Russ began to grind away at the film. Mr. Switzer had taken his place in the clump of bushes, his ragged Union garments flapping in the wind. He came out, looked furtively around, and then, giving the proper "registration," he advanced cautiously toward the barn. "Go on now--run!" cried Mr. Pertell through his megaphone. The German actor ran. He made a beautiful leap through the window, and the next moment there came from him howls of dismay. "Donner vetter! Ach Himmel! Ach! My face! My hands! Hey, somebody! bring a pail of water! Quick!" CHAPTER IV A REHEARSAL Mingled in German and English came the shouts of dismay from Herr Switzer inside the dummy shed, through the window of which he had leaped on to the hay. "Oh, what is it?" cried Ruth, clasping her hands and registering "dismay" unconsciously. "He must have fallen and hurt himself," ejaculated Alice. "Do, Paul, go and see what it is." "Stop the camera!" yelled Mr. Pertell through his megaphone. "Don't spoil the film, Russ. You got a good scene there. He went through the window all right, and his yells won't register. Stop the camera!" "Stopped she is," reported Russ. Then those of the players who had been looking on and wondering at Mr. Switzer's cries could hurry to his rescue. For it is a crime out of the ordinary in the annals of moving pictures for any one not in the scene to get within range of the camera when an act is being filmed. It means not only the spoiling of the reel, perhaps, but a retaking of that particular action. When Russ ceased to grind at the camera crank, however, it was the same as when the shutter of an ordinary camera is closed. No more views can be taken. It was safe for others to cross the field of vision. "What's the matter?" cried Paul, who, with Ruth and Alice and some of the others trailing after him, was hurrying toward the false front of boards that represented a shed. "Did a cow critter or a sheep step on you?" Russ questioned. "Ach! My face! My clothes! Ruined!" came in accents of deep disgust from the actor. "Never again will I leap through a window without knowing into what I am going to land. Ach!" "What happened?" asked Paul, trying to keep from laughing, for the player's voice was so funnily tragic. "What happened? Come and see!" cried Mr. Switzer. "I have into a chicken's home invaded myself already!" "Invaded himself into a chicken's home!" exclaimed Mr. Pertell. "What in the world does he mean?" "I guess he means he sat down in a hen's nest!" chuckled Paul, and this proved to be the case. Going around to the other side of the erected boards, the players and others saw a curious sight. Seated on the hay, his face, his hair, his hands, and his clothing a mass of the whites and yellows of eggs, was Carl Switzer. He held up his fingers, dripping with the ingredients of half a dozen omelets.