Page:Frank Spearman--Whispering Smith.djvu/342

 “The railroad be hanged. I am for dinner.”

“But I will get dinner for you.”

“You need not. I can get it for myself.”

“You are perfectly absurd, and if we stand here disputing, Marion won’t have anything to eat.”

They went into the kitchen disputing about what should be cooked. At the end of an hour they had two fires going—one in the stove and one in Dicksie’s cheeks. By that time it had been decided to have a luncheon instead of a dinner. Dicksie attempted some soup, and McCloud found a strip of bacon, and after he had cooked it, Dicksie, with her riding-skirt pinned up and her sleeves delightfully rolled back, began frying eggs. When Marion, unable longer to withstand the excitement, appeared, the engineer, flushed with endeavor, was making toast.

The three sat down at table together. They found they had forgotten the coffee, but Marion was not allowed to move from her chair. When the coffee was made ready the bacon had been eaten and more had to be fried. McCloud proved able for any part of the programme, and when they rose it was four o’clock and too late, McCloud declared, to go back to the office that afternoon.

Marion and Dicksie, after a time, attempted jointly to get rid of him, but they found they could not, so the three talked about Whispering Smith. 316