r," Zane Grey's latest contribution to the literature of
unrealism. All that is necessary for a complete illusion is the
insertion of three or four news photographs at the end, showing how they
catch salmon in the Columbia River, the allegorical floats in the Los
Angeles Carnival of Roses and the ice-covered fire ruins in the business
section of Worcester, Mass.

In order that the change from book to film may be made as quickly as
possible, the author has written his story in the language of the
moving-picture subtitle. All that the continuity-writer in the studio
will have to do will be to take every third sentence from the book and
make a subtitle from it. We might save him the trouble and do it here,
together with some suggestions for incidental decorations.

Remember, nothing will be quoted below which is not in the exact wording
of Zane Grey's text. We first see Columbine Belllounds, adopted
daughter of old Belllounds the rancher of Colorado. She is riding along
the trail overlooking the valley.

"TODAY GIRLISH ORDEALS AND GRIEFS SEEMED BACK IN THE PAST: SHE WAS A
WOMAN AT NINETEEN AND FACE TO FACE WITH THE FIRST GREAT PROBLEM IN HER
LIFE." (Suggestion for title decoration: A pair of reluctant feet
standing at the junction of a brook and a river.)

She stops to pick some columbines and soliloquizes. The author says:
"She spoke aloud, as if the sound of her voice might convince her," but
it is not clear from the text just what she expected to be convinced of.
Here is her argument to herself:

"COLUMBINE!... SO THEY NAMED ME--THOSE MINERS WHO FOUND ME--A BABY--LOST
IN THE WOODS--ASLEEP AMONG THE COLUMBINES." (Decorative nasturtiums.)

Having convinced herself in these reassuring words as she stands alone
on the ridge in God's great outdoors, she explains that she has promised
to marry Jack Belllounds, the worthless son of her foster-father,
although any one can tell that she is in love with Wilson Moore, a
cow-puncher on the ranch. You will understand what a sacrifice this was
to be when the author says that "the lower part of Jack Belllounds's
face was weak."

To the ranch comes "Hell-Bent" Wade, the mysterious man of the plains.
He applies for a job, and not only that, but he gets it, which gives him
a chance to let us know that:

"EIGHTEEN YEARS AGO HE HAD DRIVEN THE WOMAN HE LOVED AWAY FROM HIM, OUT
INTO THE WORLD WITH HER BABY GIRL ... JEALOUS FOOL!... TOO LATE HAD HE
DISCOVERED HIS FATAL BLUNDER.... TH