8 Rod, Gun, and Palette in the High Rockies 



he brings back the offending package to be by us taken into the 

 car: "Why won't you check this?" 



"Baggage master says it's pictures and picture frames, and 

 it's freight." 



"Heavens, man. It's only the blank canvases, and some 

 panels to make pictures on. And as it travels with me, it seems 

 I'm entitled to have it checked." 



"It ain't baggage." 



"How do you define baggage?" 



"Wearing apparel." 



"Oh! Whatinell do you do to the commercial travelers^ 

 then?" 



Wroe and Pratt both grin at my Parthian shot, which is all 

 the satisfaction I get out of it. 



"Train's ready, now, gentlemen." 



Steam ; bells ; lights ; red cap, dark face ; cheerful grin ; compart- 

 ment; luggage rack and a length of string, and we lash a rod case 

 so it won't fall off on to the berth beneath; other disposal of 

 belongings; dining car; bill. 



Wroe: "You need a bit of training down." 



Arthur (in muttered response): " . " 



Wroe: "Well, any man who has taken as young and pretty 

 a wife as you have ought to be willing to cut something on his diet 

 so she won't feel uncomfortable," and the two men jest with each 

 other like a pair of schoolboys, with an aside to me from Wroe 

 as to what "Art" may or may not be expected to do in camp, 

 which we will reach the evening of the 1 5 th. 



"Jimmy, this is Mr. Ellicott." Thus William, as he intro- 

 duces a friend of his to Art and myself. Ellicott is thin, tall, with 

 gray eyes set a bit forward in their orbits, a clipped grayish black 

 mustache with straight mouth under it — pleasant smile and a 

 good handclasp; gives one a slight impression of not being able 

 to eat all he would like to, but making a cheerful best of a bad job 

 that isn't his fault. Interested in electrical power plants — big 

 installations — thinks in terms of tens of thousands of horsepower; 

 talks types of turbines to me. I'm interested. 



"Yes, it is a bit wonderful when you come to think of it, that 

 such a simple mechanical proposition as the revolution of a core 

 of soft iron within a coil or a number of assembled coils of iron 



