The Trail of the Hawk: A Comedy of the Seriousness of LifeLewis, Sinclair
General
The Trail of the Hawk: A Comedy of the Seriousness of Life
Lewis, Sinclair
City and town life -- Fiction; Minnesota -- Fiction
All of the eleven assistant professors and full professors, except
Frazer, were assembled, with President S. Alcott Wood in the chair,
and the Greek professor addressing them, referring often to a
red-leather-covered note-book.
"Um! Making a report on Frazer's lecture," said Carl, clinging
precariously to the rough faces of the stones. A gust swooped around
the corner of the building. He swayed, gripped the stones more
tightly, and looked down. He could not see the ground. It was
thirty-five or forty feet down. "Almost fell," he observed. "Gosh! my
hands are chilly!" As he peered in the window again he saw the Greek
professor point directly at the window, while the whole gathering
startled, turned, stared. A young assistant professor ran toward the
door of the room.
"Going to cut me off. Dog-gone it," said Carl. "They'll wait for me at
the math.-room window. Hooray! I've started something."
He carefully moved along the ledge to a point half-way between windows
and waited, flat against the wall.
Again he glanced down from the high, windy, narrow ledge. "It 'd be a
long drop.... My hands are cold.... I could slip. Funny, I ain't
really much scared, though.... Say! Where'd I do just this before? Oh
yes!" He saw himself as little Carl, lost with Gertie in the woods,
caught by Bone Stillman at the window. He laughed out as he compared
the bristly virile face of Bone with the pasty face of the young
professor. "Seems almost as though I was back there doing the same
thing right over. Funny. But I'm not quite as scared as I was then.
Guess I'm growing up. Hel-lo! here's our cunning Spanish Inquisition
rubbering out of the next window."
The window of the mathematics class-room, next to the faculty-room,
had opened. The young professor who was pursuing Carl peppered the
night with violent words delivered in a rather pedagogic voice. "Well,
sir! We have you! You might as well come and give yourself up."
Carl was silent.
The voice said, conversationally: "He's staying out there. I'll see
who it is." Carl half made out a head thrusting itself from the
window, then heard, in _sotto voce_, "I can't see him." Loudly again,
the pursuing professor yapped: "Ah, I see you. You're merely wasting
time, sir. You might just as well come here now. I shall let you stay
there till you do." Softly: "Hurry back into the faculty-room and see
if you can get him from that side. Bet it's one of the sneaking Frazer
faction."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account