pin her hat. It was a broad hat of scarlet felt rolled
high above her forehead, and an eagle's quill caught in the black
rosette swept across the front. As she stood in her clinging
riding-skirt and her severely plain scarlet waist with only a black
ascot falling over it, Whispering Smith looked at her. His eyes did
not rest on the picture too long, but his glance was searching. He
spoke in an aside to Marion. Marion laughed as she turned her head
from where Dicksie was talking again with McCloud. "The best of it
is," murmured Marion, "she hasn't a suspicion of how lovely she really
is."

CHAPTER XXI

SUPPER IN CAMP

"Will you never be done with your telephoning?" asked Marion. McCloud
was still planning the assembling of the men and teams for the
morning. Breakfast and transportation were to be arranged for, and the
men and teams and material were to be selected from where they could
best be spared. Dicksie, with the fingers of one hand moving softly
over the telegraph key, sat on a box listening to McCloud's
conferences and orders.

"Cherry says everything is served. Isn't it, Cherry?" Marion called to
the Japanese boy.

Cherry laughed with a guttural joy.

"We are ready for it," announced McCloud, rising. "How are we to
sit?"

"You are to sit at the head of your own table," said Marion. "I serve
the coffee, so I sit at the foot; and Mr. Smith may pass the beans
over there, and Dicksie, you are to pour the condensed milk into the
cups."

"Or into the river, just as you like," suggested Whispering Smith.

McCloud looked at Marion Sinclair. "Really," he exclaimed, "wherever
you are it's fair weather! When I see you, no matter how tangled up
things are, I feel right away they are coming out. And this man is
another."

"Another what?" demanded Whispering Smith.

"Another care-killer." McCloud, speaking to Dicksie, nodded toward his
companion. "Troubles slip from your shoulders when he swaggers in,
though he's not of the slightest use in the world. I have only one
thing against him. It is a physical peculiarity, but an indefensible
one. You may not have noticed it, but he is bowlegged."

"From riding your scrub railroad horses. I feel like a sailor ashore
when I get off one. Are you going to eat all the bacon, Mr. McCloud,
or do we draw a portion of it? I didn't start out with supper
to-night."

"Take it all. I suppose it would be useless to ask where you have been
to-day?"

"Not in the least,