OH, SHOOT! 



"The grub will be fine leave that to me," 

 Mr. Means broke in, but I checked him, 

 saying: 



"Understand, Fred is an actor, and there- 

 fore he owes it to himself to safeguard his per- 

 sonal appearance. For instance, if a lion 

 should bite, hook, or kick him in the face, he'd 

 have to play the part of a German duelist, 

 and, under present conditions, such a role 

 couldn't be made sympathetic. What I would 

 like to be perfectly certain of, before we go 

 farther" 



"Why, a cougar is scared of his own 

 shadow," Ambrose said, positively. "Of 

 course, if one licked your hand, it 'd scratch, 

 because his tongue's rough. But they're 

 gentle as dogs they got good hearts 'and 

 this trip is just what you boys need. It '11 

 rest you and tone you up. You bring a 

 camera and an operator, and I'll attend to the 

 other arrangements. We'll sure have one 

 time ! And we'll rope cougars till we're plumb 

 tired." 



Here, at the start, arose a question. Fred, 

 of course, is an expert roper he can eat 

 noodles with a lariat and Means had demon- 

 strated his ability to rope, throw, and hog-tie 



144 



