"So I sort of come t' anchor in th' Sailors' Snug Harbor, an' when I heard about this movin' picture business, and th' chance it gave t' make a little money, I took it. But when it comes t' doin' some crime for it, I draws th' line. As I said, I've always lived honest, man and boy, for many years, an' that one charge is th' only one against me. I'm not goin' t' take them papers, and substitute false ones." "But you don't exactly understand," Ruth said with a smile. "I am going to explain it to you. Mr. Pertell said I might. Now here is the story we are supposed to act out; and, mind you, it is only _supposing_--make believe, as we children used to say." "Oh, it's make believe; is it?" asked Jack Jepson. "Yes, just make-believe." "I had a little gal once--long years ago," he said softly, "an' she used to be great on make-believe games. Is this takin' of them papers a make believe game?" "Exactly!" chimed in Alice. "My sister and I have to pretend every day. It's fun!" "Well, of course I didn't know _that_," said Jack. "Maybe I made a mistake in bein' so quick. There was nothin' wrong in it?" he questioned. "Not the least in the world," said Ruth. "It is just a game, played for the amusement of the public. I'll explain," and from the typewritten scenario she held she went over the outlines of the big marine drama, as one of the authors of the Comet company had written it. As she gave the details, the simple, kindly face of the sailor cleared. His doubts vanished. "Say, wasn't I th' old landlubber though!" he cried. "T' think I thought I was really committin' a crime. Ha! Ha!" "Well, your past experience had made you careful," Alice said. "That's what it had, Miss. It's no fun t' be barred from the ports of the country that has more of 'em than any nation of the world. It hampers a man. But I daren't go on British soil." "Could they come here and take you?" asked Ruth. The old man looked around before replying. "They maybe wouldn't know me," he hoarsely whispered. "I've grown a beard since those days." "Well, then, how would the British authorities know you?" asked Alice with a smile. "I'm not takin' any chances, Miss," was the answer. And though it might seem to an outsider that it would be safe, under those circumstances, for Jepson to visit British ports, if he kept away from the island where he had been imprisoned, he could not see it that way. "No sir!" he exclaimed. "No British ports for mine!" By this time Mr. DeVere, who had been engaged in finishing a few scenes in a play that had started the day before, came up to join his daughters. "Well, how is the great marine drama coming on?" he asked, his voice being more hoarse than usual. He had done some talking, as he found it helped to give a better idea of the characters he portrayed, but it was not necessary, in these picture plays, to get his voice "over the footlights."