With Billy Wilders, his friend in the bank, to help him, he had boyishly
built that roll for just this heart-warming little ceremony. He might
have written checks to square the account of each, but he wanted to make
their eyes stand out, just as he was doing. He had looked forward to
this half hour more eagerly than any of them guessed; he had, with his
eyes closed, visualized this scene over more than one cigarette, his
memory picturing vividly another scene wherein these same young men
had cheerfully emptied their pockets and planned many small personal
sacrifices that he, Luck Lindsay, might have money enough to come here
to New Mexico and make his one Big Picture. Luck felt that nothing less
than a display of the profits in real money could ever quite balance
that other scene when all the Happy Family had in the world went in the
pot and they mourned because it was so little.
“Aw, I betche Luck robbed a bank er something!” Happy Jack stuttered
with an awkward attempt to conceal his delight when his name was
called, his investment was read and the little sheaf of currency that
represented his profit was laid in his outstretched palm.
“It's me for the movies if this is the way they pan out,” Weary declared
gleefully. “Mamma! I didn't know there was so much money in the world!”
“I'll bet he milked Los Angeles dry of paper money,” Andy Green asserted
facetiously, thumbing his small fortune gloatingly. “Holding out
anything for yourself, Luck? We don't want to be hogs.”
“I'm taking care of my interests--don't you worry about that a minute,”
Luck stated complacently. “I held mine out first. That wipes the
slate--and cleans up the bank-roll. I maintain The Phantom Herd
was so-o-ome picture, boys. They'll be getting it here in 'Querque
soon--we'll all go in and see it.”
“Now we're all set for a fresh start. And while you're all here I'll
just put you up to date on what kind of a deal I made with Dewitt. We
come in under the wing of Excelsior, and our brand name will be Flying
U Feature Film--how does that hit you? You boys are all on a straight
board-and-salary basis--thirty dollars a week, and it's up to me to
make you earn it!” He grinned and beckoned to Jean Douglas Avery and her
companions in the next room.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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