her mother
and she didn't like her mother's name a little bit."

"I know, but after all, we did butt in a trifle too soon with our--"

"For God's sake, don't let any of these here women hear you talk like
that, boss," groaned Jack Wales. "They'll think we're beginning to
hedge. We got to stand together in this thing. If we don't, they'll rule
this camp sure as you're a foot high. I don't give a dern what the kid's
name is, far as I'm concerned, but on principle, boss, it's just got to
be Doraine. Doraine she is an' Doraine she stays."

Every one of them was good-humoured about it. They were taking it as a
rare and unexpected bit of politics. The thrill of opposition invested
them. They scoffed at surrender.

Buck Chizler, however, was seriously affected. He was courting one of
the nurses and he, for one, saw peril in preliminary defeat.

"There won't be any living with 'em," he proclaimed, scowling darkly. "I
know what it is to have 'em get the bit in their teeth. You just can't
manage 'em, that's all. Upset all the dope. Likely to throw you clear
over the fence. Experience ain't a particle of use. The gad don't do a
bit of good. They just shut their jaws, lay back their ears, and--"

"We're not talking about race-horses, Buck," interrupted Percival,
smiling.

"Neither am I," said Buck forcibly.

Ruth went to Olga Obosky. She did so only after a rather prolonged
inward struggle. The Russian's interest in Percival was not moderated
by the reserve supposed to be inherent in women. She was an open
idolatress. One had only to watch the way she followed him with her
dark, heavy-lidded eyes to know what was in her mind. Ruth tried not to
despise her. She tried not to care, when she saw Percival laughing and
talking with this beguiling sensualist,--and it was not an infrequent
occurrence.

The dancer was seated on the floor of her hut, tailor-fashion, a
cigarette between her lips, her bare arms resting limply on her knees,
her body bent forward in an attitude of extreme fatigue. The three
"coryphees" were busy at work about the place with Olga's maid. Ruth
stopped in the doorway. Olga lazily removed the cigarette from her lips
and smiled.

"I once thought I was very strong and unbreakable," she said, "but now
I know I am not. See, I am all in, as we would say in America. Suffering
snakes,--how tired I am! That also comes from America. Won't you sit
down, Miss Clinton? We have three or four deck chairs, you see, an