“Humph!”

“We dried out in the cook tent when we got in. It might have been worse.”

“Easily satisfied, aren’t you?”

“I don’t know about that. I expect to meet with some disagreeable experiences.”

“You won’t be disappointed. You’ll get all that’s coming to you. It’ll make a man of you if you stand it.”

“And if I don’t?” questioned Phil Forrest, with a smile.

Mr. Sparling answered by a shrug of the shoulders.

“We’ll have to make some different arrangements for you,” he added in a slightly milder tone. “Can’t afford to have you get sick and knock your act out. It’s too important. I’ll fire some lazy, good-for-nothing performer out of a closed wagon and give you his place.”

“Oh, I should rather not have you do that, sir.”

“Who’s running this show?” snapped the owner.