Right then and there I warmed up to Joe Trout like I never had before. After all, Miss Vincent had the right dope--he was nothin' but a big kid at that, and any guy that will come right out in public and admit he's a false alarm, deserves credit!
"Well," he says after a minute, "I suppose you're both through with me now, eh?"
"Do I look like a quitter?" demands the Kid.
"Listen!" interrupts the Kid. "I got the whole thing doped out. When is this dame of yours due to hit Film City?"
"She'll be here on that one o'clock train," moans Joe.
"Fine!" says the Kid. "Now get this! De Vronde is supposed to do a fall from a horse in 'The End of the World' and the big yellow bum won't do it. They're lookin' for some guy that will take his place, just for that one flash, see? Now suppose I fix it so you get that chance and when the dame comes on, there you are playin' the lead as far as she can see, in the best part of the frolic. How's that?"
"I'll never forget it!" he hollers. "You have saved my life! What can I do to repay you?"
"Stop four-flushing," comes back the Kid, "and be on the level!"
"I'll do it, if it kills me!" promises Joe--and I don't know whether he meant the fall or the other.
"Can you ride a horse?" the Kid asks him as we start back.
"Can _I_ ride a horse?" repeats Joe, stoppin' short. "What a question! Why at home I was the champion--"
"Now, now!" butts in the Kid. "There you go again!"
"Pardon me!" says Joe, gettin' red--and he quits!
Well, the Kid fixed it all right, so's Joe could double for De Vronde in that one place where he did the fall. I don't know how he did it any more than I know how Edison come to think of the phonograph, but he did! All my suspicions as to who the dame was come true when Gladys hops off the one o'clock train that afternoon. I seen her talkin' to Eddie Duke near the African Desert, and I immediately went scoutin' around for Joe, because Eddie liked him the same way the brewers is infatuated with the Anti-Saloon League and I knowed if Eddie got a chance to harpoon Joe with Gladys, he'd do that thing.
About half a hour later, Genaro asks me to go over and find Potts, because they're ready to start shootin' the picture and when I got near the hotel I seen a couple of people blockin' the little narrow passage in back of it. They was Gladys O'Hara and Joe Trout and when I got close up I heard Joseph talkin'. He was goin' like a house on fire and his little old lyin' apparatus was hittin' on all cylinders and runnin' smooth without a break. He explains to Gladys that he went on only in the important part of the picture which she would see in a minute, and that De Vronde was only one of the cheap help who played the part while _he_ was restin' for the big scene. As soon as that come up--and he said the whole picture was built around it--they give De Vronde the gate and in went the darin' Joe.