"Mr. Ringold. I was talking to him over the long-distance 'phone a little while ago," explained Blake. "He said you were in New York."
"I was, but I ran up to see a friend, expecting to spend the week-end with him. And I'd no sooner gotten there than Ringold got me on the telephone, and ordered me back. That was after he talked to you, I guess. It seems some of his company are lost in the Mississippi flood, and he wants me to go out there with him. Some of the dramas will have to be done over again, as the films were lost, and he's going to try to find the missing folks."
"We're on the same errand," remarked Joe. "Mr. Ringold cut short our vacation, too, by long distance. We're in the same boat."
"Boat? Yes!" snorted the gloomy comedian. "And I guess we'll have to use a boat out on the Mississippi. We can't wade or swim, and there's sure to be a lot of trouble. I wish I'd never gone into this business! It's awful!"
"Oh, it may not be so bad," spoke Blake, cheerfully.
"It's bound to be," declared C. C. "Look at it! Bad luck from the very start. Express late, and all that. It's fierce!"
There was no use trying to talk him out of his gloom, and the boys realized this. It was
