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I looked passively at wet and dry bulbs, at self-recording, dotted registers; I caught the fleeting sound of words like "meniscus" and "terrestrial minimum thermometer," and I nodded punctually when Jode went through some calculation. At last I heard something that I could understand a series of telegraphic replies to Jode from brother signal-service officers all over the United States.
"We're going to show the telegram to Jode," said the Governor; and he and Ogden departed on this mission to the signal service. "Well, I must be getting along myself," said Lin; but he continued walking slowly with me. "Where're yu' bound?" he said. "Nowhere in particular," said I. And we paced the board sidewalks a little more. "You're going to meet the train to-morrow?" said he. "The train?
"Jode, when is it going to rain?" said the Governor, anxiously. Now Jode is the most extraordinarily solemn man I have ever known. He has the solemnity of all science, added to the unspeakable weight of representing five of the oldest families in South Carolina. The Jodes themselves were not old in South Carolina, but immensely so in I think he told me it was Long Island.
"An old-fashioned test, you will doubtless say, gentlemen," Jode continued though none of us would have said anything like that "but unjustly discredited; and, furthermore, its testimony is well corroborated, as you will find you must admit." Jode's voice was almost threatening, and he fetched one corroborator after another.
"A hair hygrometer," he said to me, waving his wax-like hand over it. "The indications are obtained from the expansion and contraction of a prepared human hair, transferred to an index needle traversing the divided arc of " "What oil do you put on the human hair Jode?" called out the Governor, who had left our group, and was gamboling about by himself among the tubes and dials.
In a moment the by-standers had reduced it to a sordid tangle of ribs. Old Judge Burrage attempted to address us at the corner about the vast progress of science. The postmaster pinned a card on his back with the well-known legend, "I am somewhat of a liar myself." And all the while the sun shone high and hot, while Jode grew quieter and colder under the certainty of victory.
As a member of the College of Physicians I've felt that way about homeopathy and the faith-cure. All very well if patients will call 'em in, but can't meet 'em in consultation. But three months' drought annually, Jode! It's slow too slow. The Western people feel that this conservative method the Zodiac does its business by is out of date." "I am quite serious, sir," said Jode.
"Have your joke, sir," he said, waving a thin, clean hand, "but I decline to meet him." "Hilbrun?" said the Governor, staring. "If that's his name yes, sir. As a member of the Weather Bureau and the Meteorological Society I can have nothing to do with the fellow." "Glory!" said the Governor. "Well, I suppose not. I see your point, Jode. I'll be careful to keep you apart.
It might possibly be chlorine, the Governor said, or some gas for which ammonia was in part responsible; and this was all he could say, and we left the place. The world was as still and the hard, sharp hills as clear and near as ever; and the sky over Sahara is not more dry and enduring than was ours. This tenacity in the elements plainly gave Jode a malicious official pleasure.
Well, he monkeyed away, and wouldn't say a word, so I said, 'You understand, Jode, this telegram comes from Hilbrun. And Jode, he quit his anemometer and said, 'I make no doubt, sir, that your despatch is genuwine. Oh, South Carolina's indignant at me!" And the Governor slapped his knee.
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