sight but well within hearing, Annie-Many-Ponies stood flattened against the
wall and listened with fast-beating pulse for the sound of her name, spoken in
the loved voice of Wagalexa Conka. She, the daughter of a chief and Luck's
sister by tribal adoption--would he not miss her: from among those others who
welcomed him? Would he not presently ask: "Where is Annie-Many-Ponies?" She
knew just how he would turn and search for her with his eyes.

She knew just how his voice would sound when he asked for her. Then, after a
minute--when he had missed her and had asked for her--she would come and stand
before him. And he would take her hand and say to that white woman; "This is
my Indian sister, Annie-Many-Ponies, who played the part of the beautiful
Indian girl who died so grandly in The Phantom Herd. This is the girl who
plays my character leads." Then the white girl, who was to be his leading
woman, would not feel that she was the only woman in the company who could do
good work for Luck.

Annie-Many-Ponies had worked in pictures since she was fifteen and did only
"atmosphere stuff" in the Indian camps of Luck's arranging. She was wise in
the ways of picture jealousies. Already she was jealous of this slim woman
with the dark hair and eyes and the slow smile that always caught one's
attention and held it. She waited. She wanted Wagalexa Conka to call her in
that kindly, imperious voice of his--the voice of the master. This leading
woman would see, then, that here was a girl more beautiful for whom Luck
Lindsay felt the affection of family ties.

She waited, flattened against the wall, listening to every word that was
spoken in that buzzing group. She saw the last bundle taken from the machine,
and she saw Luck's head and shoulders disappear within the tonneau, making
sure that it was the last bundle and that nothing had been overlooked. She saw
the driver climb in, slam the fore-door shut after him and bend above the