human
Anyway, as I've doped it out, Mig loses his life. You find him dead--whether then or later I don't know yet. The punch is this: You have been getting pretty sick of the life, and wishing you had behaved yourself and stayed with your dad. But you've been afraid of Mig. You couldn't see any chance of taking the back trail as long as he was alive to tell on you. Now he's dead. I guess maybe you better find him right there in the blizzard--hurt maybe--anyway, just about all in. You try to save him, _sabe_? You can't, though.
gpt
I still don't see no phantom herd,
human
Well, listen. You'll see it in a minute. You go back home after your pard's dead. You have a close squeak yourself, see? And the thing works on your mind. Cutting out the frills, you see things. You see a herd drifting before a storm, maybe,--a blizzard like yesterday, with your pal riding point. You try to come up with it--no herd there. You come to yourself and go back home. Then maybe some black night you're brooding before a fire like this--I can get a great firelight effect on your face, sitting like this --Luck, actor that he was, made Andy see just how the scenes would look--
gpt
How the deuce--
human
I'll do that with 'lap dissolves' and double exposures. Lots of work that will be, and careful work, but the result will be--why, Lord! It will be immense! That herd and the lone rider haunt you till you're on the edge of being crazy. Then I'll bring out somehow that it's a nervous condition, which of course it is. And I'll bring old Dave in strong; he follows you some night, and he finds out what you're after. You tell him--make a clean breast of your rustling, see? Just unburden your mind to your dad. He's big enough to see that he isn't altogether clear of guilt himself, for sending you off the way he did. Anyway, that pulls you out of it. The phantom herd and rider pass over the sky line some night--Lord, I can see what a picture I can get out of that!--and out of your life.
gpt
Unh-hunh--that's a heap better than your first story, Luck.
human
Andy, are you boys going to talk all night?
gpt
Here. You go back to bed, Luck generously commanded.
human
I just wanted to get your idea of what it sounds like. I'll block it out before I turn in. Go on, now.