Page:Moving Picture Boys and the Flood.djvu/78

68 can start on the hunt. And the next thing is to get a boat. I'll charter a big motor craft, if I can find one, and we'll live aboard her, taking pictures, and conducting the search."

The missing company of moving picture actors and actresses had been stopping at a hotel in Hannibal. But this hotel had been abandoned, and it was not until late that afternoon that a former clerk could be located.

"The moving picture players?" he repeated in answer to questions from Mr. Ringold. "Oh, yes, I remember them very well. We all liked them."

"But what happened to them?" asked the manager, anxiously.

"They all went out together, one day about a week ago," the clerk replied. "The river wasn't as high then as it is now, but it was bad enough. They went off in a small motor boat, and said they were going to one of the lower river islands, to take some scenes. That is the last I heard of them."

"Then they didn't come back?" asked Joe.

"No, the river rose suddenly that afternoon, and we had our own troubles here. I heard nothing more of the players."

"Then they might have been swept on down stream?" suggested Blake.