McCloud looked at Marion. "Then let"s be sensible," he said. "You and Miss Dunning can have my tent as soon as we have supper."
"Supper!"
"Supper is served to all on duty at twelve o"clock, and we"re on duty, aren"t we? They"re about ready to serve now; we eat in the tent," he added, holding out his hand as he heard the patter of raindrops. "Rain again! No matter, we shall be dry under canvas."
d.i.c.ksie had never seen an engineers" field headquarters. Lanterns lighted the interior, and the folding-table in the middle was strewn with papers which McCloud swept off into a camp-chest. Two double cots with an aisle between them stood at the head of the tent, and, spread with bright Hudson Bay blankets, looked fresh and undisturbed. A box-table near the head-pole held an alarm-clock, a telegraph key, and a telephone, and the wires ran up the pole behind it. Leather jackets and sweaters lay on boxes under the tent-walls, and heavy boots stood in disorderly array along the foot of the cots. These McCloud, with apologies, kicked into the corners.
"Is this where you stay?" asked d.i.c.ksie.
"Four of us sleep in the cots, when we can, and an indefinite number lie on the ground when it rains."
Marion looked around her. "What do you do when it thunders?"
The two men were pulling boxes out for seats; McCloud did not stop to look up. "I crawl under the bed--the others don"t seem to mind it."
"Which is your bed?"
"Whichever I can crawl under quickest. I usually sleep there." He pointed to the one on the right.
"I thought so. It has the blanket folded back so neatly, just as if there were sheets under it. I"ll bet there aren"t any."
"Do you think this is a summer resort? Knisely, my a.s.sistant, sleeps there, but of course we are never both in bed at the same time; he"s down the river to-night. It"s a sort of continuous performance, you know." McCloud looked at d.i.c.ksie. "Take off your coat, won"t you, please?"
Whispering Smith was trying to drag a chest from the foot of the cot, and Marion stood watching. "What are you trying to do?"
"Get this over to the table for a seat."
"Silly man! why don"t you move the table?"
d.i.c.ksie was taking off her coat. "How inviting it all is!" she smiled. "And this is where you stay?"
"When it rains," answered McCloud. "Let me have your hat, too."
"My hair is a sight, I know. We rode over rocks and up gullies into the brush----"
"And through lakes--oh, I know! I can"t conceive how you ever got here at all. Your hair is all right. This is camp, anyway. But if you want a gla.s.s you can have one. Knisely is a great swell; he"s just from school, and has no end of things. I"ll rob his bag."
"Don"t disturb Mr. Knisely"s bag for the world!"
"But you are not taking off your hat. You seem to have something on your mind."
"Help me to get it off my mind, will you, please?"
"If you will let me."
"Tell me how to thank you for your generosity. I came all the way over here to-night to ask you for just the help you have offered, and I could not--it stuck in my throat. But that wasn"t what was on my mind.
Tell me what you thought when I acted so dreadfully at Marion"s."
"I didn"t deserve anything better after placing myself in such a fool position. Why don"t you ask me what I thought the day you acted so beautifully at Crawling Stone Ranch? I thought that the finest thing I ever saw."
"You were not to blame at Marion"s."
"I seemed to be, which is just as bad. I am going to start the "phones going. It"s up to me to make good, you know, in about four hours with a lot of men and material. Aren"t you going to take off your hat?--and your gloves are soaking wet."
McCloud took down the receiver, and d.i.c.ksie put her hands slowly to her head to unpin 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 d.i.c.ksie 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 a.s.sembling 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. d.i.c.ksie, 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 j.a.panese 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 pa.s.s the beans over there, and d.i.c.ksie, 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 d.i.c.ksie, 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 ash.o.r.e 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, 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 appet.i.te? 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 d.i.c.ksie.
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 j.a.ps carry fans, of course."