Russ, after getting pictures of the start, had gone with his camera, by a short cut, to a little promontory on shore, where he got other views of the boats racing through the water.  Then he went farther on and, getting into another motor boat, took his place near the finish line, to film the end of the race.

“Oh, I do hope we win!” exclaimed Alice, to her captain.

“I’m going to do my best,” he answered, grimly, as he glanced across to where the other boat was forging through the water.

And in her boat Ruth was saying the same thing.

Each skipper had been holding something in reserve in the way of power, and now the mechanicians were signalled to use this.

The boats were nearing the finish line now, for the race, for the purpose of the moving pictures, was only a short one.

But, as it happened, the captain of the boat Alice was in, got his signal a little ahead of his rival, so that he shot forward, and thus gained an advantage the other motor boat could not cut down.

“Oh, we’re going to win!” cried Alice in delight, clapping her hands as she saw Russ, in his boat at the finish line, operating his camera.  “We’re going to win!”

Miss Pennington and Miss Dixon, who, with Ruth, were in the other boat, looked glum.  As for Ruth she was of that gentle nature which is willing to lose, that others may enjoy even a brief pleasure, and she rejoiced in the delight of her sister.

“Well, I guess he’s got me!” regretfully admitted the captain of the losing boat.  “He was a little too quick for me.”

And so it proved, for the boat containing Alice shot across the line a winner.

“I knew we’d do it!” she cried.

“Good for you!” shouted Russ.

“It’s time for you to fall overboard now, Mr. Sneed,” directed the manager.  “Make a good fall, and put plenty of splash into it.”

“Oh dear!” groaned the actor.  “I suppose I must!”

In anticipation of this he had donned an old suit of clothes, as had Mr. Bunn, and the latter, for one of very few times, did not wear his tall hat.

“Be ready with your rescue leap,” ordered Mr. Pertell to the older actor.  “Make it as natural as you can.”

The boats had now lost headway, and were coming to a point where Russ could get pictures of the “overboard act.”

“I say!” cried Mr. Sneed, as he paused in his preparations to fall, “I have just thought of something!”

“What is it?” asked Mr. Pertell, sharply.  “Quick, we are losing time, and getting out of position.”

“There are no alligators in this bay; are there?” and Mr. Sneed looked anxiously at the captain of the motor boat.

“Not one,” was the laughing answer.  “You’re safe.”

“Then here I go!” cried the grouch, as he toppled overboard, having first “registered” a faint, as directed in the plot of the play.

“Now get him, Mr. Bunn!” cried the manager, and there was another splash, while aboard the boats the proper bits of acting were gone through with, that the camera might catch them.