Luck was pretty sleepy himself, after two nights and a day spent in a chair car, with another day of hard labor to finish the ordeal.  But his enthusiasm had never been keener than when, in the land of sage and cactus, he first unfolded his precious scenario and bent forward to read by the light of the fire.  He forgot to skip the “atmosphere.”  Scene by scene he lived the story through.  Scene by scene he saw his Big Picture grow vivid as ever the reality would be.  Once or twice he glanced up and saw Applehead leaning forward with his elbows on his knees and his pipe gone cold in his fingers, absorbed, living the story even as Luck lived it.

A long, rumbling snore stopped him with a mental jolt.  He came back to reality and looked at the Happy Family.  Every one of them, save Rosemary, was sound asleep; and even Rosemary was dreaming at the fire with her eyes half closed, and her fingers moving caressingly through the unconscious Andy’s brown hair.

“Let ’em be.  You go ahead and read it out,” Applehead muttered, impatient of the pause.

So Luck, with his audience dwindled to one bald-headed old rangeman, read the story of what he meant to create out there in the wild spaces of New Mexico.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

JUST A FEW UNFORESEEN OBSTACLES

It is surprising how much time is consumed by the little things of life,—­unimportant in themselves, yet absolutely necessary to a satisfactory accomplishment of the big things.  Luck, looking ahead into the next day, confidently expected to be making scenes by the time the light was right,—­say nine o’clock in the morning.  He had chosen several short, unimportant scenes, such as the departure of old Dave Wiswell, his cattleman of the picture, from the ranch; his return, and the saddling of horses and riding away of the boys.  Also he meant to make a scene of the arrival of the sheriff after having received word of the presence of Big Medicine, the outlaw, at the ranch.  Rosemary, too, as the daughter of old Dave, must run down to the corral to meet her father.  Scattered scenes they were, occurring in widely separated parts of the story.  But they had to be made, and they required no especial “sets” of scenery; and other work, such as the building of the stage for interior sets, could go on with few interruptions.  The boys would have to work in their make-up, but since the make-up was to be nothing more than a sharpening of the features to make them look absolutely natural upon the screen, it would not be uncomfortable.  This was what Luck had planned for that day.