OCR Text |
Show 134 while the Colonel conferred coldly; he had waked early, and tha bleached sky, the pocked puddles, the dismal fields - the whole lead-and-rust panorama aroused a thin snappishness. So hostile was he that the officers presented their grievances diffidently, and might have backed down had it not been that, at that very moment, Warrant Officer Soderquist, whose agility had with figures endeared him to the colonel, came in covered with /» = mud and told the most fearful story of all. He had driven up as Biggs was locking the door for coffee-break. As soderquist knocked at the front Biggs threw the latch at the side, and hearing the click Soderquist marched around. And saw Biggs climb into a jeep. Soderquist waved from the porch: "Corporal! Wait!" But Biggs needed frequent feedings, and the morning's transactions had postponed his doughnut. He shifted gears and accelerated; the wheels began to spin, and circling about he headed down the hill. "Wait a minute! Stop!" Soderquist ran out to intarcspt and, intsnt on his mission, failed to note the spot the wheels had just polished. He struck, slid; clawing wildly he went down. And at that moment Biggs threw ths jeep into high. Well-soaked, rich in stench and texture, the mulch fountainsd back. Sodsrquist writhed, shocked by the cold, and sat up just as the tires ate into another redolent layer. Enfiladsd with mud hs fell back, though as Biggs riisappsarsd hs flung out a curse. "I'll gst you, goddam iti |