let me go--not like the galley slave at night
scourged to his dungeon--but like one sustained and soothed by an
unfaltering trust----" He stopped suddenly, and then in a voice that
chilled Wallie's blood he shouted:

"Jumping Je-hoshaphat! Git out o' that grub-box!"

He had caught Mrs. Budlong in the act of spreading jam on a cracker.

"How dare you speak so to me?" she demanded, indignantly.

For answer, Mr. Hicks replied autocratically:

"You ought to know by this time that I don't allow dudes snooping around
when I'm cooking."

"You are insulting--I shall report you."

Mr. Hicks laughed mockingly:

"You do that and see what it gets you."

The cook quite evidently knew his power, for when Mrs. Budlong carried
out her threat Wallie could only reply that he dared not antagonize
Hicks, since to replace him would cause delay, inconvenience, and
additional expense to everybody.

Mrs. Budlong rested all her chins upon her cameo breastpin and received
the explanation coldly.

"Verra well," she said, incisively, "verra, verra well! I shall buy jam
and crackers at the first station, Mr. Macpherson, and carry them with
me."

Wallie had no heart to say more than:

"Indeed, Mrs. Budlong, I am so sorry----"

But she was already on the way to report the controversy to her husband.

When they had bathed their faces and hands in the river the evening
before someone had referred to it poetically as "Nature's wash-basin."
Wallie, seeing Mrs. Appel with her soap and towel on the way to
"Nature's wash-basin," was inspired by some evil spirit to inquire how
she had rested.

"Rested!" she hissed at him. "Who could rest, to say nothing of
sleeping, within six blocks of Mr. Penrose? A man who snores as he does
should not be permitted to have his tent among human beings. If it is
ever placed near mine again, Wallie, I shall insist upon having it
removed if it is midnight. Knowing the trouble he has had everywhere, I
am surprised at your not being more considerate."

"To-night I will attend to it. I regret very much----" Wallie mumbled.

Mrs. J. Harry Stott beckoned him aside as breakfast was being placed on
the table.

Mrs. Stott had a carefully cultivated mispronunciation of great elegance
when she wished to be impressive, and as soon as she began Wallie
realized that something portentous was about to be imparted to him. Even
the way she raised her eyebrows made him warm all over with a sense of
guilt of something o