that would not hurt a very, very sore spot in the heart of big Aleck Douglas.
"I'm shore glad to meet yuh again," he stuttered finally, and let it go at
that "And how are yuh, Lite? Just as long and lanky as ever--marriage shore
ain't fattened you up none. My gorry! I shore never expected to see you folks
away down here!"

"Thought you heard me say when I left that the Great Western had offered to
get me Jean Douglas for leading lady," Luck put in, looking around
distractedly for a place to deposit his armload of packages. "That's one thing
that kept me--waiting for her to show up. Of course a man naturally expects a
woman to take her own time about starting--"

"I like that!" Jean drawled. "We broke up housekeeping and wound up a ranch
and traveled a couple of thousand miles in just a week's time. We--we ALMOST
hit the same gait you did from town out here today!"

Rosemary Green came out then, and Luck turned to greet her and to present Jean
to her, and was pleased when he saw from their eyes that they liked each other
at first sight. He introduced the Happy Family and Applehead to her and to her
husband, Lite Avery, and her father. He pulled a skinny individual forward and
announced that this was Pete Lowry, one of the Great Western's crack
cameramen; and another chubby, smooth-cheeked young man he presented as Tommy
Johnson, scenic artist and stage carpenter. And he added with a smile for the
whole bunch, "We're going to produce some real stuff from now on believe me,
folks!"

In the confusion and the mild clamor of the absence-bridging questions and
hasty answers, two persons had no part. Old Applehead, hard-ridden by the
uneasy consciousness of his treason to Luck, leaned against a porch post and
sucked hard at the stem of an empty pipe. And just beyond the corner out of