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AVARICE AMONG THE AVOCADOS 103 thus adding to his rate of pay. A studio interpreter was assigned to the man and was told to make the same reply, no matter what the complaint: "Mr. DeMille understands and thanks you. He will give your proposal serious study/' Under this courteous treatment the Yemenite enjoyed himself immensely the re- mainder of the time. DeMille suffered less from calculated risks than from minor oversights, despite the fact he mounted his productions on a tremendous framework. The script called for a scene showing Israelites walking along a stretch of beach. This would appear in the picture as the path over which they escaped through the Red Sea. It had to be shot exactly at high noon in order that there would be no shadows on the ground. A few minutes before noon someone made a startling discovery, the beach was dry! If the waters had parted for the fugitives, the river bed would be wet. Faced with a day's delay DeMille charged up and down yelling, Til give any one a hundred dollars who can tell me how to get water on this beach!" From the crowd a voice called, "Kelp!" The cry of "kelp" filled the air and sev- eral hands made toward the water. The Israelites abandoned their animals and children, rushed into the Pacific, groping under the water for the tangled weed. Long skeins of kelp were strewn over the beach and the Israelites, bedraggled and now exhausted, re-formed their line in front of their camera. "A double triumph," beamed DeMille. "For the first time they look like refugees." Three hundred soldiers of the llth U. S. Cavalry had been borrowed from the camp at Monterey to man the chariots in the big pursuit scene, brightly garbed in short-skirted yellow tunics and gilded helmets. To inspire martial fervor, an orches- tra composed largely of women was on hand, stationed on a platform near the line of march and protected from the flying sand by a thin wall propped up by boards. Having briefed the soldiers on the necessity of charging "like hell after the Israelites," DeMille signaled for action. The column was mov-