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Show 132 CHAPTER XI The following week the typhoon grew menacing. The radio sent out warnings, and villages on the coast were evacuated. On the Oji side typhoons meant downpours, and the skies hung fat-bellied, ready to burst. By midmorning Wednesday a wind had arisen, along with occasional flurries of rain. The azaleas drooped; puddles formed, and a blue chill hung in the offices. Everybody was subliminally afflicted: cold enough to be uncomfortable but not cold enough to know why. Corporal And that morning/siggs, whose Southern origin felt subtly betrayed in this exile to tide and tundra, committed an indiscretion. He didn't intend it - his round face beamed good will • but subtle influences bsyond his control took over. Having spent the morning in his overcoat without a perceptible increase in warmth, he might have been too distracted by goose-pimples to pay attention; perhaps some of the officers had been too open in their distaste for the Engineers - whatever the cause, that morning the liquor ration arrived and he issued it all to the Detachments. It caught everybody off guard. The Major was in Kyoto; Sid at Taira. That left Bain. Either Sid or the Major would have got wind of the dereliction soon enough to do something, |