“That’s one thing that has been bothering me a little,” Luck owned gratefully.  “Of course I considered her absolutely out of reach.  But with her for my leading woman, and the boys holding up the range end as they’re capable of doing—­”

Dewitt gave him a quick look.  “Yes, my boys are able to do that,” he said distinctly.  “They have been well trained in Western dramatic work.”

Luck braced himself.  “When I mentioned the boys,” he said, “I meant my boys that I brought from the Flying U outfit, up in Montana.  They go with me.”

Dewitt did not answer that statement immediately.  He inspected his finger nails thoughtfully before he glanced up.  “It’s a pity, but I’m afraid that cannot be managed, Mr. Lindsay.  The boys in my Western company have been with me, some of them, since the Independent Sales Company was organized.  They worked for next to nothing till I got things started.  Two or three are under contracts.  You will understand me when I say that my boys must stay where they are.”  He waited for a minute, and watched Luck’s face grow sober.  “I have heard about your Happy Family,” he added.  “There has been a good deal of discussion, I imagine, among the studios about them.  Ordinarily I should be glad to have you bring those boys with you; but as matters stand, it is impossible.  Our Western Company is full, and I could not let these boys go to make room for strangers,—­however good those strangers might be.  You understand?”

“Certainly I understand.”  But Luck’s face did not brighten.

“Can’t they stay on with the Acme?  From what I hear, the Acme’s Western Company is not large at best.”

“They can stay, yes.  But they won’t.  The whole bunch gave in their two weeks’ notice this morning.”  There was a grim satisfaction in Luck’s tone.

“Left when you did, I suppose?”

“That’s just exactly what they did.  I told them they better stay, and they nearly lynched me for it.”

“Have you made any agreement with them in regard to placing them with another company—­for instance?”

“Certainly not.  Some things don’t have to be set down in black and white.”

“I—­see.”  Dewitt did see.  What he saw worried him, even though it increased his respect for Luck Lindsay.  He studied his nails more critically than before.

“These boys—­have they any resources at all, other than their work in pictures?  Did they burn their bridges when they came with you?”

“Oh, far as that goes, they’ve all got ranches.  They wouldn’t starve.”  Luck’s voice was inclined to gruffness under quizzing.

“As I see the situation,” Dewitt went on evenly and with a logic that made Luck squirm with its very truthfulness, “they left their ranches and came with you to work in pictures in a spirit of adventure, we might say.  There is a glamour; and your personal influence, your enthusiasm, had its effect.  Should they go back to their ranches now, they would carry back a fresh outlook and a fund of experiences that would season conversation agreeably for months to come.  They will not have lost financially, I take it.  They will have had a vacation which has in many ways been a profitable one.  Should the question be laid before them, I venture the assertion that they would urge you to take this position with us.