CHAPTER VIII
AS IN THE DAYS OF CHIVALRY
"W-what's it all mean, Hugh?" Billy was gasping, as he stood there withquaking knees, and just stared and stared.
Indeed, for the moment Hugh could not have answered him, he was himselfso busily engaged in looking. There was good and sufficient reason forthe eyes of every one being glued on the remarkable sight taking placebefore them, for surely such an amazing spectacle had never beforebeen witnessed in America, nor indeed for some hundreds of years evenin the old country.
The castle was no longer given over to the owls and bats and rats. Itnow seemed to be fairly swarming with moving figures, and such figures!Hugh blinked, and took a second look before he could actually believehis eyes.
Why, there were horses clad in all the panoply of the fourteenth century,on the backs of which sat knights in shining armor, with long lances,and great two-handed swords for their weapons, and waving plumes danglingfrom their helmets. Men with bare legs and all manner of weird apparelwere attacking the castle, using clubs, rocks, and queer arrangementsfor casting missiles; some of them were climbing short scaling laddersonly to be rudely hurled down again by some of the valiant defenderswho manned the top of the walls.
The drawbridge had been raised, and the portcullis protected the door,but the gallant assailants had apparently thrown a bridge hastilyconstructed across the moat, and they were certainly as busy as a hiveof bees that had struck a mine of sugar.
It was a wonderful scene, and the five scouts could hardly be blamedfor thinking they must be dreaming, everything was so unreal, so likea page torn from history in the times of the Crusaders.
Perhaps one or more of them began to believe that a host of spiritsbelonging to ancient worthies, long since dead, while passing by hadrecognized in the make-believe castle such a wonderful copy of somethingthey had known in life that they were tempted to stop and play theirparts again with all this gusto and confusion.
If this were the case, however, Hugh quickly disillusioned the rest ofthe group. His quick eye had found an explanation for all thisremarkable happening.
"Well, I declare, who would ever have believed it?" they heard himsaying, for again the riot was beginning to die out, men were brushingthemselves off, while a few others, less fortunate than their companions,were being pulled out of the moat surrounding the castle, which evidentlyheld some water, for they appeared to be dripping wet, though takingit all in good part.
"What have you guessed, Hugh?" demanded Arthur, knowing from themanner of the scout master that he had apparently solved the mystery.
Hugh was laughing now. The strained look had passed from his youngface. It seemed to him like a jump from the sublime to the ridiculous.
"If you fellows will look over to one side to where that man was turningthe handle of some sort of box just as if he might be an organ grinder,you'll guess what it all means," Hugh told them, pointing as he spoke.
Cries of wonder and comprehension immediately arose from Alec andArthur, though even then Billy and Stallings did not seem to fullygrasp the facts.
"Motion-picture actors at work!" exclaimed Alec.
"Oh! did you ever hear of such a thing?" gurgled Billy, at the sametime beginning to lose the haunted look on his face.
"Sure thing!" added Arthur, grinning now. "That chap is the cameraman---what is it they call it, a cinematoscope or something that way.He's been grinding like mad while all that battle on the walls wastaking place. And I can see him laughing from here, as if that lastscrap pleased him a whole lot."
"Well, if that don't beat everything!" said Monkey Stallings, inmingled awe and delight. "To think of a company finding out aboutthat queer old imitation castle, and coming all the way up here so asto stage one of their Shakespeare plays around it!"
"And look at all the actors they've gone and fetched along with them,will you?" Billy went on to say. "Why, there must be scores of menand women there, all dressed in fancy costumes. Gee! it must cost_rafts_ of money to stage just one of those dramas."
"Oh!" said Hugh; "expense doesn't seem to enter into their calculationswhen they think they've got something that will go. A thousand peoplehave been used in, one play, I've read, and as much as two hundredthousand dollars spent on it!"
"Say, here's our same old luck come along again, fellows!" declaredArthur, as though it gave him a tremendous amount of satisfactionto realize it. "I've always had a sort of hankering after a chanceto learn just how these queer people managed when staging one of theirplays, and as sure as you live we're in a fair way to find out now."
"Was there ever anything so strange as our being up here just at thetime they came to play their game?" demanded Monkey Stallings. "Why,it begins to look as if they must have engaged the old castle especiallyto cast their play here, and make it seem the real stuff, don't youthink so, Hugh?"
"That's not so very remarkable, after all," ventured Hugh, as allof them continued to stare at the many moving figures, apparentlyresting for the next stage in the exciting drama that was being reeledoff. "I understand that all those big companies have spies outeverywhere about the country."
"Spies!" echoed Billy; "and what for, Hugh, when we're not at war withanybody?"
"There's a tremendous amount of competition afloat between the numerouscompanies," explained the other. "They are looking for all sorts ofqueer settings for their plays. Houses have to be burned down,bridges blown up, railroad trains ditched, and all manner of stuntspulled off to satisfy the public greed for thrilling spectacles."
