noon
The flame at the club shot up threefold , with a crash ; and a glorious criss-cross multitude of sparks flew hissing through the treetops , like fiery tadpoles through a net . He turned and ran on , dazzled ; fell over some one who lay groaning ; rose on hands and knees , groped in the dust , and suddenly fingered thin , rough cloth , warm and sopping . In a nausea of relief , he felt that this was a native , -- some unknown dying man , who coughed like a drunkard . Rudolph sprang up and raced again , following by habit the path which he and she had traversed at noon . Once , with a heavy collision , he stopped short violently in the midst of crowded men , who shouted , clung to him , wrestling , and struck out with something sharp that ripped his tunic . He kicked , shook them off , hammered his fists right and left , and ran free , with a strange conviction that to-night he was invincible . Stranger still , as the bamboo leaves now and then brushed his bare forehead , he missed the sharp music of her cicadas .