The performance had begun. It was funny to hear a boy sing a comical song that was intended to be pathetic, and to see the ill.u.s.trative pictures flashed on the big muslin. The song was all about a little girl who wanted a mamma, and who said so to a lady who knew the child"s widowed father, and who finally took pity on the child and married the parent, thus affording a ready-made mamma for the little girl on the canvas. And then they were all so happy!
The intensely amateurish effect put the number beyond criticism, and the Chelton young folks applauded it vigorously. The small boy who sang was very much surprised at the applause--and so were many others in the playhouse. But the motor boys and girls kept it up, until the little fellow was compelled to come out front and bow. Then they let him go.
A wonderful story of rustic love and its "terrible" consequences was told in the regulation motion pictures, the motion of which seemed to have a very bad spell of ague. Bess was compelled to clap her hand over her eyes occasionally, but the others stood the strain wonderfully, although Cora declared she hadn"t a wink left for the rest of her natural life.
Another picture story was attempted when, suddenly, there was a loud hissing sound that was followed by a roar!
Instantly the place was in confusion!
Women shouted and children cried!
The lights went out, and with them seemed to go whatever amount of common sense the audience might have been expected to have held in reserve.
"Keep your seats! Keep your seats!" shouted the manager. "There is nothing at all the matter!"
The frightened and panic-stricken a.s.semblage would not listen to the a.s.surance, but, instead, fought their way toward the doors, until the real danger, that of being crushed to death, was evident to those who had not taken fright with the others.
"Don"t move!" Jack commanded his party, in the most emphatic tone.
"Keep your seats, and don"t stir!"
But Belle was almost fainting with fear, and she begged to be allowed to get out.
"What for?" asked Ed. "There is absolutely nothing the matter. The lights have gone out and the motion picture machine went up, but what harm is that? Stay where you are, Belle," and he grasped her firmly by the arm. "I wouldn"t risk my--new shoes in that mob."
This quieted the girl, and she sank back against Cora, who was almost laughing at the situation.
Presently, the manager, realizing that he could not stop the crowd with his voice, called for music and ordered the other part of the performance to go on.
"Work slow!" he commanded, and then the old rusty piano "took up"
something--just what it was would be hard to say.
To the alleged tune a song was started. It was perfectly dark in the place, no subst.i.tute lights having been provided, and when the voice of a young girl trembled above the din and racket of the people fighting for the open air, it seemed almost ridiculous.
"For our special benefit," announced Walter. "I don"t believe there is another person seated in the place."
But the girl sang on, each bar of her song of the times bringing her voice out clearer, and fuller.
"I would like to see her face," said Cora to Ed. "There is something familiar about that voice."
"Well, perhaps we can make a light," he replied. "I have as many as two matches, and the other fellows may have a couple."
Bess leaned over to Cora. "Doesn"t that sound like Nellie?" she asked.
"I am sure she had just that queer lisp."
"I was just saying the same thing," returned Cora. "Oh, if we only could find them--here, and have no further worry about them and their--foolish suicide note," for although Cora placed no credence in the drowning threat, she did not like it, and would very much preferred to have it put out of all possibility of occurring.
Still the child sang on--all about the roses and the birds that seemed to get in a most dangerous tangle, until the listeners found it difficult to tell which was sweeter--the song of the birds, or the color of the roses!
The Chelton party was not far from the place where the footlights ought to have been.
"Suppose I go over there and strike a match," suggested Ed. "I can hold it up near her face, and then you will be able to get a glimpse."
Acting on this plan he felt his way through the dark and deserted place, and did almost reach the stage. Then he struck a match!
It went out.
He lighted another--better luck this time, for it burned away while he jumped to the stage and almost thrust the little wooden taper into the face of the singer.
The girl screamed, and seemed too frightened to move!
The match went out, and, as the place was again black in darkness, the figure on the platform pa.s.sed behind the curtain and was gone!
CHAPTER XX
THE GAIETY OF GOING
"Oh, Glorious gaiety!"
"Oh, delightful dissipation!"
"Oh, luscious loafing!"
"Oh, wayside wanderings!"
These remarks emanated from the exuberant spirits of Jack Kimball, Paul Hastings, Ed Foster and Walter Pennington.
It was a few evenings after the moving picture performance had ended so abruptly, and the young men insisted that this time they would "take in" some other attractions. The young ladies were almost equally enthusiastic, and therefore it was decided that the beautiful June evening be spent in the perfectly innocent sport of further sight-seeing at the select summer colony centre.
On the other evening when Ed thrust the light under the eyes of the little singer, who was following the manager"s instructions to "sing for all she was worth, to catch the crowd," and the girl had darted away, frightened at the rather daring act of attempt at recognition, Cora insisted that the singer was none other than Rose Catron.
But the darkness and confusion of the place made it impossible for even the Chelton boys to make their way back of the stage and investigate further.
Jack did try it, but the tangle of boxes and heaps of stage fixings so blocked his way that he was forced to give up before he reached what ought to be the stage entrance. Ed and Walter searched for the manager with equally unsatisfactory results, and so, for the time being, the quest had to be abandoned; although Cora was keenly disappointed in having to leave the place with no clue as to the real ident.i.ty of the little singer.
That the girls had not drowned themselves was all the a.s.surance that Belle needed to restore her peace of mind on that subject, while Bess insisted she would take the _Flyaway_ and run down to the place so early next morning that if the performer should prove to be Rose, she would scarcely have had time to pick up her things in daylight, and again escape. Hazel was also interested when told of the girls"
strange story, and in her gentle yet decisive way, she offered to do what she could while at the beach to discover the possible whereabouts of Rose and Nellie. But the search was unavailing, as no one in authority at the moving picture theatre would answer questions satisfactorily.
"To-night," said Walter, as they started out again, "let the girls choose the attraction."
They sauntered along the brilliantly-lighted boardwalk. All the style available at the colony seemed to be on parade, and, as far as our girl friends were concerned, they would really have preferred to remain in the procession, but for the knowledge that the boys wanted to see what was going on in the big building at the end of the pier.
"The Human Washing Machine!" shouted Jack, after a glance at the sign.
"Now there is a practical attraction and I am willing to pay the bill for "doing up" every one in the crowd."