Steve Yeager

producing director at the border studio of the Lunar Film M

Wasn't that enough without me paying him good money to spoil more? Harrison's sore on him too. T

man, took a more cheerf

to please Harrison. The big bully has got us all stepping sideways and tiptoeing so as not to offend him.

t bunch of greasers. He's there with both feet on the Marquis of Q. business, and don't you forget it. I

that he's getting out of the picture; I've got to pull the Alphonse line of talk.-'Mr. Harrison, if you'd

a minute. But we're down here, son, to get this three-reel Mexican war do

p what he's up against. Then if he wants to h

around to the room where the new extra was staying. His knock brought no an

the clean-cut jaw of the brown face. It was an easy guess that he had wandered by paths crooked as well as straight, that he had taken the loose pleasures of his kind joyously. But when he had followed forbidden trails it ha

s eyes. He looked at his

nd you asleep," apol

yawn. "That's all right. Just making up the sleep

. On the table lay the dusty, pinched-in hat, through the disreputable crown of

like you. Say, it was worth five dollars t

er's boyish

e'tainly was a fool play. I don't

me to see you about. He's a rowdy, Har

n't pack a gun," Yea

tart with, anyhow. He used to be

n's system to absorb a li

gligent competence that came from an experience of ma

here's nothing to prevent you from slipping roun

, sir. I've got a job and I'm staying with it. I'll sit

onair and care-free a specimen of hum

ome scrapper yours

ckon. Say, what do they hold

ding that he knew of a good cheap boarding-p

I'll take you ri

like a dollar's worth of nickels rattling out

kirts of the old Mexican adobe town, and came to a suburb of bungal

e we

irl with soft, thick, blue-black hair was bending over a rosebush. She was snipping dead shoots with a pair of scissors. At the sound of their feet crunching t

r, a new member of our company. He wants to find a good boarding-place, so

rehead. "I don't know, Mr. Farrar. Our

un-pour was on his tawny hair, on the lean, bronzed face and broad, muscular shoulders. In his torn, discolored hat, his stained and travel-worn clot

d because of a touch of embarrassment. He had seemed to read her hesitat

ged if she'll take me," Yea

hands. A solitaire sparkled on the third finger. Again she murmured, "I'll ask mother"; then tur

had been making bread or pies at the time she had been called by her daughter. Much of her life she had lived in the Southwest, and one glance at Yeager was enough to satisfy her. Thro

the house had been remodeled so that it contained several bedroom

them on the porch. As soon as he caught sight of the cowpuncher he strode

k of the garage?" he demanded

Steve affably. "Won't the bulls p

with triumphant

ood enough. I'll pull off the real goods for you in lic

ain't looking for trouble. He told you he was sorry. I

u're liable to have a heluvatime if you butt into my

d. "Go ahead and get it. We'll

professional instinct

y not come over to the studio where I can get

ture of him thrashing the extra, a good one that the public

to make a Roman holiday, am I? All right. Might as we

drifted in with a casual manner of having arrived accidentally. Fleming Lennox, leading man, appeared with Cliff Manderson, chief comedian for the Lu

k's salary to see Harrison get the trimming he needed. The handsome young film actor was an athlete, a trained boxer, but the ex-prizefighter had given him the thrashing of his life two months before. He

ed Manderson, nodding

oise, and long, flowing muscles that rippled under the healthy skin like those of a panther in motion. But these would serve him little u

lied gloomily, his eyes fixed on Yeager as the young fel

. The contrast between them was so great that Yeager was scarcely conceded a fighting chance. Steve himself kne

ny defense except that which went naturally with his crouch. He had a tremendously long reach and knew how to get the weigh

at got home and jarred the prizefighter to his heels. To see the look on the face of t

ncouragement. "Go

ness born of many clean years in the saddle did the cowpuncher weather for the time the hurricane that lashed at him. He dodged and ducked and parried by instinct, smothering wha

near akin to the primeval brute. He glared savagely at his v

ured his foe cheerfully after dodging

short stiff uppercut. "Gl

ing him flush on the cheek. "Here's

t. Steve was a man of his hands. He had held his own in many a rough-and-tumble bout. But he had no science except that which nature had given him. As lon

ver him, swagger

sat dizzily, his head reeling. He saw things through a mist in a

thing yo

ore of the same?"

no encore after I've been clawed by a panther and chewed up by a threshing-machine and kicked by an able-bo

g as few men could stand up and take. For the conviction was sifting home to him that he had not beaten the man at all. H

way. His sulky glance fell upon Lenn

, Yeager, if you only knew how," t

teach him, Mr. Lenn

. "Maybe I would

d rather show hi

tice right here that I'll have no more trouble with you. If it

s narrowed. "Wh

o Threewit to

He knew quite well that if it came to a choice between him and Lenn

nce the beginning of hostilities, came forwar

fellow eat up such a licking and come up smiling. You'r

osing rapidly, but the oth

orrects any mistaken notions he's liable to collect. Gentlemen, hush! Ain't Har

waiting for the undertaker. You look like you'd out come of a railroad wreck, two fires, and a cat

ed their kindness. The atmosphere had subtly changed. During the afternoon he had sensed a little aloofness, an intention on the part of the company members