The Greatest Works of B. M. Bower - 51 Titles in One Volume (Illustrated Edition). B. M. Bower
cup, Luck Lindsay sat and endured the greatest tongue-lashing of his life. Furthermore, he seemed to enjoy the chorus of reproaches and threats and recriminations. He chuckled over the eloquence of Andy Green, and he grinned at the belligerence of Pink and the melancholy of Happy Jack.
“I don’t guess you’re crazy to work under Bently Brown,” he finally managed to slide into the uproar. “Do I get you as meaning to stick with me—wherever I go?”
“You get us that way or you get licked,” Weary, the mild-tempered one, stated flatly. “You can fire us and send us home, but you can’t walk off and leave us with the Acme, ‘cause we won’t stay.”
That was what Luck had ridden twelve cold, rainy miles to hear the Happy Family declare. He had expected them to take that stand, but it was good to hear it spoken in just that tone of finality. He stacked his cup and saucer in his plate, laid his knife and fork across them in the old range style, and began to roll a cigarette,—smoking at the table being another comfortable little bad habit which Rosemary Green wisely and smilingly permitted.
“That being the case,” he began cheerfully, “you boys had best go over with me now and give in your two weeks’ notice. I’m director of our company till I quit—see? I’ll arrange for your transportation home—”
“Aw, gwan! Who said we was goin’ home?” wailed Happy Jack distressfully.
“Now, listen! You’re entitled to your transportation money. That doesn’t mean you’ll have to use it for that purpose—sabe? It’s coming to you, and you get it. There’s a week’s salary due all around, too, besides the two weeks you’ll get by giving notice. No use passing up any bets like that. So let’s go, boys. I’ve got an appointment at one o’clock, and I may as well wipe the Acme slate clean this forenoon, so I can talk business without any come-back from Mart, or any tag ends to pick up. Grab your slickers and let’s move.”
That was a busy day for Luck Lindsay, in spite of the fact that it was a stormy one. His interview with Mart, which he endured mostly for the sake of the Happy Family, developed into a quarrel which severed beyond mending his connection with the Acme.
It was noon when he reached his hotel, and his wrath had not cooled with the trip into town. There were two ‘phone calls in his mail, he discovered, and one bore an urgent request that he call Hollywood something-or-other the moment he returned. This was from the Great Western Film Company, and Luck’s eyes brightened while he read it. He went straight to his room and called up the Great Western.
Presently he found himself speaking to the great Dewitt himself, and his blood was racing with the possibilities of the interview. Dewitt had heard that Luck was leaving the Acme—extras may be depended upon for carrying gossip from one studio to another,—and was wasting no time in offering him a position. His Western director, Robert Grant Burns whom Luck knew well, had been carried to the hospital with typhoid fever which he had contracted while out with his company in what is known as Nigger Sloughs,—a locality more picturesque than healthful. Dewitt feared that it was going to be a long illness at the very best. Would Luck consider taking the company and going on with the big five-reel feature which Burns had just begun? Dewitt was prepared to offer special inducements and to make the position a permanent one. He would give Burns a dramatic company to produce features at the studio, he said, and would give Luck the privilege of choosing his own scenarios and producing them in his own way. Could Luck arrange to meet Dewitt at four that afternoon?
Luck could, by cancelling his appointment with a smaller and less important company, which he did promptly and with no compunctions whatever. He did more than that; he postponed the other two appointments, knowing in his heart that his chances would not be lessened thereby. After that he built a castle or two while he waited for the appointment. The Great Western Company had been a step higher than he had hoped to reach. Robert Grant Burns he had considered a fixture with the company. It had never entered his mind that he might possibly land within the Great Western’s high concrete wall,—and that other wall which was higher and had fewer gates, and which was invisible withal. That the great Dewitt himself should seek Luck out was just a bit staggering. He wanted to go out and tell the bunch about it, but he decided to wait until everything was settled. Most of all he wanted the Acme to know that Dewitt wanted him; that would be a real slap in the face of Mart’s judgment, a vindication of Luck’s abilities as a director.
What Luck did was to telephone the hospital and learn all he could about Burns’ condition. He was genuinely sorry that Burns was sick, even though he was mightily proud of being chosen as Burns’ successor. He even found himself thinking more about Burns, after the first inner excitement wore itself out, than about himself. Burns was a good old scout. Luck hated to think of him lying helpless in the grip of typhoid. So it was with mixed emotions that he went to see Dewitt.
Dewitt wanted Luck—wanted him badly. He was frank enough to let Luck see how much he wanted him. He even told Luck that, all things being equal, he considered Luck a better Western director than was Robert Grant Burns, in spite of the fact that Burns had scored a big success with his Jean, of the Lazy A serial. You cannot wonder that Luck’s spirits rose to buoyancy when he heard that. Also, Dewitt named a salary bigger than Luck had ever received in his life, and nearly double what the Acme had paid him. Luck spoke of his Big Picture, and when he outlined it briefly, Dewitt did not say that it seemed to lack action.
Dewitt had watched Luck with his keen blue eyes, and had observed that Luck owned that priceless element of success, which is enthusiasm for his work. Dewitt had listened, and had told Luck that he would like to see the Big Picture go on the screen, and that he would be willing to pay him for the scenario and let him make it where and how he pleased. He even volunteered to try and persuade Jean Douglas, of Lazy A fame, to come back and play the leading woman’s part.
“That’s one thing that has been bothering me a little,” Luck owned gratefully. “Of course I considered her absolutely out of reach. But with her for my leading woman, and the boys holding up the range end as they’re capable of doing—”
Dewitt gave him a quick look. “Yes, my boys are able to do that,” he said distinctly. “They have been well trained in Western dramatic work.”
Luck braced himself. “When I mentioned the boys,” he said, “I meant my boys that I brought from the Flying U outfit, up in Montana. They go with me.”
Dewitt did not answer that statement immediately. He inspected his finger nails thoughtfully before he glanced up. “It’s a pity, but I’m afraid that cannot be managed, Mr. Lindsay. The boys in my Western company have been with me, some of them, since the Independent Sales Company was organized. They worked for next to nothing till I got things started. Two or three are under contracts. You will understand me when I say that my boys must stay where they are.” He waited for a minute, and watched Luck’s face grow sober. “I have heard about your Happy Family,” he added. “There has been a good deal of discussion, I imagine, among the studios about them. Ordinarily I should be glad to have you bring those boys with you; but as matters stand, it is impossible. Our Western Company is full, and I could not let these boys go to make room for strangers,—however good those strangers might be. You understand?”
“Certainly I understand.” But Luck’s face did not brighten.
“Can’t they stay on with the Acme? From what I hear, the Acme’s Western Company is not large at best.”
“They can stay, yes. But they won’t. The whole bunch gave in their two weeks’ notice this morning.” There was a grim satisfaction in Luck’s tone.
“Left when you did, I suppose?”
“That’s just exactly what they did. I told them they better stay, and they nearly lynched me for it.”
“Have you made any agreement with them in regard to placing them with another company—for instance?”
“Certainly not. Some things don’t have to be set down in black and white.”
“I—see.” Dewitt did see. What he saw worried him, even though it increased his respect for Luck Lindsay.