Hollywood (Los Angeles, Calif.) -- Fiction; Motion picture industry -- Fiction
Still, he had a day’s pay coming. This time, though, it would be but
five dollars--his dress suit had not been needed. And five dollars would
appease Mrs. Patterson for another week. Yet what would be the good of
sleeping if he had nothing to eat? He was hungry now. Thin soup, ever so
plenteously spiced with catsup, was inadequate provender for a working
artist. He knew, even as he sat there cross-legged, an apparently
self-supporting and care-free Bedouin, that this ensuing five dollars
would never be seen by Mrs. Patterson.
There were a few more shots of the cafe’s interior during which one of
the inmates carefully permitted his half--consumed cigarette to go
out. After that a few more shots of the lively street which, it was now
learned, was a street in Cairo. Earnest efforts were made by the throngs
in these scenes to give the murderous camel plenty of head room. Some
close-ups were taken of the European tourists while they bargained with
a native merchant for hammered brassware and rare shawls.
The bad sheik was caught near the group bending an evil glare upon the
beauteous English girl, and once the camera turned while she faced
him with a little shiver of apprehension. Later the sheik was caught
bargaining for a camel train with the innocent-looking old gentleman
in the sun-hat. Undoubtedly the sheik was about to lead them into the
desert for no good purpose. A dreadful fate seemed in store for the
girl, but she must be left to face it without the support of Merton
Gill.
The lately hired extras were now dismissed. They trooped back to
the dressing room to doff their flowing robes and remove the Bedouin
make-up. Merton Gill went from the dressing room to the little window
through which he had received his robe and his slip was returned to him
signed by the assistant director. It had now become a paper of value,
even to Mrs. Patterson; but she was never to know this, for its owner
went down the street to another window and relinquished it for a
five-dollar bill.
The bill was adorned with a portrait of Benjamin Harrison smugly
radiating prosperity from every hair in his beard. He was clearly one
who had never gone hungry nor betrayed the confidence of a society woman
counting upon her room rent strictly in advance. The portrait of this
successful man was borne swiftly to the cafeteria where its present
owner lavishly heaped a tray with excellent food and hastened with it
to a table. He ate with but slight regard for his surroundings. Beulah
Baxter herself might have occupied a neighbouring table without coming
to his notice at once. He was very hungry. The catsup-laden soup had
proved to be little more than an appetizer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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