“I might,” he replied with a smile at her; “but I do not know that I would.  I am beginning to like this silent ‘drama.’  It is a rest from the hard work we old actors used to have to do.  There is much less strain.  And if I went back to the legitimate, I would have to take you with me,” he added.

“Never, Daddy!” cried the younger girl.  “I am going to remain with the ‘movies’!  I would be lost without them.”

“Assuredly, they have been a great blessing to us,” observed Ruth, quietly.  “I do not know what we would have done without them, when you were stricken the second time,” and she looked fondly at her father.  She thought of the dark days, not so far back, when troubles seemed multiplying, when there was no money, and when debts pressed.  Now all seemed sunshine.

“Yes, it would be a poor return to the movies, to desert them after all they did for us,” agreed Mr. DeVere.  “That is, as long as they care for us—­those audiences who sit in the dark and watch us play our little parts on the lighted canvas.  A queer proceeding—­very queer.

“I little dreamed when I first took up the profession immortalized by Shakespeare, that I would be playing to persons whom I could not see.  But it is certainly a wonderful advance.”

Down the bay, out through the Narrows and so on out to sea passed the Tarsus, carrying the moving picture players.  The day was cold, and a storm threatened, but soon the frigid winter of the North would be left behind.  This was a comforting thought to all, though Alice declared that she liked cold weather best.

Mr. Towne came up on deck, again faultlessly attired.  His unexpected bath had not harmed him, in spite of the fact that it was cold, for he had at once taken warm drinks, and been put to bed, for a time, in hot blankets.

He could talk of nothing, however, save the fact that he was to be shown in the wet clothing he so despised.

“It is a shame!” he declared.  “If I could find that film I would destroy it myself.”

“It is safely put away,” laughed Russ.

The day passed, and evening came.  On through the darkness forged the Tarsus, while about her were the flashing beams from lighthouses, or the bobbing signal lamps from other ships.

Ruth and Alice were in their stateroom, talking together before retiring.  Alice had that day’s paper and was idly glancing over it.  She yawned sleepily, when an item suddenly caught her eye.

“Oh, dear!” she exclaimed.  “That must be dreadful!”

“What is it?” asked Ruth, who was letting down her long hair.

“Why here’s an item from some place in Florida.  It says that two girls went out in a motor boat, to gather specimens of rare swamp flowers, and have not been heard of since.  It is feared they may have been upset and drowned, or that alligators attacked them.  Oh, how dreadful!”

“Don’t let Mr. Sneed hear about that,” cautioned Ruth.  “Where in Florida was it?”