CHAPTER XVI 

 HORACE TAKES A STAND 



THE rain began again as soon as we reached Mc- 

 Knight Creek, and continued during all the time we 

 worked that canyon. 



In the very first camp we made Horace fell ill. 

 His trouble included chills, fever, general debility 

 and a bad cold. Brown called it "mountain fever." 



The patient had been complaining for some time 

 of various pains and aches, usually after a hearty 

 meal, and the sympathy we might have felt for him 

 was minimised by the fact that we were all inclined 

 to attribute the condition from which he suffered to 

 overeating. 



None of us had delicate appetites our work pre- 

 cluded that but we were well aware that if we ate 

 all we wanted at every meal catastrophe would fol- 

 low surely. Horace alone consistently stuffed him- 

 self in spite of our warnings and the collapse of 

 his system, we felt, was simply the inevitable result 

 of this self indulgence. 



But the sick man in turn ascribed his illness to the 

 altitude, the water, the temperature and the work, to 

 every imaginable reason, in fact, but the obvious 

 one. He suffered and incidentally inflicted suf- 

 fering on every one else for several days. Then, 



107 



