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Small wonder that the mind of Spud O'Malley found here the confirmation of his worst fears; small wonder that his trembling lips whispered: "'Tis Hell! 'Tis Hell, at last!"
Yet to her it hardly retained as much of her father's natural presence as the clothes he had worn, the books and papers littering his writing-table, the chair he preferred to sit in, his guns and swords upon the wall, or the collection of fishing-rods, walking-sticks and his spud stacked in a corner.
And the man who stepped forth beside Spud O'Malley in the uniform of an engineer of a tramp freighter looked like nothing else in the world but just that. "Come on, now!" ordered Spud harshly, as a figure in gray and gold appeared around the corner of the coffee shop. "You're plinty late, me fine lad!
But to wake up was to realize his disgrace. He groaned again, a sharp pain ripping through his head. He heard the sound of voices he was dreaming, of course; the wine floated fantastic visions again through his misty brain, relieving it of the effort of thinking. Then Shorts' voice rang in his ear. "For the love of God, Spud, get up!
"But of course Henrietta never sees Lon's romance and he ain't always had the greatest patience with hers like the time she got up the Art Loan Exhibit to get new books for the M.E. Sabbath-school library and got Spud Mulkins of the El Adobe to lend 'em the big gold-framed oil painting that hangs over his bar.
Nothing could be done towards saving what was left of the barn, so the firemen directed all their efforts towards keeping the conflagration from spreading. "Well, it's about out," said Sam, a little later. "Some mess, though, believe me!" "Oh, I am so thankful it was not worse!" murmured Grace. "Suppose it had burned down the main building!" "Tom, you're a hero!" cried Spud, coming up.
But she was uneasy, and after breakfast went out into the garden, spud in hand, to think it all over, with the letter in her pocket. Certainly the letter was not alarming per se, but per accidens that is to say, taking into account who it was that had written, she was not so sure. She had met Mr.
Hundreds of feet across, Spud estimated; smooth in appearance from above, but broken with deep crevasses and excrescences where hot, fluid stone had frozen in its moment of bubbling turbulence.
And he poked Sam, who sat beside him, in the ribs; and also winked at Spud, who was in the seat with William Philander. "That's right, Tubbs," put in Sam. "Why, they say some of those sea serpents are twenty feet long." "Oh, yes, I heard about them, too," added Spud, and now he braced himself for one of his usual yarns.
Spud was on his feet in an instant, his eyes straining at one lookout after another, each giving him a view of only the desolation he knew and hated. What could it have been? he demanded. He found and rejected a dozen answers before he saw, far down in the black crater-mouth, a flash of red; then heard again that ghost of a sound and knew it for what it was.
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