The Unspeakable Perk

I.
MR. BEETLE MAN

The man sat in a niche of the mountain, busily hating the Caribbean Sea. It wasquite a contract that he had undertaken, for there was a large expanse ofCaribbean Sea in sight to hate; very blue, and still, and indifferent to humanemotions. However, the young man was a good steadfast hater, and he came thereevery day to sit in the shade of the overhanging boulder, where there was alittle trickle of cool air down the slope and a little trickle of cool waterfrom a crevice beneath the rock, to despise that placid, unimpressionable oceanand all its works and to wish that it would dry up forthwith, so that he mightwalk back to the blessed United States of America. In good plain American, theyoung man was pretty homesick.

Two-man’s-lengths up the mountain, on the crest of the sturdyhater’s rock, the girl sat, loving the Caribbean Sea. Hers, also, was alarge contract, and she was much newer to it than was the man to his, for shehad only just discovered this vantage-ground by turning accidentally into aside trail—quite a private little side trail made by her unsuspectedneighbor below—whence one emerges from a sea of verdure into full view ofthe sea of azure. For the time, she was content to rest there in the flow ofthe breeze and feast her eyes on that broad, unending blue which blessedlyseparated her from the United States of America and certain perplexities andcomplications comprised therein. Presently she would resume the trail andreturn to the city of Caracuña, somewhere behind her. That is, she would if shecould find it, which was by no means certain. Not that she greatly cared. Ifshe were really lost, they’d come out and get her. Meantime, all shewished was to rest mind and body in the contemplation of that restful plain ofcool sapphire, four thousand feet below.

But there was a spirit of mischief abroad upon that mountain slope. It embodieditself in a puff of wind that stirred gratefully the curls above thegirl’s brow. Also, it fanned the neck of the watcher below and cunninglymoved his hat from his side; not more than a few feet, indeed, but still farenough to transfer it from the shade into the glaring sun and into the view ofthe girl above. The owner made no mov

BU KİTABI OKUMAK İÇİN ÜYE OLUN VEYA GİRİŞ YAPIN!

Sitemize Üyelik ÜCRETSİZDİR!