“Sure, but you’re likely to go to prison. Setting fire to buildings is arson, you know.” There was no humor in his words and Bertie looked from one to another in the group around her. Each stared at her with scornful eyes.
Defiant to the end, she flung her head back, “Well, what of it?” she demanded.
“Only this. You’ll never work in another picture for anybody.” It was Henry Thorne speaking, quietly and firmly, and Bertie turned away.
The two flyers, the one who had abducted Janet and the one who had bombed the set, talked. Janet didn’t hear the whole story, but she and Helen learned enough to know that another rival company was implicated. It was Bertie who had set fire to the dry old houses in Sagebrush and who had supplied the flyers with information on the plans of the company.
When they finally returned to what little was left of the village, Henry Thorne spoke quietly to the girls.
“Don’t worry now,” he assured Helen. “There’ll be no more delays. We can erect another set on the desert without too much loss of time and we’ll have to live in tents, but that is endurable.”
Turning to Janet, he surprised her.
“Janet, I’m going to put you in Bertie’s rôle. We’ll shoot the scene in the field restaurant over again when we get back to Hollywood, but I need someone right now to step into Bertie’s place and you can handle the part. What do you say?”
“I’ll do my best,” promised Janet.
“I know you will.” Then Henry Thorne hurried away to attend to one of the hundred details that are the worry of a successful director and Janet and Helen faced each other.