"Me, hurt!--not a bit of it,--not a scratch of any kind,--see!" As
an object-lesson he stretched out his arm and with one clenched
hand smote his chest gorilla fashion.
"But you are all wet--" she persisted, in a more reassured tone.
"You must not stand here in this wind; you will get chilled to the
bone. You must go home and get into dry clothes;--please say you
will go?"
Something warm and scintillating started from Jack's toes as the
words left her lips, surged along his spinal column, set his
finger tips tingling and his heart thumping like a trip hammer.
She had called him "Jack!" She had run a mile to rescue him and
her father, and she was anxious lest he should endanger his
precious life by catching cold. Cold!--had he been dragged through
the whirlpool of Niagara in the dead of winter with the
thermometer at zero and then cast on a stranded iceberg he would
now be sizzling hot.
Again she repeated her command,--this time in a more peremptory
tone, the same anxious note in her voice.
"Please come, if daddy doesn't want you any more you must go home
at once.
Pages:
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400