While Tea Cake was standing and looking he saw two men coming towards him with rifles on their shoulders. Two white men, so he thought about what Janie had told him and flexed his knees to run. But in a moment he saw that wouldn’t do him any good. They had already seen him and they were too close to miss him if they shot. Maybe they would pass on by. Maybe when they saw he had money they would realize he was not a tramp.
I feel bad for Janie and Tea since she's in the house during the hurricane. I'm not saying that it’s her fault for being there because Tea Cake made them stay but it was a really bad idea because the house is fooding and the wind is really loud and bad. The part “The wind through the open windows” really makes it sound like its a really bad storm.