she nice and cordial?” smiled Helen as she turned back to Janet.
“Cora hasn’t changed a bit and I don’t suppose she will. What fun she could have if she’d only be a little less selfish,” said Janet.
Chapter Four
HIGH PRAISE
By the time everything was loaded into the bus, the sun was well down toward the western hills and the ranch was bathed in the soft, warm light of the late afternoon.
Curt Newsom, who had finished superintending the loading of his own horses into his private truck, walked over to join the girls, his spurs jingling as he walked.
“Glad it’s all over?” he asked.
Janet shook her head.
“Hardly. I’ve enjoyed it so much I really didn’t want it to end, but I guess that all good things come to an end.”
“You did a splendid job as leading woman,” smiled Curt. “I wish all of them were like you. Every once in a while the girls they assign to this unit get it into their heads that they are real actresses and they go temperamental on us. But you two worked like real troupers and took all of the bumps as they came.”
“And they came, too,” grinned Helen, rubbing her right leg, for she had slipped and fallen from a horse two days before and her leg was black and blue.
Curt was silent for a few moments, smiling at the efforts of “Skeets” to round up the last members of the company and get them aboard the big bus.
“Are you going to stay with us?” he asked.
“We don’t know,” replied Helen. “Fall’s almost here and that means college time. We’re both awfully young to stay on in pictures.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t say that. I’ve known girls younger than either one of you to make a success.”
“But they didn’t last long,” countered Janet.
“Perhaps you’re right on that,” agreed Curt. “Are you going to school?”
“I expect we’ll decide that when we get back to Hollywood and have a long talk with mother and dad,” replied Helen.
Just then Billy Fenstow hurried up, puffing and exceedingly warm.
“Everybody accounted for?” he asked his harried assistant.
“All here,” replied the red-faced “Skeets.”
“Sit down in the back seat with me,” the director told the girls. “I want to talk with you on the way back to the city.”
The last members of the company were herded aboard the bus and the girls, Curt Newsom and the director were the last to get aboard.
They sat down on the broad back seat which had been reserved for the director. The bus lurched into motion and rolled away from the ranchhouse.
Billy Fenstow mopped his perspiring brow and leaned back to enjoy the ride.
The dusty road wound through the hills, golden clouds of dust marking the passing of the bus.
They were halfway to the main highway when the motor started to cough and the big vehicle slowed to a stop.
The driver buried himself under the hood and tinkered with the engine for a few minutes. Then he climbed back into his seat and started the motor again.
They progressed for several hundred yards and finally groaned to a stop.
“Looks like we may be late in getting to dinner,” said Curt. “Sounded like serious trouble under the hood that time.”
The lanky cowboy uncoiled his legs and went out to see if he could be of any assistance to the bus driver.
Billy Fenstow, taking advantage of the stop, spoke to Janet and Helen, his voice so low that it was doubtful if he could be overheard by any other member of the company.
“What about staying in the company for my next picture?” he asked.
“When will it start?” Janet countered.
The director mopped his brow again and grinned.
“Just as soon as I can hash together a good enough story. Two weeks, maybe three, or it might even be a month. Why?”
“We’re not certain what we want to do,” explained Helen. “You see, college starts next month.”
“My heavens,” exclaimed the director. “What under the sun do you want to go to college for? You’re smart enough right now.”
“That’s just it; we aren’t,” replied Janet. “And we’re terribly young, if the truth were known.”
Billy Fenstow looked at them critically.
“Yep, you’re young enough,” he conceded, “but what’s that got to do with it?”
“Well, we’re nothing sensational as actresses,” replied Janet, “and neither one of us would want to go along playing minor rôles for years. If we ever hope to do more than that we’ve got to have more of a background in education and college seems to be the easiest and surest way to attain that.”
Billy Fenstow nodded in agreement.
“Maybe you’re right,” he admitted, “but you could stay on with me at one hundred or one hundred and fifty dollars a week for a long time.”
“But how many weeks a year would we work at that rate? There wouldn’t be more than twenty-five or thirty at the most and our expenses of staying on in Hollywood would become heavier.”
“Now that you put it that way, you’re probably right. But when you do get through college, don’t forget to come back and we’ll see how things go then.”
The director started to get up, then sank back on the cushions.
“You helped doctor the script of ‘Kings of the Air,’ didn’t you?” he asked Janet.
“I made a suggestion or two,” she admitted.
“I heard it was a little more than that,” smiled the director. “Why don’t you see what you could do with a western script for me. I haven’t got an idea and if I turn it over to the studio writers, I’ll probably get another stereotyped plot.”
“Are you serious?” demanded Janet.
“Very much so. You might be able to put together something with a new angle. Mind you, it must be simple in action, for I’ve got to operate on a slim budget, but we must have a satisfactory love angle and a plausible plot. Think you can do anything with it?”
“I’ll try; I’ll do my best,” promised Janet.
“Then I guess I’ll take a little vacation when we get back to Hollywood. I’ll need the story in about ten days, or at least a complete outline by that time.”
The
