CHAPTER XXIII.
IN WHICH THE BRIGHT EYES OF CONSTANCE "RAIN INFLUENCE" There being no cozy corners aboard Mr.Courtney's snow-white Albatross in which a couple with many important things to say could be free from prying observation, Johnny and Constance behaved like normal human beings who were profoundly happy.

They mingled with the gaiety all the way out through the harbor to the open sea, and then they drifted unconsciously farther and farther to the edge of the hilarity, until they found themselves sitting in the very prow of the foredeck with Mr.
Courtney and his friend from the West.

If they could not exchange important confidences they could at least sit very quietly, touching elbows.
Mr.Courtney's friend from the West was a strong old man with keen blue eyes, who sat all through the afternoon in the same place, talking in low tones with Courtney on such dry and interminable subjects as railroads, mines, freight rates, stocks, bonds and board meetings.
Constance wondered how an otherwise nice old man could reach that age without having accumulated any lighter and more comprehensible objects of interest, and she really doubted the possibility of any man's understanding all the dry-as-dust business statistics with which he was so handy.

Suddenly, however, Johnny Gamble awoke from his blissful lethargy and bent eagerly forward.
"Beg pardon, Mr.Boise," he interjected into the peaceful conversational flow of the older men.

"Did I understand you to say that the S.W.