Alec gave a plain, unmistakable groan.
"That's it," he said disconsolately, "it's going to spell my finish.I knew that I didn't have that heavy feeling for nothing. There wassomething in the air that told me my fine dreams were going to bewrecked, sooner or later. Chances are now this big company has goneand stepped in to buy the old castle for a song, and in the courseof their reproduction of history they expect to blow the same up,or at least set fire to that part made of wood. It's all off, boys!"
"But you've got your pictures to show for it, Alec," Hugh told him,consolingly, "and your aunt wouldn't think of taking back your cameraafter you've done so well with it. She can see that it isn't yourfault, no matter what happens to the old building now."
Alec gave a cry of triumph.
"Say, that's right, Hugh, and thank you for reminding me I'm carryingthat same camera at this very minute. What's to hinder me snapping offa few pictures on my own account of what's going on over there? Whatdo you say to that, Hugh?"
"I should say you'd be foolish not to take the chance," returned thescout leader.
It was surprising to see how Alec forgot his keen disappointment ashe commenced to focus his instrument upon the easily seen building,with all those strange costumed figures about the walls.
"The sun is just right for a cracker-jack snap-shot from here," heremarked, as he proceeded to press the bulb, and then carefully changethe exposure so that he might not inadvertently take two pictureson the same portion of film; for Alec was exceedingly systematic inmost things he did, which was one secret for his wonderful successat photography, a profession that allows no haphazard habits.
"There, I reckon they're staging another picture over yonder, boys!"cried Arthur, as a new bustle was noticed amidst the group of players."Two of the men appear to have been knocked out in that attack, forthere's a chap who looks like he might be a doctor attending to themunder that tree. I wonder if they'd care to let me lend a hand atthat part of the game? I'm sure I can be of help."
Arthur was never happier than when plying his favorite vocation ofamateur surgeon. He had really done some fine work along those lines,and received the approbation of those who were well up in medicalpractice.
"Whee, if all that scrapping was half-way real!" burst out the admiringBilly; "the only thing I wonder at is how any of those fellows manageto come out of the fight with whole heads or limbs. Some of them weresent crashing down when that short ladde
r was hurled back by thedefenders on the walls. It looked pretty real stuff from here."
"It is pretty near the genuine thing." said Hugh. "I've often wonderedwhether they faked those wonderful affairs, but after, what I've seenthis day I'm going to believe they're as close to the original as canbe. There, you see how the fat man beside the operator is wavinghis arms. He's got a megaphone, too, and as the scene goes alonghe bawls through that to tell them to keep on, or change the waythey're doing things."
Alec got ready to take another snap-shot when the battle was well on.He was as excited as Hugh had ever seen him, and the other tookoccasion to warn the photographer to be careful.
"Get a grip on yourself, Alec," he said. "Hold yourself steady, orelse you'll be making some fearful blunder, and spoiling the bestchance you ever had to get a prize picture. Now they are startingin again, you see!"
Every one of the five scouts was straining his eyesight to the extremelimit in the, endeavor not to lose the slightest incident. Neverbefore had such a glorious opportunity come to any of their kind toactually watch how those astonishing scenes of olden times were takenby the motion-picture players; and they did not want to miss any partof it.
Again did the great noise break forth as the valiant assailants commencedtheir new attack upon the apparently impregnable walls of the ancientcastle, so gallantly defended by the occupants.
This small army of players had descended on the region like a floodof seventeen-year locusts. An hour or two before and there had apparentlynot been a living thing in the neighborhood of the mansion, and nowit was the centre of a swarming horde of earnest workers, each tryingto earn his salary as best he knew how, both by shouting, and alsofighting in yeoman style.
"Oh! why can't we get closer than this, Hugh?" begged Alec, afterhe had taken another snap at the animated spectacle that would lateron thrill many a boyish heart in the way of a picture, and also causea feeling of envy to arise because a cruel fate had prevented themfrom participating in the wonderful adventure.
"Nothing to hinder that I can see," he was told. "Fact is, I was goingto suggest that same thing myself. So let's get a move on, fellows."
Eagerly they kept pace with Hugh as he started to run toward the castle.It would be a shame not to take full advantage of the golden opportunityoffered them to get in close touch with these motion-picture actorswho, unaware of the fact that they had a small and select audiencein the way of Boy Scouts, were each and every one working like troopersto fulfill their difficult duties.
Alec kept close "tabs" on what was going on ahead presently, possiblyfearing that the excited, fat manager, who was dancing up and down,mopping his forehead with a red bandanna with one hand, and wavingthe megaphone with the other when not shouting through the same, mightcall the scene off, the boy stopped short, focussed again on the amazingpicture, and got another snap-shot at closer range.
In this fashion the runners managed to come close up before therewas a sudden cessation to all the tumult of hideous war, and the actors,laughing and evidently enjoying it to the utmost, began to crowd aroundthe stage director as if to learn whether the scene had met with hisapproval.