"You see, I'm interested in so many ventures
it keeps me--well, broke. Anyhow, you can't go until we have
arranged an investment for your father."
Kirk could not help thinking that a man of the consul's wide
acquaintance and business capacity could have raised the necessary
funds without much trouble; but, not wishing to embarrass his
host, he refrained from pressing the matter, and resigned himself
as best he could to an extension of his exile. Meanwhile, he
decided to visit the Canal, for on every side he heard nothing but
echoes of the great work, and he began to feel that he owed it to
himself to view it. But his plans were upset by the weather. On
the following day it began to rain, and it continued to rain day
and night thereafter until Colon became a sodden, dripping horror.
The soil melted into a quagmire, the streets became sluices, the
heavens closed down like a leaden pall, and the very air became
saturated. It was hot also, and sticky. Indoors a mould began to
form, rust grew like a fungus; outdoors the waving palm tops
spilled a deluge upon roof and sidewalk at every gust; their
trunks streamed like hydrants.
Kirk had never seen such a rain; it kept up hour after hour, day
after day, until the monotony became maddening.
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