juvenile leads.

"Unless it might be C. C.," remarked Mr. Levinberg, who was usually cast
as a villain. "And small loss if he was laid up for a week or so. We'd
be more cheerful if he were."

"Is C. C. hurt?" asked Joe.

"No; but I guess he's pretty badly scared," answered Mr. Robertson.
"After this I guess he'll have more respect for a smoke bomb."

"Was that what exploded?" asked Mr. Hadley.

"Yes," replied the "villain." He pointed to Mr. C. C. Piper walking
along in the midst of a group of soldiers. "It happened this way: We
were talking about the battle scene, and C. C. kept saying it would be a
failure when projected because the smoke bombs were not timed right. He
said they should explode closer to the firing line, and some of the men
who handled them said they held them as long as they dared before
throwing them.

"Old C. C. sneered at this, and said he could hold a smoke bomb until
the fuse was burned down out of sight, and then throw it and get better
results. So they dared him to try it."

"Well?" asked Mr. Hadley, as the actor paused.

"Well, C. C. did it. He held the smoke bomb, all right, but he didn't
throw it soon enough, and, as a result, it exploded almost in his face.
Lucky it's only made of heavy paper and not very powerful powder, so he