That's it. Now the clench--kiss her--slow! That's it. Cut!"Merton's part in the drama was ended. He knew that the company worked in the hills another week and there were more close-ups to take in the dance-hall, but he was not needed in these. Baird congratulated him warmly.
"Fine work, my boy! You've done your first picture, and with Miss Montague as your leading lady I feel that you're going to land ace-high with your public. Now all you got to do for a couple of weeks is to take it easy while we finish up some rough ends of this piece.
Then we'll be ready to start on the new one. It's pretty well doped out, and there's a big part in it for you--big things to be done in a big way, see what I mean.""Well, I'm glad I suited you," Merton replied. "I tried to give the best that was in me to a sincere interpretation of that fine part.
And it was a great surprise to me. I never thought I'd be working for you, Mr. Baird, and of course I wouldn't have been if you had kept on doing those comedies. I never would have wanted to work in one of them." "Of course not," agreed Baird cordially. "I realized that you were a serious artist, and you came in the nick of time, just when I was wanting to be serious myself, to get away from that slap-stick stuff into something better and finer. You came when Ineeded you. And, look here, Merton, I signed you on at forty a week--""Yes, sir: I was glad to get it."
"Well, I'm going to give you more. From the beginning of the new picture you're on the payroll at seventy-five a week. No, no, not a word--" as Merton would have thanked him. "You're earning the money.
And for the picture after that--well, if you keep on giving the best that's in you, it will be a whole lot more. Now take a good rest till we're ready for you."At last he had won. Suffering and sacrifice had told. And Baird had spoken of the Montague girl as his leading lady--quite as if he were a star. And seventy-five dollars a week! A sum Gashwiler had made him work five weeks for. Now he had something big to write to his old friend, Tessie Kearns. She might spread the news in Simsbury, he thought. He contrived a close-up of Gashwiler hearing it, of Mrs.
Gashwiler hearing it, of Metta Judson hearing it.
They would all be incredulous until a certain picture was shown at the Bijou Palace, a gripping drama of mother-love, of a clean-limbed young American type wrongfully accused of a crime and taking the burden of it upon his own shoulders for the sake of the girl he had come to love; of the tense play of elemental forces in the great West, the regeneration of a shallow society girl when brought to adversity by the ruin of her old father; of the lovers reunited in that West they both loved.
And somehow--this was still a puzzle--the very effective weaving in and out of the drama of the world's most popular screen idol, played so expertly by Clifford Armytage who looked enough like him to be his twin brother.
Fresh from joyous moments in the projection room, the Montague girl gazed at Baird across the latter's desk, Baird spoke.
"Sis, he's a wonder."
"Jeff, you're a wonder. How'd you ever keep him from getting wise?"Baird shrugged. "Easy! We caught him fresh.""How'd you ever win him to do all those falls on the trick spurs, and get the close-ups of them? Didn't he know you were shooting?""Oh!" Baird shrugged again. "A little talk made that all jake. But what bothers me--how's he going to act when he's seen the picture?"The girl became grave. "I'm scared stiff every time I think of it.
Maybe he'll murder you, Jeff."
"Maybe he'll murder both of us. You got him into it."She did not smile, but considered gravely, absently.
"There's something else might happen," she said at last. "That boy's got at least a couple of sides to him. I'd rather he'd be crazy mad than be what I'm thinking of now, and that's that all this stuff might just fairly break his heart. Think of it--to see his fine honest acting turned into good old Buckeye slap-stick! Can't you get that? How'd you like to think you were playing Romeo, and act your heart out at it, and then find out they'd slipped in a cross-eyed Juliet in a comedy make-up on you? Well, you can laugh, but maybe it won't be funny to him. Honest, Jeff, that kid gets me under the ribs kind of. I hope he takes it standing up, and goes good and crazy mad.""I'll know what to say to him if he does that. If he takes it the other way, lying down, I'll be too ashamed ever to look him in the eye again. Say, it'll be like going up to a friendly baby and soaking it with a potato masher or something.""Don't worry about it, Kid. Anyway, it won't be your fault so much as mine. And you think there's only two ways for him to take it, mad or heart broken? Well, let me tell you something about that lad--he might fool you both ways. I don't know just how, but I tell you he's an actor, a born one. What he did is going to get over big. And Inever yet saw a born actor that would take applause lying down, even if it does come for what he didn't know he was doing. Maybe he'll be mad--that's natural enough. But maybe he'll fool us both. So cheerio, old Pippin! and let's fly into the new piece. I'll play safe by shooting the most of that before the other one is released.
And he'll still be playing straight in a serious heart drama. Fancy that, Armand!"
