Carara had come back from the Centipede with news that gladdened
the hearts of his hearers: not only would that despicable outfit
consent to run a foot-race, but they clamored for it. They did
not dicker over details nor haggle about terms, but consented to
put up the phonograph again, and all the money at their disposal
as well. The cook was in training.
Of all the denizens of the Flying Heart but two failed to enter
fully into the spirit of the thing. Berkeley Fresno looked on
with a cynicism which he was too wise to display before Miss
Blake. Seeing the lady of his dreams monopolized by a rival,
however, inspired him to sundry activities, and he spent much of
his time among the cowboys, whom he found profitable to the point
of mystery.
Mrs. Keap, the youthful chaperon, seemed likewise mastered by
some private trouble, and puzzled her companions vaguely. Helen
reported that she did not sleep, and once Jean found her crying
softly. She seemed, moreover, to be apprehensive, in a tremulous,
reasonless ways but when with friendly sympathy they brought the
subject up, she dismissed it.
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