Engineers -- Fiction; United States -- Fiction; Western stories; Young men -- Fiction
Jim turned to the great invalid chair. There, propped up in cushions,
lay a fat travesty of the old Saradokis. This was a Sara whose tawny
hair was turning gray with suffering; whose mouth, once so full and
boyish, was now heavy and sinister, whose buoyancy had changed to the
bitter irritability of the hopeless invalid.
Sara looked Jim over deliberately, then dropped his hand. "How do you
think I am? Enjoying the dirty deal I've had from life?"
Jim had not realized before just what a dirty deal Sara had been given.
"I'm sorry about it, Sara," he said.
Saradokis gave an ugly laugh. "Sounds well! I've never heard a word from
you since the day we ran the Marathon. You hold a grudge as well as a
Greek, Jim."
"Gee, I'd forgotten all about the race!" exclaimed Jim.
"I haven't," returned Sara. "Neither the race nor several other things."
Jim shrugged his shoulders and turned to Pen, who was watching the two
men anxiously.
"Tell me about your plans. I'm mighty happy to have you here."
"Sara's had the feeling for a long time that this climate would help
him, and we've talked in a general way about coming. It was Mr. Freet
that told Sara he thought there were some good real estate chances here
and that decided Sara. Sara has done him a number of good turns in
investments round New York."
Jim looked at Sara sharply but made no comment on Pen's remarks. "Are
you comfortable here?" he asked, looking about the tent house.
It was a roomy place. There was a good floor and a wooden wainscoting
that rose three feet above it. The tent was set on this wainscoting,
which gave plenty of head space. A gasolene stove in one corner with a
table and chairs and a cupboard formed the kitchen. A cot for Pen and a
book shelf or two with a corner clothes closet and some hammock swung
chairs completed the furniture. Pen had achieved the homelike with some
chintz hangings and a rug.
"I am getting our meals right here," said Pen. "The steward said we
could have them sent up from the mess, but it's less expensive and more
fun to get them camp fashion here. The government store is a very good
one and all the neighbors have called and have brought me everything
from fresh baked bread to cans of jelly. They are so wonderfully kind to
me!"
Sara was staring at Jim with an insolent sort of interest. He had full
use of his arms, as was evident when he gave the great wheel chair a
quick flip about so as to shade his eyes from the lamp. As Jim watched
him all the resentment of the past eight years welled up within him with
an added repugnance for Sara's fat helplessness and ugly temper that
made it difficult for him to sit by the invalid's chair.
When Pen had finished her account Sara said, "You made rather a mess,
didn't you, in handling the flood today?"
"You were splendid, Jimmy!" cried Pen. "I saw the whole thing!"
Jim shook his head. "It was expensive splendor!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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