"Haven't I done all the work? Don't I
get----"
"You get out!" roared Edgar.
Slowly, disgustedly, with what dignity one can display in crawling
out of a sand-pit, I scrambled to the top.
"Go over there," commanded Edgar pointing, "and sit down."
In furious silence I seated myself beside Rupert. He was still
slumbering and snoring happily. From where I sat I could see
nothing of what was going forward in the pit, save once, when the
head of Edgar, his eyes aflame and his hair and eye-glasses
sprinkled with sand, appeared above it. Apparently he was fearful
lest I had moved from the spot where he had placed me. I had not;
but had he known my inmost feelings he would have taken the axe
into the pit with him.
I must have sat so for half an hour. In the sky above me a
fish-hawk drifted lazily. From the beach sounded the steady beat of
the waves, and from the town across the marshes came the puffing of
a locomotive and the clanging bells of the freight trains. The
breeze from the sea cooled the sweat on my aching body; but it
could not cool the rage in my heart. If I had the courage of my
feelings, I would have cracked Edgar over head with the spade,
buried him in the pit, bribed Rupert, and forever after lived
happily on my ill-gotten gains. That was how Kidd, or Morgan, or
Blackbeard would have acted. I cursed the effete civilization which
had taught me to want many pleasures but had left me with a
conscience that would not let me take human life to obtain them,
not even Edgar's life.
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