222
PARTISAN
RIEVIEW
With veneration, talon by talon, he re-established the shell in its
grip against the rigid bark.
By the time he caught up with Hobe and Jimmy they were almost
to the railroad track.
At the far end of the break in the woods along the far side of
the track they saw the weathered oak tower and soon, walking more
briskly along the ties, the relics of machinery and the dead cones of
putty-colored sand and the wrinkled sandstone and, at length, the
sullen water itself, untouched in all these cold months. There were black
slits along the sides of the tower where planks had fallen during the
winter. The water was motionless and almost black. The whole place,
familiar as it was, was deadly still, and seemed not at all to welcome
them.
As
they left the track to round the near end of the Sand Cut there
was a scuttling among the reddened brambles but although they went
as fast as they could on their soft feet and threw rocks where the
brambles twitched with noise they got no glimpse of whatever it was,
and soon the scuttling stopped.
Now that they had stopped walking and stood in the brightened
silence of the open light the day began to look practical; they realized
how chilly the air still was, even here out of the woods, and how bitter
the water looked, and they no longer felt like going in. But none of
them was willing to admit this frankly even to himself, and
it
was only
after they stripped that they became openly hesitant. They took care
not to shiver more visibly than they could help or to appear to dawdle,
either, but they did all dawdle, and they found that they were looking at
each other, in this unhabitual place and hesitant quietness, with more
interest than in the dormitory. Although Jimmy was the smallest of the
three in every other way, his was much the biggest and during the
winter he had grown much more hair than Richard had realized up to
now. Hobe still didn't have much but then he was said to
be
part In–
dian so of course he wouldn't, yet, and probably never would have a
lot. What he did have was dark, though, and showed up well against
his dark skin, whereas Richard's was so light and there was so little
of it that he realized it could probably not
be
seen at all, farther away
than his own eyes. He suspected, however, that his was really the
biggest, because it looked as
if
Jimmy had at least half a hard-up.
Jimmy looked comfortable in his supremacy whether it was real or
not (he certainly had more hair, anyhow, there wasn't any getting around
that) and seemed to feel none of the embarrassment which Richard
always felt acutely
if
he was seen with even a little bit of a hard-up.
He turned partly away, though, in honor of Good Friday, and for the
same reason he and Richard glanced at each other with even less candor
