with the empty saddle deliberately--they photographed that, too! They
had a silly bet of some sort and--"

Miss Devine steps deliberately right around the side of the hedge
almost into Adams's arms. He's white and lookin' much like he did the
first day he blowed into Film City. The minute he sees her he
straightens up.

"How long have you been here?" he clips out.

"I've heard--everything!" she says, lookin' him right in the eye.

Adams runs his hand through his hair, and pulls a look that went
through me to the bone. I don't know how it hit Miss Devine.

"And all of this--this--your attitude toward me--the accident--was
played to make a picture?" he says.

"Yes!" says Miss Devine. "All except _this_!" And I hope I never see
another movie, if both her arms didn't go around his neck--right out
loud in public, too! "All except _this_!" she repeats. "And, oh,
Jack--this is _real_!!"

"I win a thousand bucks!" pants Duke, draggin' me away--De Vronde blew
the minute she appeared on the scene--"I win a thousand bucks!" he
says. "And the picture is gonna be a riot! If they was only a good
camera man here now for that close up at the finish, eh? Still--I
guess that would be too raw!" He looks back where Adams and Miss
Devine is posin' for a picture of still life. "And she said this love
stuff was the bunk!" he hollers. "Oh, boy!!!!"

CHAPTER VIII

HOSPITAL STUFF

Every time I see a thermometer, a watch, and a egg my temperature
aviates to about a hundred and ninety-eight in the shade--and if they's
nobody lookin' I bust 'em! I spent two months and eight hundred bucks
with that layout once and, oh, lady!--Say! The next time I feel a
vacation comin' on, I'm goin' to Russia and holler, "Hooray for the
Czar!"

I just been Red-Crossed to within a inch of my life and I'm off that
"take-two-once-every-twice, and don't-eat-any-this-or-drink-any-that"
stuff! The right cross and the double cross has been little pals of
mine for years, and I once got throwed out of school for pullin' that
"How to make a maltese cross" thing, but the _red_ one was all new to
me up to last month.

They call me a glutton for punishment, but I got--enough!

I can't go in a drug store no more, because the sight of the
prescription bar in the rear affects me like strong drink and I even
had to lay off peas, because they look like pills.

All the food I got durin' the time I become a victim of the Red Cross
could have b