Casey muttered something under his breath when he climbed out.  He looked at his own car standing hub deep in red mud and reached for the solacing plug of chewing tobacco.  Then he thought of the lady and withdrew his hand empty.

“We’re certainly going to stick together, Mister,” she repeated her witticism, and Casey grinned foolishly.

“She’ll dry up in a few hours, with this hot sun,” he observed hearteningly.  “We’ll have to pile brush in, I guess.”  His glance went back to the tiny island and to his double row of tracks.  He looked at the man.

“Jack, dear, you might go help the gentleman get some brush,” the lady suggested sweetly.

“This ain’t my act,” Jack dear objected.  “I just about broke my spine trying to heave the car outa the mud when we first stuck.  Say, I wish there was a beanery of some kind in walking distance.  Honest, I’ll be dead of starvation in another hour.  What’s the chance of a bite, Hon?”

Contempt surged through Casey.  Deep in his soul he pitied her for being tied to such an insect.  Immediately he was glad that she had spirit enough to put the little runt in his place.

“You would wait to buy supplies in Rhyolite, remember,” she reminded her husband calmly.  “I guess you’ll have to wait till you get there.  I’ve got one piece of bread saved for Junior.  You and I go hungry—­and cheer up, old dear; you’re used to it!”

“I’ve got grub,” Casey volunteered hospitably.  “Didn’t stop to eat yet.  I’ll pack the stuff back there to dry ground and boil some coffee and fry some bacon.”  He looked at the woman and was rewarded by a smile so brilliant that Casey was dazzled.

“You certainly are a godsend,” she called after him, as he turned away to his own car.  “It just happens that we’re out of everything.  It’s so hard to keep anything on hand when you’re traveling in this country, with towns so far apart.  You just run short before you know it.”

Casey thought that the very scarcity of towns compelled one to avoid running short of food, but he did not say anything.  He waded back to the island with a full load of provisions and cooking utensils, and in three minutes he was squinting against the smoke of a camp-fire while he poured water from a canteen into his blackened coffee pot.

“Coffee!  Jack, dear, can you believe your nose!” chirped the woman presently behind Casey.  “Junior, darling, just smell the bacon!  Isn’t he a nice gentleman?  Go give him a kiss like a little man.”

Casey didn’t want any kiss—­at least from Junior.  Junior was six years old, and his face was dirty and his eyes were old, old eyes, but brown like his father’s.  He had the pinched, hungry look which Casey had seen only amongst starving Indians, and after he had kissed Casey perfunctorily he snatched the piece of raw bacon which Casey had just sliced off, and tore at it with his teeth like a hungry pup.

Casey affected not to notice, and busied himself with the fire while the woman reproved Junior half-heartedly in an undertone, and laughed stagily and remarked upon the number of hours since they had breakfasted.