“Yes,” said Jones quickly, “by the ship. This is a rainy place, eh? When you think the rain will stop?”
“About November,” the man answered.
“November! You makin’ fun! Why, man, this is only May!”
“Wait an’ see,” was the significant rejoinder. “When rain commence to come in dis country, it don’t know when to stop. How is Jamaica when you leave it?”
“Oh, pretty well,” replied Jones. “Dull as usual, an’ little cash. All that the people talkin’ about over there is the comet.”
As he mentioned the comet he remembered that he had undertaken to marry Susan before the dreaded 18th, when the earth would pass through the comet’s tail. He suddenly grew grave.
“This is a very serious time,” he observed. “In a few hours we may be all before our Maker.”
This remark, apparently apropos of nothing, astonished those who heard it. In Panama they were not accustomed to discuss the hereafter at lunch. Some of the men laughed; the man who had addressed him asked:
“You are a evangelistic preacher?”
“No,” said Jones; “of course not. But don’t y’u know that the comet is going to destroy the world?”