"I ran across Custer at the settlement, and I came along to see how you were keeping," said Gordon.
Waynefleet held out a cigar-box. "Make yourself comfortable," he answered hospitably. "We'll have dinner a little earlier than usual."
The sight of the label on the box came near rousing Gordon to an outbreak of indignation. "I'm not going to stay," he declared. "It seems to me Miss Waynefleet has about enough to do already."
He saw Waynefleet raise his eyebrows, and he added: "I guess it's not worth while troubling to point out that it's not my affair. Now, if you'll get ahead with your symptoms."
Waynefleet looked hard at him for a moment. The older man was not accustomed to being addressed in that brusque fashion, and it jarred upon him, but, as a matter of fact, he was not feeling well, and, as he not infrequently pointed out, he had discovered that one had to put up with many unpleasant things in that barbarous country. He described his symptoms feelingly, and was rather indignant when Gordon expressed neither astonishment nor sympathy.
"That's all right," said Gordon. "The thing's quite plain--especially the general lassitude you complain of. The trouble is that if you don't make an effort it's going to become chronic."
Again Waynefleet looked at him in astonishment, for Gordon's tone was very suggestive.
"Yes," added the medical adviser, "it's a complaint a good many men, who haven't been raised to work, are afflicted with. Well, I'll mix you up a tonic, and you'll drive down for it yourself. The thing won't be half as efficacious if you send the hired man. Then you'll set to every morning soon as breakfast's over, and do a couple of hours' smart chopping for a week. By that time you'll find it easy, and you can go on an hour or two in the afternoon. Nobody round here will recognize you, if you keep it up for the next three months."
Waynefleet's thin face grew red, but Gordon's imperturbable demeanour restrained him from betraying his indignation.
"You don't understand that I couldn't swing an axe for five minutes together," he objected.
"The trouble," answered Gordon, "is that you don't want to."
Waynefleet made an attempt to rise, but his companion laid a hand upon his arm and pressed him down again.