us moment to "put Mr. Hicks in his place," as
Mrs. Stott had phrased it, but Wallie had no desire to nerve himself
twice for the same ordeal; therefore, with something of the desperate
courage which comes to high-strung persons about to have a tooth
extracted, Wallie advanced and inquired cordially:

"Well, Mr. Hicks, how are things coming?"

"I am not complaining," replied Mr. Hicks, in a tone which intimated
that once he started enumerating his grievances he would not know where
to finish.

"Pleasant people, aren't they?" Wallie suggested.

"So is a menagerie--after it's eaten."

"They do have appetites," Wallie admitted. "I suppose it's living in the
open."

"I've cooked for section hands on the Burlington, and they were
canary-birds beside these Poland Chinas. We had ought to brought troughs
instead of tinware."

"You mustn't speak so of our guests," Wallie reprimanded.

Hicks went on wrathfully:

"That fat sister in the cameo breastpin--she swiped a can of potted
chicken on me yesterday--she's a regular 'camp-robber'."

Wallie interposed hastily:

"We mustn't have any trouble. I want to get through this trip peaceably.
In fact, Mr. Hicks, it's along this line that I wished to have a word
with you."

Mr. Hicks looked at him quickly and suspiciously.

"Has any of 'em been kickin' on me?"

Wallie hesitated, casting a furtive eye about as he did so for the most
convenient exit.

"Not kicking, I wouldn't say _kicking_, Mr. Hicks, but it has been
suggested--I have been thinking that it might be _pleasanter_ for you
and Red to have your own table."

Mr. Hicks stopped turning over the potatoes and looked at him for what
seemed to Wallie a full minute.

"In other words," he said, finally, in a voice that was oily and
coaxing, as if he wanted the truth from him, "the dudes don't want the
cook and the horse-wrangler to eat with them?"

Wallie noticed uneasily that while Hicks spoke he was tentatively
feeling the edge of the knife he had been using. Instinctively Wallie's
eyes sought the route he had selected, as he replied conciliatingly:

"No reflection upon you and Red is intended, Mr. Hicks; it is just that
Eastern people have different customs, and we have to humour them,
although we may not agree with them."

There was another silence, in which Hicks continued to thumb the knife
in a manner that kept Wallie at a tension, then he said with a suavity
which somehow was more menacing than an outbur