"My part of this business is producing the scenes.
You'll have to attend to the getting-ready part. You--you wouldn't
expect me to help you put on your make-up, would you?"

"No, now that I recognize your limitations, I shall not ask any help
which none of you are able or have the nerve to give," she returned
coolly. "I wish I had Lite here; but I guess Pard and I can handle the
sorrel ourselves. Sorry to have disturbed you."

Robert Grant Burns, his leading man and all his villains stood and
watched her walk away from them to the stable. They watched her lead
Pard out and turn him loose in the biggest corral. When they saw her
take her coiled rope, mount the sorrel and ride in, they went, in a
hurried group, to where they might look into that corral. They watched
her pull the gate shut after her, lean from the saddle, and fasten the
chain hook in its accustomed link. By the time she had widened her
loop and turned to charge down upon unsuspecting Pard, Robert Grant
Burns, his leading man and all his villains were lined up along the
widest space between the corral rails, and Pete Lowry was running over
so as to miss none of the show.

"Oh, I thought you were all so terribly busy!" taunted Jean, while her
loop was circling over her head. Pard wheeled just then upon his hind
feet, but the loop settled true over his head and drew tight against
his shoulders.

The sorrel lunged and fought the rope, and snorted and reared. It took
fully two minutes for Jean to force him close enough to Pard so that
she might flip off the loop. Pard himself caught the excitement and
snorted and galloped wildly round and round the enclosure, but Jean did
not mind that; what brought her lips so tightly together was the
performance of the sorrel. While she was coiling her rope, he was
making half-hearted buck jumps across the corral. When she swished the
rope through the air to widen her loop, he reared and whirled. She
jabbed him smartly with the spurs, and he kicked forward at her feet.

"Say," she drawled to Burns, "I don't know what sort of a picture
you're going to make, but if you want any roping done from this horse,
you'll have to furnish meals and beds for your audiences." With that
she was off across the corral at a tearing pace that made the watchers
gasp. The sorrel swung clear of the fence. He came near going down in
a heap, but recovered himself after scrambling along on his knees.
Jean brought him to a stand bef