but it would be useless to tell. I am violating no
confidence, though, in saying I'm hungry. I certainly shouldn't eat
this stuff if I weren't, should you, Miss Dunning? And I don't believe
you are eating, by the way. Where is your appetite? Your ride ought
to have sharpened it. I'm afraid you are downcast. Oh, don't deny it;
it is very plain: but your worry is unnecessary."

"If the rain would only stop," said Marion, "everybody would cheer up.
They haven't seen the sun at the ranch for ten days."

"This rain doesn't count so far as the high water is concerned," said
McCloud. "It is the weather two hundred and fifty miles above here
that is of more consequence to us, and there it is clear to-night. As
long as the tent doesn't leak I rather like it. Sing your song about
fair weather, Gordon."

"But can the men work in such a downpour?" ventured Dicksie.

The two men looked serious and Marion laughed.

"In the morning you will see a hundred of them marching forward with
umbrellas, Mr. McCloud leading. The Japs carry fans, of course."

"I wish I could forget we are in trouble at home," said Dicksie,
taking the badinage gracefully. "Worrying people are such a nuisance.
Don't protest, for every one knows they are."

"But we are all in trouble," insisted Whispering Smith. "Trouble! Why,
bless you, it really is a blessing; pretty successfully disguised, I
admit, sometimes, but still a blessing. I'm in trouble all the time,
right now, up to my neck in trouble, and the water rising this minute.
Look at this man," he nodded toward McCloud. "He is in trouble, and
the five hundred under him, they are in all kinds of trouble. I
shouldn't know how to sleep without trouble," continued Whispering
Smith, warming to the contention. "Without trouble I lose my appetite.
McCloud, don't be tight; pass the bread."

"Never heard him do so well," declared McCloud, looking at Marion.

"Seriously, now," Whispering Smith went on, "don't you know people
who, if they were thoroughly prosperous, would be intolerable--simply
intolerable? I know several such. All thoroughly prosperous people are
a nuisance. That is a general proposition, and I stand by it. Go over
your list of acquaintances and you will admit it is true. Here's to
trouble! May it always chasten and never overwhelm us: our greatest
bugbear and our best friend! It sifts our friends and unmasks our
enemies. Like a lovely woman, it woos us----"

"Oh, never!" exclaimed Marion.