iment, but I don't believe I took it just the way
Frosty meant I should. I was proud as thunder to have him call me a
"Ragged H man" so unconsciously. It showed that he really thought of me
simply as one of the boys; that the "son and heir" view-point--oh, that
had always rankled, deep down where we bury unpleasant things in our
memory--had been utterly forgotten. So the tribute to my nerve didn't go
for anything beside that. I was a "Ragged H man," on the same footing as
the rest of them. It's silly owning it, but it gave me a little tingle of
pleasure to have one of dad's men call dad's son and heir "a blasted
fool." I don't believe the Lord made me an aristocrat.

We didn't see anything more of King till supper was called. At Pochette's
you sit down to a long table covered with dark-red mottled oilcloth and
sprinkled with things to eat, and watch that your elbow doesn't cause your
nearest neighbor to do the sword-swallowing act involuntarily and
disastrously with his knife, or--you don't eat. Frosty and I had walked
down to the ferry-crossing while we waited, and then were late getting
into the game when we heard the summons.

We went in and sat down just as the Chinaman was handing thick cups of
coffee around rather sloppily. From force of habit I looked for my napkin,
remembered that I was in a napkinless region, and glanced up to see if any
one had noticed.

Just across from me old King was pushing back his chair and getting
stiffly upon his feet. He met my eyes squarely--friend or enemy, I like a
man to do that--and scowled.

"Through already?" I reached for the sugar-bowl.

"What's it to you, damn yuh?" he snapped, but we could see at a glance
that King had not begun his meal.

I looked at Frosty, and he seemed waiting for me to say something. So
I said: "Too bad--we Ragged H men are such mighty slow eaters. If it's on
my account, sit right down and make yourself comfortable. I don't mind;
I dare say I've eaten in worse company."

He went off growling, and I leaned back and stirred my coffee as leisurely
as if I were killing time over a bit of crab in the Palace, waiting for my
order to come. Frosty, I observed, had also slowed down perceptibly; and
so we "toyed with the viands" just like a girl in a story--in real life,
I've noticed, girls develop full-grown appetites and aren't ashamed of
them. King went outside to wait, and I'm sure I hope he enjoyed it; I know
we did. We drank three cups of coffee api