all disguised as cowboys, came surging out of the darkness.
H-m-m. That was the bunch that Luck Lindsay had done so much bragging
about, and called "real boys," was it? silently commented the audience.
No different from any other cowboys, as far as any one could see.

True, they used about half the usual amount of film footage in getting to
foreground; probably underspeeded the camera,--an old, old trick which
has helped to put the dash and ginger into many a poor horseman's act.

But the "XY cowboys" certainly surged up to foreground, and it was seen
that they rode with reins in their teeth, and that each and every man
fired two huge six-shooters straight up at the moon every time their
horses hit the ground with forefeet. The Happy Family leaned forward and
craned around the heads of those in front that they might see all of it.
Luck had told them before making this scene to "eat 'em alive," and the
Happy Family had very nearly done so. Andy Green nudged his wife,
Rosemary, and whispered hurriedly that this was where the camera man had
pulled up his tripod by the roots and beat it, thinking he was going to
be run over; and that was why the scene was cut unexpectedly just where
Andy set his horse on its haunches and posed, a heroic figure of a cowboy
rampant, immediately before the lens.

Luck, glancing hurriedly to right and left, slid down and rested the nape
of his neck on the back of his chair, slipped a fresh stick of gum
between his teeth, hung his hat on his knee, and prepared to view his
work with critical mind and impartial, and with his conscience like his
body at ease. The thing had certainly started off with zip enough, since
zip was what Mart claimed the Public demanded.

The next scene was a continuation of the one before,--the camera man
having evidently recovered himself and gotten to work again. The Happy
Family, still surging and still shooting two guns apiece at the pale
moon, were shown entering the saloon door four abreast and with the rest
crowding for place. Still there was zip; all kinds of zip. The Happy
Family nudged and grinned in the dusk and were very much pleased with
themselves as XY cowboys seeking mild entertainment in town.

Some one behind remarked upon the surging and the shooting, and Big
Medicine turned his head quickly and sent a hoarse stage whisper in the
general direction of the mumble.

"Ah-h, that there ain't anything! Luck never let us turn ourselves loose
there a-tall.