The Happy Family

sh old Applehead was toiling, leading the scrawniest burro which Luck had been able to find in the country. The burro was packed with a prospector's outfit startlingly real in its pathetic me

which was a deep, apoplectic crimson, and little

rro would sit down upon its haunches and allow Applehead to stretch its neck as far as bone and tough hide and tougher sinew would permit Someone among the group roosting in the sh

rned a corner of rock and disappeared from sight of the camera. "We'

shore about that there doin' over-'nless yuh want to wait and do it after sundown. Ain't nobody but a danged fool It would

not afford to be merciful at the expense of good

d bank, and start up towards camera. Back up a little, Pete, so you can 'pam' his approach. I want to get him pulling his burro up past that bank-sabe? And the close-up of his face with all those sweat-streaks will prove how f

e replied after a squint or two through the

looking up at Luck with eyes bloodshot from the heat. "I calc'late m

ank, and come out into the channel when I give the word. I want you coming up all-in

sos't I kin show some five-cent bunch in a pitcher-show how bad I'm off? Danged if I ain't jest about gettin' my hide full uh this here danged fool REELISM you're hollerin' fur all the time. 'F you send me

before. Get that? My Lord! If you can't lead a burro a hundred yards without setting down and fanning yourself to sleep, you

ther dang man, heat er no heat Ef yuh ain't got no more heart'n to AST it of me, I'll haul this here burro up 'n' down this dang gulch till there ain't nothin' left of 'im but the lead-rope,

igarettes from their lips that they might chortle their amusement at the two. Like father and son we

to send a murderous glance back toward camera. "What's the matter-yuh PARALYZED down there?

the company. "Who's leadin' this here burro-you er me? Fer two cents I'd come back and knock the tar outa you, Luck! Stand up there on a rock

bably focussing the camera while the two yel

aybe you can make 'em hear with the megaphone," he hinted, looking again at Luck. "They're riding s

one to his irritated prospector. "Get those

ured that out yit?" He turned then for a look at the interrupting strangers, and immediately they saw his manner change. He straightened up, and his right hand crept back significantly toward his hip. Applehead, I may here explain, was an ex-sh

amily scrambled out of the shade and followed luck down the gulch to where Applehead stood facing down the canon, watchfulness in every tense line of his lank figure. Tommy Johnson, who nev

g points, Luck walked guardedly down the gulch to where Applehead stood wat

k's footsteps crunching behind him. "Uh course," he added grimly, "he MIGHT be viewin' the scenery-but it's dang pore

f?" Luck for no reason whatever

him a sidelong glance of hasty indignation. "I'd

y and Big Aleck Douglas and Lite Avery moving down in a close-bunched, expectant group behind the two, was construed as hostility rather than curiosity. At

eriff warned. "We don't want trouble-we aren't l

e ridin' up on us fellers like yuh was cornerin' a bunch uh outlaws,"

ow it, but you're blocking my scene and the light's going. If you've got any business with

he sheriff. "You

k a step forwa

y." The sheriff could be pretty blunt, and he

ith a very real anger now, shoved Luck away and stepped

in't the kind that DOES rob banks, and I'm here to see you swaller them words 'fore I haul ye off'n that horse and plumb wear ye out! Yuh wanta think twicet 'fore ye come ridin' up where I kin h

he did look considerably embarrassed.

e a movin' pitcher of the bank being robbed," he explained-though he was careful not to lower his g

quality that caused laggard actors to jump. "

ur men, because three or four fellers besides the cashier seen 'em goin' in and comin' out-they gagged the cashier a

nch and was told by the women that you was out here. And here we are

hen you go mixin' up with Luck, here. I'm one of his men-and if he was to pull off a bank robbery I calc'late I'

the next. When I tell ye thar ain't goin' to be no arrest made in Bear Canon, and that you ain't goin' to take luck in fer no bank robbery, y

bbery. I would, 'n' I know Luck would, seein' they've gone t' work and mixed him into it. His bunch is all here, as you kin see fer yourself. Now we'r

and he had sufficient intelligence to read correctly the character of the group of men that stood behind Applehead. Honest men or thieves,

ry as the cashier had described it to the clerks who retur

that's why they got away with it. Nobody suspicioned it was anything more'n moving-pitcher acting till they found the cashier and brought him toy along about

d the group, "if that wasn't Bill Holmes with the camera? He

can see how the cashier would fall for a retake like that, especially since he don't know much about pi

im huffily. "Think I been loading you up wi

of a simp do you think I am, for gosh sake? Can you see where anyone but a lunatic would go like that in broad daylight and pull off a robbery as raw as that one must have been, and not even make an attemp

a machine to the bank and you never so much as tried to trace it, or to get the license number even, I'll bet a month's salary you didn't! It was a moving-picture stall, and so you come blundering out here

all right, can't you? We'll go on ahead and