Wh
THE MOON AND THE STARS
(Continued from Page.
crew, who were all bare-headed boys, dressed like ragamuffins in filthy dungarees and torn shirts bootless, but wearing leather belts with little knives slung on them.
Helen wanted to explore the ship, to go to the fo'c'sle head and watch the idle rise and swoop of the cutwater, to dream on her back, and see the great castles of sail on each mast drift across the fleecy clouds. But she wasn't al- lowed to.
"Now you're here, you work," announced Mr. Smith "I've just sent you some swell copy about you to the evening papers, and I'll think out some more dope that'll knock to-morrow morning's endways. Meanwhile-
11
He began to tell Helen what she must do, how she must look; and finally she was introduced to the star of the film, a young man whom she admired on the screen, but who now appeared to be both undersized and effeminate.
For hours she was compelled to go through actions the silliness of which passed belief; for al- though she had a hurriedly "writ- ten in" part of a stowaway, it didn't in the least resemble her actual experiences as one.
On and on she went with her ridiculous posturing. The wind was dropping, and clouds were creeping out of the west.
The Pegasus had begun to move only listlessly. Already she had missed the best part of the day.
A scene was "shot"
which necessitated "the hero" climbing the shrouds while Helen watch- ed from below. At a shout from Captain Maelstrom, one of the lads went up to show "the hero" how it was done. He ran lightly up, swung on to a tick wire stay at the main-top, and came sliding down as clean as a whistle, land- ing on the deck with a light tap of his bare feet.
Then it was "the hero's" turn to go up, followed by the panning lens of the camera and Helen's eyes. But, -poor man, his efforts to be seamanlike were so ludicrous that even the young Swedes, "well-mannered though they were,
couldn't help bursting into a spontaneous roar of laughter.
Helen felt miserably humiliat ed. She ought to have been with the boys, laughing at the grote- sque efforts of landsmen to be... come sailors for a morning. In- stead, she was on the wrong side.
But at last the scene was over, and she slipped away to join the skipper on the bridge-deck.
She looked up at him. “Isn't it awful?" she said dismally.
"What?"
"This." She pointed to the still grimacing actors.
"That it should happen in my ship
murmured Captain
Maelstrom.
"I know," she whispered. "I believed you do know, young stowaway," he grimmed at her, surprised and pleased. . His granite face became suddenly kind, and he gripped her arm hard, so that it hurt.
But she felt infinitely better: Some one of the right sort under stood her! They began to talk about the Pegasus, and a deep contentment spread over Helen.
E
-At four o'clock the sun went behind clouds, and "shooting" was abandoned for the day. At five, it began to rain. Mr. Smith joined them in a white macin- tosh.
"Well, Cap," he said, "we've done our stuff. How soon shall we be back in Hull?”
A shadow crossed Captain Maelstrom's face. It is not done to ask a skipper "in sail” when his ship will reach any given point.
"It is a calm, you see," he said. "The worst of these old tubs," said Mr. Smith in parentheses, and added "You could radio for a tug, I suppose?”
"Yes. We have not more than. fifteen miles offing."/
"Then do. I want to be in Hull to-night." He turned to Helen. "Well, little lady, it's all over now," he said.
"This has been a lucky break for both of us. My picture's going to be big; and to-morrow you'll be the most famous girl in Bri-
Where did that one go? An incident in last Sunday's match between the Royal Scots and the Navy.
tain. What do you think of that, now? You didn't expect that, did you? What a romance it's been for you, what a romance! I bet you're glad you came.".
Helen caught the skipper's sympathetic eye, and they both smiled slightly,
"Yes, very glad," she said bravely.
"Perhaps I'm hard to please...
When
was younger
I didn't much care what I ate or drank or smoked. But nowadays I take my pleas- ures, not sadly but seriously. I suppose you would call me faddy. I hate to be put off with second- best, no matter what it is. I won't eat a peach unless it is English. If I order caviare it must be Beluga.
You see what I mean about whisky. While I can obtain a whisky as soft and smooth as a fine liqueur,
why on earth should
vivid action picture from the same match.
that per
please:
from me, it pays.
WHITE HORSE
WHISKY
You can tell it blindfold!
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