He picked up a pail and his snowshoes and added with elaborate politeness:
“Possibly you could tear yourself away long enough to git some wood? There ain’t any left, as you’ll see if you can wrench your eyes away from that soul-fillin’ picture of Nature at her best.”
This was a long and difficult speech for Henderson, and he felt that he had done a rather neat bit of work in getting it off so smoothly. He chuckled again as he opened the door and started up the tunnel.
When he heard that laugh, something snapped in Nick’s brain. He whirled in a frenzy and rushed to the door.
“By ⸺ I’ve stood all I’m goin’ to from you!” he cried wildly. “You keep out of here or I’ll beat the livin’ lights out o’ you.”
His voice rose to a shriek as he poured out his rage in a flood of vituperation. Henderson, standing at the top of the tunnel, went flaming hot with a fierce joy.
“Come out here an’ say that!” he yelled. “Come out, ⸺ you!”
At that moment Nick, frantically eager to obey the summons, dived into the tunnel. His head and shoulders struck its roof. A slight upward surge as he plunged, and the snow slumped in with a dull rumble. Nick was swept back into the cabin by a miniature avalanche, and Henderson stood staring at the tumbled groove where the tunnel had been.
In the next few instants the old man’s opinion of Nick underwent a radical change. His exhilarating wrath became red fury, born of the conviction that his partner was a coward—who had played a sneaking but effective trick that left Henderson ridiculously helpless. As this realization swept over him he grew dizzy and swayed on his feet, while the veins stood out on his purple neck. When he could control his limbs he floundered to the chimney and began to roar inarticulate masses of blasphemy at the man below. At last he managed to form a coherent sentence.
“Wait!” he bellowed, sobbing. “Great ⸺ just wait ’til I get you! If I don’t rid the earth o’ your ⸺ drivelin’ carcass. Coward! ⸺’s too good for the likes o’ you! Hangin’s too good! Shootin’s too— Oh, gimme my gun! I’ll shoot you down like a yeller dog! I’ll drill you like a sieve! Just wait!”