wholly western scenario, and he felt certain that no less than two
performances would satisfy Billy's cravings. He went inside and stood
scanning the well-filled house until he located his little party well up
in front--children's choice of seats. He started down the aisle. The
preliminary pictures of the cast were being shown. On the screen flashed
the lines:

THE THIEF
or
MEG O' THE PRAIRIES
_By Bobbie Burr_

A picture of "Meg O' the Prairies" followed. Kurt turned and walked back
to the last row of seats, the only ones vacant.

The theatre was dark. An improvised orchestra was essaying something that
sounded like strains of Dixie, Columbia, America and the Star-Spangled
Banner combined, and the audience were continually standing up and sitting
down, in a state of bewilderment and doubt as to which was the national
air.

Then suddenly on the white screen was enacted the regulation, popular
style of Western play. Ranch settings, tough bar-room, inevitable cowboys,
bandits, Indians, and lovers twain, held the audience enthralled. There
were the many hair-breadth escapes, pursuits, timely rescues featuring the
one girl, daughter of a ranchman, attired in semi-cowboy regalia, who rode
like mad and performed all kinds of wonderful feats, and for whose hand
the hero, villain and cowboys hazarded their lives and fortunes. The old,
old picture that came with the first film and will last while there are
boys and men with the hearts of boys. Look upon it tenderly, promoters of
educational pictures and uplifting reels, for it carries a romance never
attained in reality and irresistibly appeals to the idealism of young
blood and young hearts.

For an instant, when the first picture of "The Thief" was thrown on the
screen, Kurt felt a queer sensation as one who intuitively perceives
something of danger in the dark. A swift, warning note like a sharp pain
struck him.

With tense nerves, he waited for the scenes in which she would appear. All
the little well-remembered gestures, the graceful movements, the tender
graces which he had been wont to steel himself against were there. They
brought him a feeling that was exquisite in its pain. With no outward show
of emotion his whole being quivered and throbbed at each appearance of the
boyish figure ever recurring on the screen.

Once her eyes, wistful and ent