"Full large enough--quick--quick--down through there--let me have your hand."
But she accepted no help and soon crawled through the aperture into shelter. Then Bartley, taking two caps off the nipples of his gun, thrust it in after Rhoda and followed swiftly to avoid the onset of the storm.
They had acted with utmost speed and Rhoda was now aghast to find the exceeding propinquity of Mr. Crocker. He could hardly have been closer. She moved uneasily. It occurred to her that he ought to have surrendered the Pixies' House to her and himself found shelter elsewhere. The idea, however, had not struck him.
"Can't you make a little more room?" she asked, breathing rather hard.
"I wish I could, but it's impossible. I forgot you were such a jolly big girl," he answered.
She set her teeth and waited for the outer darkness to lighten. The thunder roared and exploded in a rattle overhead; they heard the hiss and hurtle of the ice and water; while at intervals the entrance of their shelter was splashed along its rough edges with glare of lightning.
"Better here than outside," said Bartley; but Rhoda began to doubt it. It seemed to her that he came nearer and nearer. At last she asked him to get out and let her pass.
"Can't stand this no more," she said, "I'm being choked. I'd sooner suffer the storm than this."
"You don't want to go out, surely!"
"Yes, I do."