"You say buying a camera is just a starter. How much do you figure it
would cost to make our Big Picture? Cutting out salaries and all such
little luxuries, what would the actual expenses be--making a rough
guess?" Weary leaned forward over his plate and forgot all about his
tempting wedge of shortcake.

Luck pushed back his plate and smiled his smile. "For the Big Picture,"
he began, while the Happy Family leaned to listen, "there'd be the camera
and outfit,--I could pick up some things second hand,--we'll call that
fourteen hundred and fifty. Then there would be at least five thousand
feet of film: perforated raw stock I could get for about three and three
quarter cents a foot. Say a couple, of hundred dollars for that. We'd
need at least three dozen radium flares for our night scenes; they cost
close around twenty dollars a dozen. And one or two light
diffusers,--that's just to get us started with an outfit, remember. Then
there'd be our transportation to Albuquerque, New Mexico. I know that
country, and I know what I can do there. I'd hit straight for a ranch I
know between Bear Canyon and Rincon Arroyo--belongs to an old fellow that
sure is a character, too, in his way. Old bachelor, he is; got some
cattle and horses, and round-pole corrals and the like of that. I know
old Applehead Forrman like I know my right hand; we'd make Applehead's
place our headquarters--see? Exterior stuff we'd have right there, ready
to shoot without any expense. As for interiors,--say! any of you fellows
handy with hammer and saw?"

"By gracious, we all are!" Andy declared quickly. "We learned our little
lessons when we were building claim shacks for ourselves."

"Good enough! You boys could be stage mechanics as well as leading men,"
Luck grinned. "Add hammers and saws to the outfit. We'd have to build a