But Miss Mercy was adamant, and intimated that Wallie was in sympathy with his hireling if not in actual "cahoots" with him.
Wallie realized that it would be impossible to resent the implication with proper dignity while lying on the flat of his back looking up at his accuser, so he said nothing, whereupon Miss Mercy flung at him as she departed: "I intend to ask a ride back to Prouty from the first passerby, and I shall knock you and your ranch at every opportunity!"
She returned to her teepee to complete her toilette while Wallie took his boots from under his pillow and drew them on glumly, feeling that much of the joy had been taken from what promised to be a perfect morning.
Mr. Hicks, too, started breakfast in a mood that was clearly melancholy, for as he rattled the pots and pans Wallie heard him reciting: "And when my time comes, 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."