"Left when you did, I suppose?"

"That's just exactly what they did. I told them they better stay, and
they nearly lynched me for it."

"Have you made any agreement with them in regard to placing them with
another company--for instance?"

"Certainly not. Some things don't have to be set down in black and
white."

"I--see." Dewitt did see. What he saw worried him, even though it
increased his respect for Luck Lindsay. He studied his nails more
critically than before.

"These boys--have they any resources at all, other than their work in
pictures? Did they burn their bridges when they came with you?"

"Oh, far as that goes, they've all got ranches. They wouldn't starve."
Luck's voice was inclined to gruffness under quizzing.

"As I see the situation," Dewitt went on evenly and with a logic that
made Luck squirm with its very truthfulness, "they left their ranches and
came with you to work in pictures in a spirit of adventure, we might say.
There is a glamour; and your personal influence, your enthusiasm, had its
effect. Should they go back to their ranches now, they would carry back a
fresh outlook and a fund of experiences that would season conversation
agreeably for months to come. They will not have lost financially, I take
it. They will have had a vacation which has in many ways been a
profitable one. Should the question be laid before them, I venture the