Three gaily painted wooden
rocking chairs, an equally gaudy hammock, a table flanked with benches,
a big cooking stove in the rear, canvas pockets hung from the trees--a
dozen and one other conveniences and luxuries bespoke the occupants as
well-to-do and determined to be comfortable. Two Japanese servants
dressed all in white moved silently and mysteriously in the background,
a final touch of incongruity in a rough country.
Before Bob had moved on, two men stepped into view from the interior of
one of the tents. They paced slowly to the gaudy rocking chairs and sat
down. In their progress they exhibited that peculiar, careless but
conscious deliberation of gait affected everywhere by those accustomed
to appearing in public. In their seating of themselves, their producing
of cigars, their puffings thereon, was the same studied ignoring of
observation; a manner which, it must be acknowledged, becomes second
nature to those forced to its adoption. It was a certain blown
impressiveness, a significance in the smallest movements, a
self-importance, in short, too large for the affairs of any private
citizen.
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