As Phillips turned away big raindrops began to drum upon the near-by
tent roofs, the spruce-tops overhead bent low, limbs threshed as the
gusty night wind beat upon them. But he heard none of it, felt none of
it, for in his ears rang the music of the spheres and on his face
lingered the warmth of a woman's lips, the first love kiss that he had
ever known.
Tom Linton roused himself from a chilly doze to find that the rain had
come at last. It was a roaring night; his tent was bellied in by the
force of the wind, and the raindrops beat upon it with the force of
buckshot. Through the entrance slit, through the open stovepipe hole,
the gale poured, bringing dampness with it and rendering the interior
as draughty as a corn-crib. Rolling himself more tightly in his
blankets, Linton addressed the darkness through chattering teeth.
"Darned old fool! This'll teach him!" He strained his ears for sounds
of Jerry, but could hear nothing above the slatting of wet canvas, the
tattoo of drops, and the roar of wind in the tree-tops. After the first
violence of the squall had passed he fancied he could hear his former
partner stirring, so he arose and peered out into the night. At first
he could see nothing, but in time he dimly made out Jerry struggling
with his tarpaulin. Evidently the fly had blown down, or up, and its
owner was restretching it. Linton grinned. That would drench the old
dodo to the skin and he'd soon be around, begging shelter.
"But I won't let him in, not if he drowns," Tom muttered, harshly. He
recalled one of Jerry's gibes at the saw-pit, a particularly unfeeling,
nay, a downright venomous insult which had rankled steadily ever since.
His former friend had seen fit to ridicule honest perspiration and to
pretend to mistake it for raindrops. That remark had been utterly
uncalled for and it had betrayed a wanton malice, a malevolent desire
to wound; well, here was a chance to even the score. When Jerry came
dripping to the tent door, Tom decided he would poke his head out into
the deluge and then cry in evident astonishment: "Why, Jerry, you've
been working, haven't you? You're all sweaty!" Mr. Linton giggled out
loud. That would be a refinement of sarcasm; that would be a get-back
of the finest. If Jerry insisted upon coming in out of the wet he'd
tell him gruffly to get out of there and try the lake for a change.
But Mr. Quirk made no move in the direction of the tent; instead he
built a fire in his stove and crouched over it, endeavoring vainly to
shelter himself from the driving rain. Linton watched him with mingled
impatience and resentment. Would the old fool never get enough? Jerry
was the most unreasonable, the most tantalizing person in the world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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