So great care is taken to have everything as nearly perfect as
possible. Blake and Joe watched the filming of the drama,
recalling the time when they used to turn the handle of the camera
at the same work, before they were chosen to go out after bigger
pictures--scenes from real life. The operator, a young fellow;
whom both Blake and Joe knew, looked around and nodded at them,
when he had to stop grinding out the film a moment, to allow the
director to correct something that had unexpectedly gone wrong.

"Don't you wish you had this easy job?" the operator asked.

"We may, before we come back from Panama," answered Blake.

A little later Mr. Ringold and Mr. Hadley came in, greeting the
two boys, and then began a talk which lasted for some time, and in
which all the details of the projected work, as far as they could
be arranged in advance, were gone over.

"What we want," said Mr. Hadley, "is a series of pictures about
the Canal. It will soon be open for regular traffic, you know,
and, in fact some vessels have already gone through it. But the
work is not yet finished, and we want you to film the final
touches.

"Then, too, there may be accidents--there have been several small
ones of late, and, as I wrote you, a man who claims to have made a
study of the natural forces in Panama declares a big slide is due
soon.

"Of course we won't wish the canal any bad luck, and we don't for