A certain geographical society was anxious to get a series of films of these ceremonies, and offered a prize for the best ones. Joe and Blake decided to try for it, as did a number of other concerns, including one that was a rival of our heroes. Before leaving for the West, however, Joe received a strange letter. It intimated that he might find his father, of whose existence he was uncertain. The letter was written by a roving cowboy, and the only clue was that he had been at Big B ranch somewhere in Arizona. He forgot to mention just where. Full of hope, not only of getting films of the Indians, but of finding Mr. Duncan, Joe and Blake started out. They had many adventures, for the theatrical company went with them, Mr. Ringold, the proprietor, needing some films of the West, with cowboys and Indians. After “filming” a number of Western dramas, Joe and Blake started off to find the hidden Indians. Unexpectedly they located Big B ranch, but the cowboy who had written the letter was gone. However, another cowboy, Hank Selby by name, decided to go with the lads to help find the Indians, for Joe and Blake were tenderfeet. They located the fanatical Moquis, got the films of the weird dances, were attacked and saved, not only themselves, but their rivals. Joe’s uncle, Bill Duncan, chanced to be one of the United States troopers who drove the Indians back to their reservation. Joe’s uncle gave news of Joe’s father. The latter, it seems, had been made a widower when the two children--Joe and Jessie--were young. He placed them in the care of a family, and went to the gold fields. When he came back--quite a rich man--the two children had disappeared and he could find no trace of them, as the family he left them with had separated. Joe’s uncle said the lad’s father was a lighthouse keeper somewhere on the California coast, and, after the Indian pictures had been obtained, Joe decided to look for his parent. Blake offered to accompany him. The boys thought they would have to say good-bye to their theatrical friends, but Mr. Ringold had long contemplated a series of sea dramas, and, learning that the two lads were going to the coast, he hired them, together with Mr. Hadley, to make the films near the Pacific Ocean. In the third book of the series, entitled “The Movie Boys and the Wreckers”; or “Facing the Perils of the Deep,” you will find the details of further strange happenings. Mr. Duncan, so Joe learned, was assistant keeper of a lighthouse near San Diego. Going there with the company, which engaged quarters in the beach settlement of Chester, Joe sought his parent. But, to his surprise, Mr. Duncan had left unexpectedly, and the lightkeeper intimated to Blake, privately, that it was a good thing he had. Pressed for a reason, the keeper said that detectives had come to arrest Mr. Duncan on a charge of having helped to wreck some vessels by means of false lights on the coast.