another Judas.

He found them sitting around waiting for their supper and trying to
invent new words to fit their disgust with the Acme Film Company. They
greeted Luck as though they had not seen him for a month.

"Bully for you, Luck!" Andy shouted, and gave him an approving slap on
the shoulder that sent him skating dangerously toward the table. "Best
job in town just came a-running up to you and says, 'Please take me!'--so
they say. That right?"

"Yeah--what about this here Great Western gitting its loop on you first
thing?" bawled Big Medicine gleefully. "By cripes, that's sure one on the
Acme bunch! They'll wisht they wasn't quite so fresh, givin' that little
tin imitation of an author so much rope. Me 'n' Pink was over to the
studio to-day; honest to grandma, they was a sick lookin' bunch around
there. Me 'n' Pink sure throwed it into 'em too, about letting the only
real man they had git away from 'em the way they done."

"My gorry, son, I sure am tickled to see yuh light with both feet
under yuh, like they say you done. I heard tell the Great Western's
going to let yuh put on your own pitcher; I guess them Acme folks'll
feel kinda foolish when they see it," declared the dried little man,
grinning over his pipe.

Luck was fighting his bewilderment and framing a demand for explanations
when Rosemary bustled in from the kitchen.

"Oh, but we're glad, Luck Lindsay!" she began in her quick, emphatic way.
"We all feel like a million dollars over your good luck. We're going to
have fried chicken and strawberry shortcake for supper, too, just for a
celebration. I knew you'd come out and tell us all about it. So sit right
down, everybody, and keep still so Luck can tell us just what everybody
said to the other fellow, and how Dewitt happened to get hold of him so
quickly. Is it true? The boys heard you were going to get two hundred
dollars a week!"

"Not get it--no." Luck unfolded his napkin with fingers that shook a
little. "I was offered it, but I'm not going to take it."

"Not--why, Luck Lindsay!" Rosemary very nearly dropped her new
percolator.

"_Y' ain't_?"

"Aw, gwan! Only reason I wouldn't take two hundred a week would be
because I'd drop dead at the chance and couldn't."

"Well, listen. There's one point that hasn't spilled into studio gossip
yet," Luck managed to slip into the uproar. "I didn't take the place.
There were some details we couldn't get together on, so I thanked him and
turned it down