normal human being you are
going to expect a little gratitude from that man; Luck had a flash of
disappointment when he saw how indifferently Bill Holmes took those
twenties and counted them before shoving them into his pocket. His own
voice was more crisply businesslike when he spoke again.

"Annie-Many-Ponies back yet? She's not in on the split either. I'm
paying her ten a week besides her board. That's good money for a squaw."
He counted out the amount in ten dollar bills and snapped a rubber band
around them.

"Now here is the profit, boys, on your winter's work. Applehead comes
in with the use of his ranch and stock and wagons and so on. Here,
pard--how does this look to you?" His own pleasure in what he was doing
warmed from Luck's voice all the chill that Bill Holmes had sent into
it. He smiled his contagious smile and peeled off fifty dollar banknotes
until Applehead's eyes popped.

"Oh, don't give me so dang much!" he gulped nervously when Luck had
counted out for him the amount he had jotted down opposite his name.
"That there's moren the hul dang ranch is worth if I was t' deed it over
to yuh, Luck! I ain't goin' to take--"

"You shut up," Luck commanded him affectionately. "That's yours--now,
close your face and let me get this thing wound up. Now--WILL you quit
your arguing, or shall I throw you out the window?"

"Well, now, I calc'late you'd have a right busy time throwin' ME out
the window," Applehead boasted, and backed into a corner to digest this
astonishing turn of events.

One by one, as their names stood upon his list, Luck called the boys
forward and with exaggerated deliberation peeled off fifty-dollar notes
and one-hundred-dollar notes to take their breath and speech from them.

With Billy Wilders, his friend in the bank, to help him, he had boyishly
built that roll for just this heart-warming little ceremony. He might
have written checks to square the account of each, but he wanted to make
their eyes stand out, just as he was doing. He had looked forward to
this half hour more eagerly than any of them guessed; he had, with his
eyes closed, visualized this scene over more than one cigarette, his
memory picturing vividly another scene wherein these same young men
had cheerfully emptied their pockets and planned many small personal
sacrifices that he, Luck Lindsay, might have money enough to come here
to New Mexico and make his one Big Picture. Luck felt that nothing less
than a display of