"No, you Union chaps hold back there in ambush. You're not to dash out until you get the signal. Wait!" "Keep that horse out of the way. He isn't supposed to dash across, riderless, until after the first volley." "Put in a little more action! Fall off as though you were shot, not as though you were bending over to see if your horse had a stone under his shoe! Fall off hard!" "And you fellows that do fall off--lie still after you fall! Don't twitch as though you wanted to scratch your noses!" "If some of 'em don't stay quiet after they fall off they'll get stepped on!" "All ready now! Come with a rush when the signal's given!" Mr. Pertell and his men were stationed near a "battery" of camera men, who were ready to grind away; and the director and his assistants were calling their instructions through big megaphones. To reach the soldiers in the more distant parts of the field recourse was had to telephones, the wires of which were laid along the ground in shallow trenches, covered with earth so that the trampling of the horses would not sever them. "Get that battery farther back among the trees!" cried Mr. Pertell to one of his helpers. "It's supposed to be a masked one, but it's in plain sight now. Even the audience would see it, let alone the men it's supposed to fire on. Get it back!" "Yes, sir," answered the man, and he telephoned the instructions to the assistant director in charge of a battery of field guns that had been thundering away--the sound which had brought Ruth and Alice to the scene. "Do we have any part in the battle scenes?" asked Ruth. "Yes, quite big parts," Paul informed her. "But you don't go on to-day. This is only a rehearsal." "But they've been firing real powder," remarked Alice, "and it looks as though they were going to fire more," and she pointed to where men of the masked battery were ramming charges down the iron throats of their guns. "Yes, they're firing, and charging, and doing all manner of stunts, and the camera men are grinding away, but they aren't using any film," went on Paul. "It's just to get every one used to working under the excitement. They have to fire the guns so the horses will get so they don't mind them when the real time comes." Hundreds of extra players had been engaged to come to Oak Farm for these battle scenes in the drama, "A Girl in Blue and A Girl in Gray," and some of them were already on hand with their mounts. As has been said, special accommodations had been erected where they were to stay during the weeks they would be needed. There were more men than women among the extra people, though a number of women and girls were needed in the "town" scenes.