romptly agreed Harrison. His vanity craved a picture of him
thrashing the extra, a good one that the public could see and that he
could afterwards gloat over himself.

Yeager laughed in his slow way. "I'm to be massa-creed to make a Roman
holiday, am I? All right. Might as well begin earning that two-fifty per
I've been promised."

The news spread, as if on the wings of the wind. Before Farrar had a
stage arranged to suit him and his camera ready, a dozen members of the
company drifted in with a casual manner of having arrived accidentally.
Fleming Lennox, leading man, appeared with Cliff Manderson, chief
comedian for the Lunar border company. Baldy Cummings, the property man,
strolled leisurely in to look over some costumes. But Steve observed
that he was panting rapidly.

As he sat on a soap box waiting for Farrar to finish his preparations,
Yeager became aware that Lennox was watching him closely. He did not
know that the leading man would cheerfully have sacrificed a week's
salary to see Harrison get the trimming he needed. The handsome young
film actor was an athlete, a trained boxer, but the ex-prizefighter had
given him the thrashing of his life two months before. He simply had
lacked the physical stamina to weather the blows that came from those
long, gorilla-like arms with the weight of the heavy, rounded shoulders
back of them. The fight had not lasted five minutes.

"Shapes well," murmured Manderson, nodding toward the new extra.

The leading man agreed without much hope. He conceded the boyish
cowpuncher a beautiful trim figure, with breadth of shoulder, grace of
poise, and long, flowing muscles that rippled under the healthy skin
like those of a panther in motion. But these would serve him little
unless he was an experienced boxer. Harrison had tremendous strength
and power; moreover, he knew the game from years of battle in the ring.

"He'll lose--won't be able to stand the gaff," Lennox replied gloomily,
his eyes fixed on Yeager as the young fellow rose lightly and moved
forward to meet his opponent.

The extra was as tall as Harrison, but he looked like a boy beside him,
so large and massive did the heavy bulk. The contrast between them was
so great that Yeager was scarcely conceded a fighting chance. Steve
himself knew quite well that he was in for a licking at the hands of
this wall-eyed Hercules with the leathery brown face.

He got it, efficiently and scientifically, but not before Harrison h