ng careful to give no hint of that belief to any one.
And now Jean herself seemed to be leading him unconsciously face to
face with doubt and mystery. It tantalized him. He knew the prowler,
and for that reason he was all the more puzzled. What had he wanted or
expected to find? Lite was tempted to face the man and ask him; but on
second thought he knew that would be foolish. He would say nothing to
Jean. He thanked the Lord she slept soundly! and he would wait and see
what happened.

Jean herself was thoughtful all that day, and was slow to lighten her
mood or her manner even when Gil Huntley rode beside her to location
and talked enthusiastically of the great work she was doing for a
beginner, and of the greater work she would do in the future, if only
she took advantage of her opportunities.

"It can't go on like this forever," he told her impressively for the
second time, before he was sure of her attention and her interest.
"Think of you, working extra under a three-day guarantee! Why, you're
what's making the pictures! I had a letter from a friend of mine; he's
with the Universal. He'd been down to see one of our pictures,--that
first one you worked in. You remember how you came down off that
bluff, and how you roped me and jerked me down off the bank just as I'd
got a bead on Lee? Say! that picture was a RIOT! Gloomy says he never
saw a picture get the hand that scene got. And he wanted to know who
was doubling for Gay, up here. You see, he got next that it was a
double; he knows darned well Gay never could put over that line of
stuff. The photography was dandy,--Pete's right there when it comes to
camera work, anyway,--and that run down the bluff, he said, had people
standing on their hind legs even before the rope scene. You could tell
it was a girl and no man doubling the part. Gloomy says everybody
around the studio has begun to watch for our releases, and go just to
see you ride and rope and shoot. And Gay gets all the press-notices!
Say, it makes me sick!" He looked at Jean wistfully.

"The trouble is, you don't realize what a raw deal you're getting," he
said, with much discontent in his tone. "As an extra, you're getting
fine treatment and fine pay; I admit that. But the point is, you've no
business being an extra. Where you belong is playing leads. You don't
know what that means, but I do. Burns is just using you to boost Muriel
Gay, and I say it's the rawest deal I ever saw handed