f our own and sell
'em, if we caji't do no better." He craned his neck and peered the length
of the table at Luck. "Ain't no law ag'in it, is there?" he challenged.

"No, there's no law against it." Luck closed his lips against further
comment. The idea was like a sudden blow upon the door of his
imagination.

The Happy Family looked at one another inquiringly. They had never
thought of doing anything like that. The dried little man may have
meditated much upon the subject, but he certainly had not given a hint of
it to any of them.

"Oh, why couldn't you boys do that?" Rosemary exclaimed breathlessly.

Luck stirred his coffee carefully and did not look up. "Don't run away
with the idea that you can buy a camera for twenty or thirty dollars," he
quelled. "A camera, complete with tripod, lenses, magazines, and cases,
would cost about fourteen hundred dollars--at least."

That, as he had expected it to do, rather feazed the Happy Family for a
few minutes. They became interested in the food they were eating, and
their eyes did not stray far from their plates.

"I can ante two hundred," Weary remarked at last with elaborate
carelessness, reaching for more butter.

"See yuh and raise yuh fifty," Andy Green retorted briskly. "I've got a
wife that's learning me to save money."

"You can count my chips for all I got." Pink's dimples showed briefly.
"I'll go through my pockets when I get filled up, and see how rich I am.
But, anyway, there's a couple of hundred I know I've got,--counting Acme
handouts and all."

"We-ell--" the dried little man laid down his fork to rub his chin
thoughtfully, "I never had much call to spend money in Sioux,
North-Dakoty. I batched and lived savin'. I can put in half of that
fourteen hundred--mebby a little mite more."

"Well, by cripes, I got a boy t' look out fer, and I ain't rich as some,
but all I got goes in the pot!" cried Big Medicine impulsively.

Luck leaned back in his chair and regarded the flushed faces
enigmatically. "This is all good material for an argument on our
financial standing," he said, "but if you're taking yourselves seriously,
let me tell you something before you go any farther. Buying a camera is
only a starter. Besides, I wouldn't play with little stuff and compete
with these big, established companies releasing on regular programs. Say,
for the sake of argument, that we cooperate and go into this; all I'd
handle would be features,--State's rights stuff. (Mak