第55章 A NEW KIND OF PICTURE(2)

"I'll go over and get Lite,"she said at last,rubbing the cramp out of her writing-hand and easing her shoulders from their strain of stooping."There'll be time,while you send the machine after some real hats for your rustlers.Those toadstool things were never seen in this country till you brought them in your trunk;and this story is going to be real!Your rustlers won't look much different from the punchers,except that they'll be riding different horses;we'll have to get some paint somewhere and make a pinto out of that wall-eyed cayuse Gil rides mostly.He'll lead the rustlers,and you want the audience to be able to spot him a mile off.Lite and I will fix the horse;we'll put spots on him like a horse Uncle Carl used to own.""Maybe you can't get Lite,"Burns pointed out,eyeing her over a match blaze."He never acted to me like he had the movie-fever at all.Passes us up with a nod,and has never showed signs of life on the subject.

Lee can ride pretty well,"he added artfully,"even if he wasn't born in the saddle.And we can fake that rope work.""All right;you can send the machine in with a wire to your company for a leading woman."Jean picked up her gloves and turned to pull the door shut behind her,and by other signs and tokens made plain her intention to leave.

"Oh,well,you can see if he'll come.I said I'd try him out,but--""He'll come.I told you that before."Jean stopped and looked at her director coldly."And you'll keep your word.And we won't have any fake stuff in this,--except the spots on the pinto."She smiled then.

"We wouldn't do that,but there isn't a pinto in the country right now that would be what we want.You had better get your bunch together,because I'll be back in a little while with Lite."As it happened,Lite was on his way to the Lazy A,and met Jean in the bottom of the sandy hollow.His eyes lightened when he saw her come loping up to him.

But when she was close enough to read the expression of his face,it was schooled again to the frank friendship which Jean always had accepted as a matter of course.

"Hello,Lite!I've got a job for you with the movies,"Jean announced,as soon as she was within speaking distance."You can come right back with me and begin.It's going to be great.We're going to make a real Western picture,Lite,you and I.Lee and Gil and all the rest will be in it,of course;but we're going to put in the real West.And we're going to put in the ranch,--the REAL Lazy A,Lite.Not these dinky little sets that Burns has toggled up with bits of the bluff showing for background,but the ranch just as it--it used to be."Jean's eyes grew wistful while she looked at him and told him her plans.

"I'm writing the scenario myself,"she explained,"and that's why you have to be in it.I've written in stuff that the other boys can't do to save their lives.

REAL stuff,Lite!You and I are going to run the ranch and punch the cows,--Lazy A cattle,what there are left of them,--and hunt down a bunch of rustlers that have their hangout somewhere down in the breaks;we don't know just where,yet.The places we'll ride,they'll need an airship to follow with the camera!I haven't got it all planned yet,but the first reel is about done;we're going to begin on it this afternoon.We'll need you in the first scenes,--just ranch scenes,with you and Lee;he's my brother,and he'll get killed--Now,what's the matter with you?"She stopped and eyed him disapprovingly."Why have you got that stubborn look to your mouth?Lite,see here.Before you say a word,I want to tell you that you are not to refuse this.

It--it means money,Lite;for you,and for me,too.

And that means--dad at home again.Lite--"

Bite looked at her,looked away and bit his lips.It was long since he had seen tears in Jean's steady,brown eyes,and the sight of them hurt him intolerably.There was nothing that he could say to strengthen her faith,absolutely nothing.He did not see how money could free her father before his sentence expired.Her faith in her dad seemed to Lite a wonderful thing,but he himself could not altogether share it,although he had lately come to feel a very definite doubt about Aleck's guilt.Money could not help them,except that it could buy back the Lazy A and restock it,and make of it the home it had been three years ago.

Lite,in the secret heart of him,did not want Jean to set her heart on doing that.Lite was almost in a position to do it himself,just as he had planned and schemed and saved to do,ever since the day when he took Jean to the Bar Nothing,and announced to her that he intended to take care of her in place of her father.He had wanted to surprise Jean;and Jean,with her usual headlong energy bent upon the same object,seemed in a fair way to forestall him,unless he moved very quickly.

"Lite,you won't spoil everything now,just when I'm given this great opportunity,will you?"Jean's voice was steady again.She could even meet his eyes without flinching."Gil says it's a great opportunity,in every way.It's a series of pictures,really,and they are to be called `Jean,of the Lazy A.'Gil says they will be advertised a lot,and make me famous.I don't care about that;but the company will pay me more,and that means--that means that I can get out and find Art Osgood sooner,and--get dad home.And you will have to help.The whole thing,as I have planned it,depends upon you,Lite.The riding and the roping,and stuff like that,you'll have to do.You'll have to work right alongside me in all that outdoor stuff,because I am going to quit doing all those spectacular,stagey stunts,and get down to real business.I've made Burns see that there will be money in it for his company,so he is perfectly willing to let me go ahead with it and do it my way.Our way,Lite,because,once you start with it,you can help me plan things."Whereupon,having said almost everything she could think of that would tend to soften that stubborn look in Lite's face,Jean waited.