Page:Allan Dunn--Dead Man's Gold.djvu/183

Rh she splendid? She'll be quite a star by the time I get back into the game» from what she says. But it won't make any difference to Mary Leslie. She's true-blue, warranted to wear and never fade.

"You see," she went on. "Mary and I were in the pictures together with the SunKraft people. At first as extras and then, because we could both ride, we got on pretty regular. Mary filmed the best but I managed to work in till my lung began to go back on me and they said I'd have to leave sea-level, and rest and take special treatment. Sounds easy, just like that, don't it? I tried to stick it out and got worse and had a hemorrhage and then Mary got on her ear. I came up here on what little we both had saved, but the doctor said I'd have to stay for several months before he could make a cure.

"Then Mary got a jump. She sure deserved it. She worked hard and she filmed fine but the director had a run in with her. Tried to get fresh and, believe me, Mary won't stand for anything like that. Hates it and speaks her mind about it. But she got the rise and wrote telling me I could stay. It costs money to stay up here, I can tell you, but it's worth it, You see how the place is run and I've got my health back. It was all through eating too much of the wrong kind of stuff, which was cheap, and not enough of the right kind, which wasn't, Doctor Seward says, that brought me here. That and working all hours. It's no snap to be in the pictures, let me tell you, what with retakes and standing around hours because someone has forgotten something.