"All right--go," he answered coldly, "but first I want you to tell me why." A flame of anger leaped into Toy's eyes; his whole face worked; he was stirred to the centre of his being. "She kick on me!" he hissed. "She say I no can cook!" Instantly Bruce understood. Jennings's bride had been guilty of the one unforgivable offense. His own eyes flashed. "Tell her to keep out of the kitchen." Toy shook his head. "I no likee her; I no stay." "Won't you stay if I ask you as a favor?" The Chinaman reiterated in his stubborn monotone: "She kick on my glub; I no likee her; I no stay." "You're going to put me in an awful hole, Toy, if you go." "She want my job, I think. All light--I no care." Bruce knew him too well to argue. The Chinaman could see only one thing, and that loomed colossal. He had been insulted; his dignity would not permit him even to breathe under the same roof with a woman who said he could not cook. He turned away abruptly and jogged down the trail with the overalls stuffed with his possessions bobbing ludicrously on his back. Heavy-hearted Bruce watched him go. If Toy had forgotten that he owed him for his life he would not remind him, but he had thought that the Chinaman's gratitude was deeper than this, although, it was true, he never had thanked him or indicated in any way that he realized or appreciated what Bruce had done. Nevertheless Bruce had believed that in his way Toy was fond of him, that deep under his yellow skin there was loyalty and a passive, undemonstrative affection. Obviously there was none. He was no different from other Chinamen, it seemed--the white man and his country were only means to an end. Bruce would not have believed that anybody with oblique eyes and a shingled queue could have hurt him so. Of the three men he had befriended, two had turned the knife in him. He wondered cynically how soon he would hear from Uncle Bill. XXII THE GENERAL MANAGER Jennings and Woods were now sworn enemies and the stringing of the wires became a matter of intense interest, as this was the test which would prove the truth or fallacy of Jennings' cantankerous harping that the cross-arms were too light. In isolated camps where there is no outside diversion such tests of opinion become momentous matters, and the present instance was no exception. Mrs. Jennings, too, had taken sides--her husband's, naturally--and the anti-Jennings faction was made to realize fully the possibilities for revenge which lie within the jurisdiction of the cook. The alacrity with which Jennings's bride stepped into Toy's shoes convinced Bruce that the Chinaman had been correct in his assertion, but he was helpless in the circumstances, and accepted the inevitable, being able for the first time to understand why there are wife-beaters.