Pete squinted into the finder and gave the information.
"Well,Gil,you come from behind that bush.She'll be looking toward you then without turning too much.
You grin,and come up with that eager,I-got-you-now look.Don't hurry too much;we'll give this scene plenty of time.This is the feature scene.Jean,you're at the end of your rope.You couldn't run another step if you wanted to,and you're cornered anyway,so you can't get away;get me?You're scared.
Did you ever get scared in your life?"
"Yes,"said Jean simply,remembering last night when she had pulled the blanket over her head.
"Well,you think of that time you were scared.And you make yourself think that you're going to shoot the thing that scared you.You don't put in half the punch when you shoot blanks;I've noticed that all along.So that's why you shoot a bullet.See?And you come as close to Gil as you can and not hit him.Gil,when you're shot,you go down all in a heap;you know what I mean.And Jean,when he falls,you start and lean forward,looking at him,--remember and keep your face away from the camera!--and then you start toward him kind of horrified.The scene stops right there,just as you start towards him.Then Gay takes it up and does the remorse and horror stuff because she's killed a man.That will be a close-up.
"All right,now;take your places.Sure your gun is loose so you can pull it quick?That's the feature of this scene,remember.You want to get it across BIG!
And make it real,--the scare,and all that.Hey,you women get behind the camera!Bullets glance,sometimes,and play the very mischief."He looked all around to make sure that everything was as it should be,faced Jean again,and raised his hand.
"All ready?Start your action!Camera!"
Jean had never before been given so much dramatic work to do,and Burns watched her anxiously,wishing that he dared cut the scene in two and give Muriel that tense interval when Gil Huntley came creeping into the scene from behind the bush.But after the first few seconds his strained expression relaxed;anxiety gave place to something like surprise.
Jean stood leaning heavily against the rock,panting from the flight of the day before,--for so must emotion be carried over into the next day when photo-players work at their profession.Her face was dropped upon her arms flung up against the rock in an attitude of complete exhaustion and despair.Burns involuntarily nodded his head approvingly;the girl had the idea,all right,even if she never had been trained to act a part.
"Come into the scene,Gil!"he commanded,when Jean made a move as though she was tempted to drop down upon the ground and sob hysterically."Jean,register that you hear him coming."Jean's head came up and she listened,every muscle stiffening with fear.She turned her face toward Gil,who stopped and looked at her most villainously.Gil,you must know,had come from "legitimate"and was a clever actor.Jean recoiled a little before the leering face of him;pressed her shoulder hard against the ledge that had trapped her,and watched him in an agony of fear.One felt that she did,though one could not see her face.Gil spoke a few words and came on with a certain tigerish assurance of his power,but Jean did not move a muscle.She had backed as far away from him as she could get.She was not the kind to weep and plead with him.She just waited;and one felt that she was keyed up to the supreme moment of her life.
Gil came closer and closer,and there was a look in his eyes that almost frightened Jean,accustomed as she had become to his acting a part;there was an intensity of purpose which she instinctively felt was real.She did not know what it was he had in mind,but whatever it was,she knew what it meant.He was almost within reach,so close that one saw Jean shrink a little from his nearness.He stopped and gathered himself for a quick,forward lunge--The two women screamed,though they had been expecting that swift drawing of Jean's gun and the shot that seemed to sound the instant her hand dropped.
Gil stiffened,and his hand flew up to his temple.His eyes became two staring questions that bored into the soul of Jean.His hand dropped to his side,and his head sagged forward.He lurched,tried to steady himself and then went down limply.
Jean dropped her gun and darted toward him,her face like chalk,as she turned it for one horrified instant toward Burns.She went down on her knees and lifted Gil's head,looking at the red blotch on his temple and the trickle that ran down his cheek.She laid his head down with a gentleness wholly unconscious,and looked again at Burns."I've killed him,"she said in a small,dry,flat voice.She put out her hands gropingly and fell forward across Gil's inert body.It was the first time in her life that Jean had ever fainted.
"Stop the camera!"Burns croaked tardily,and Pete stopped turning.Pete had that little,twisted grin on his face,and he was perfectly calm and self-possessed.