Kid Scanlan
would a been the back on a regular horse. "Step along!" he asks it. 

 Well, if they had that ride at Coney Island, they'd have made a fortune with it in one summer, because as soon as Old Dobbin realized he'd been hit, he started for South Africa and tried to make it in six jumps! He folded his long skinny ears back of his neck somewheres and just simply give himself over to runnin'. We went up hills and down vales that would have broke an automobile's heart, we took corners on one leg and creeks in a jump and when I seen the Pacific Ocean loomin' up in the offing I begin to pray that the thing couldn't swim! Gloomy Gus leans over and yells in my ear, "Some horse, eh?" 

 "Is that what it is?" I hollers back. 

 "Well, he's tryin' all right. He's what you could call a runnin' fool!"  We shot past somethin' that was just a black blur for a minute and then disappeared back in the dust.  "What was that?" I yells. 

 "Montana!" screams Gloomy Gus, "and—" 

 "Ha! Ha!" roars the Kid, openin' his mouth for the first time. "That's goin' a few! Let me know when we pass Oregon, I got a friend there!" 

 "Montana Bill!" explains Gloomy Gus, frownin' at the Kid.  "That's the only place you can get licker within five miles of Film City!"  He looks at the Kid again and mutters half to himself, "Champion, eh!" 

 Then he yanks in the reins and we slow down to about a runaway's pace right near what looks to be a World's Fair with a big wall around it and an iron gate in the middle. We shot up to the entrance and the horse calls it a day and stops, puffin' and blowin' like a fat piano-mover. 

 "Film City!" hollers Gloomy Gus.  "Git out here and walk in. Mr. Genaro's office is right back of the African Desert!" 

 I thanked him for bringin' us in alive. He didn't say nothin' to me, but as he was passin' in the gates I seen him lookin' after the Kid and shakin' his head.  "Champion, hey!" he mumbles. 

 This Film City place would have made delerium tremens lay down and quit. There was Indians, cowboys, cannibals, chorus girls, Japs, sheriffs, train robbers, and—well, it looked like the place where they assemble dime novels. A guy goes racin' past us on a horse with a lot of maniacs, yellin' and shootin', tearin' after him and on the other side a gang of laborers in tin hats and short skirts is 
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