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but it’s where she’s from, and it’s a pretty straitlaced
place. I understand there’s a church on every street corner, but it
didn’t have a single saloon until recently.”
    “Honest to God?”
    “Honest to God. The Women’s Christian
Temperance Union’s big there. I understand the White Ribbon is the biggest-selling newspaper in town.
    “Shoot.” Charlie was honestly impressed. Not
to mention appalled.
    Martin chuckled. “So you can imagine what
Miss Wilkes thinks of folks who cuss.”
    “Mmmm.”
    “To tell the truth, I’m a little worried
about how she’ll get along with Horace Huxtable. He, er, drinks
sometimes.”
    Charlie nodded. “I expect she won’t like
that.” No wonder Miss Wilkes acted so high and mighty. It was a
shame, too, because Charlie’d seldom seen such a pretty girl. But
if she lived in a town that didn’t even let its citizens have a
snort every now and then—Charlie could scarcely conceive of such a
place—he feared there was probably no hope for her ever becoming
human.
    “So,” Martin went on, “I guess you might want
to take it easy on the cussing. Don’t want to shock our leading
lady, now, do we?” He laughed a full-bodied, happy laugh.
    Charlie laughed with him. Why not? It was a
kind of funny situation.
    They entered the chow tent together. “Golly,
Martin, I didn’t know it took so many folks to shoot one of these
here movie things.”
    Martin smiled with evident satisfaction.
“This is the largest film crew ever assembled, Charlie. Why, this
is the most ambitious project ever to be attempted in the
industry.”
    “Honest?” Charlie was impressed. And he was
part of it. Made a fellow kind of proud.
    “Absolutely. Why, Charlie, The Great Train
Robbery only ran for nine minutes. This movie will run for four
whole reels, and will be a full forty-eight minutes long. We’re
even going to do one of those premiere things, like they do for
stage plays.”
    “Shoot, really? Where?”
    “Chicago. Chicago’s a great place for moving
pictures.”
    “Holy cow.” Although Charlie couldn’t
conceive of who’d be willing to sit still for forty-eight minutes
staring at a screen, he didn’t say so. Hell, maybe folks in Chicago
didn’t have anything better to do with their time. Besides, it was
nothing to him if the Peerless Studio folks wanted to throw their
money around. They were throwing a good deal of it Charlie’s way,
and that was the only thing that mattered to him.
    “Of course, the main players in the picture
will be invited to the premiere. You’ll like Chicago, I’m
sure.”
    Only if Peerless paid. Charlie didn’t say so,
but he wasn’t about to waste his money taking a train to Chicago to
see a moving picture show. Hell, he could go to the nickelodeon in
town if he ever wanted to see himself on film.
    “Oh, there’s Miss Wilkes.” Martin nodded
toward the front of the tent.
    Turning, Charlie saw her, too. She looked
mighty little, standing there at the opening of the tent, peering
around with her hands folded politely in front of her as if she
were sort of scared. Charlie’s big heart got all warm and slushy,
and he forgave her for being a prig and a cold fish. “I’ll see if
she’d like to sit with us.”
    “Good for you.” Martin gave him an approving
slap on the back, and Charlie strode over to her.
    “Howdy, ma’am.” He tipped his hat and smiled
down at her.
    She gave a jump of alarm, and some of
Charlie’s friendly feelings slid sideways. Slapping a hand to her
starched white bosom, she gasped, “Oh, Mr. Fox, you startled
me.”
    “Yeah? You might want to talk to a doctor
about your nerves, ma’am. I hear they got all sorts of nerve
specialists and other such truck out here in California.”
    “My nerves are fine, thank you, Mr. Fox.” Her
voice had taken on the frigid quality that rasped so disagreeably
on Charlie’s pride.
    “Glad to hear it. Would you care to join Mr.
Tafft and me, ma’am? I’ll try not to eat with my