and, above them, a broad belt of black sky. He rejoiced
again that they had found this cave or rather stone room as they called
it.

The dark heavens were full of threat, the air heavy with damp, and low
thunder was just beginning to mutter. Tom Ross had read the gorgeous
sunset aright. It betokened a storm, and the most hardened hunters and
scouts were glad of shelter when the great winds and rains came. The
dryness and safety of the room made Henry feel all the more snug and
content, in contrast with what was about to happen outside. It seemed to
him that Providence had watched over them. Truly they had never known a
finer or better place.

His mind traveled again to those old, bygone people of whom Paul had
talked, how they lived in caves, and had fought the great animals with
stone clubs. But he had a better room in the stone than most of theirs,
and the rifle on his knees was far superior to any club that was ever
made. His nerves quivered beneath a thrill of pleasure that was both
mental and physical. His eyes had learned to cope with the dusk in the
room, and he could see his four comrades stretched upon their blankets.
All were sleeping soundly and he would let them sleep on of their own
accord, because there was no need now to move.

The mutter of the thunder grew a little louder, as if the electricity
were coming up on the horizon. And he saw lightning, dim at first and
very distant, then growing brighter until it came, keen, hard and
brilliant, in flashing strokes. Henry was not awed at all. Within his
safe shelter his spirit leaped up to meet it.

The thunder now broke near in a series of fierce crashes, and the
lightning was so burning bright that it dazzled his eyes. One bolt
struck near with a tremendous shock and the air was driven in violent
waves into the very mouth of the cave. Shif'less Sol awoke and sat up.

"A storm!" he said.

"Yes," replied Henry, "but it can't reach us here. You might as well go
back to sleep, Sol."

"Bein' a lazy man who knows how an' when to be lazy," said the shiftless
one, "I'll do it."

In a few minutes he was as sound asleep as ever, while Henry continued
to watch the storm. The sky was perfectly black, save when the lightning
blazed across it, and the thunder rolled and crashed with extraordinary
violence. But he now heard an under note, one that he knew, the swish of
the wind. It, too, grew fast and he dimly saw leaves and the branches of
trees flying past. It