your anchor, and stay there a while.  I want a long film of this scene.”

“All right,” agreed Paul, and with a splash the little anchor went over the side.  The boat swung around and then became stationary.  Russ was grinding away at the camera when, suddenly, the boat he was filming, with its occupants, began moving up stream.

“Hold on!” he warned.  “I don’t want you to move yet!”

“I’m not moving!” retorted Paul.

“But the boat is going—­and up stream!” cried Alice.

“Oh, Paul!” exclaimed Ruth.  “What has happened?”

At the same moment the craft careened violently, and a bulky object rose partly from the water in front of it.

“An alligator has attacked us!” screamed Alice.

CHAPTER XVII

OUT OF A TREE

Paul sprang to his feet with such suddenness that he nearly upset the boat, and the girls shrieked in even greater fright.

“Sit down!  Oh, sit down!” Alice begged him.

“Russ!  Russ!” cried Ruth.  “It’s an alligator!”

“It can’t be!” declared the young moving picture operator.  He had stopped working his camera, and was urging the two men from the steamer, who were rowing his boat, to make better progress.