s not go far. I want to save up as
many miles as possible for our prospecting."

"I see," said Agatha. "Yet you stated that you didn't think we would
find the lode!" Then she gave him a shrewd glance. "Aren't you a little
impatient to get on now?"

"I am," he admitted, turning to the south. "There's a threat of thunder
and I'd like to cross the lake before the storm comes."

Agatha got up and in a few minutes they launched the canoes. The heat
was overwhelming and Agatha felt no movement of the air, but the _Metis_
sweated and panted as they labored at the paddles. The thud of the
blades came back in measured echoes from the motionless pines and a
fan-shaped wake trailed far across the glassy lake. In the meantime, the
cloud bank rolled up the sky like a ragged arch and covered the sun. The
glare faded and a thick, blue haze crept out upon the water, until it
looked as if the horizon advanced to meet them, but the heat did not get
less. At the edge of the haze, an island loomed indistinctly and by and
by Thirlwell turned to Agatha.

"There's a good beach behind the point and shelter among the rocks," he
said in a breathless voice. "Would you like to stop?"

"How long should we have to stop?"

He looked up at the moving cloud, which was fringed with ragged
streamers.

"I imagine we wouldn't get off again to-day."

"Then we'll go on," said Agatha.

Thirlwell signed to the _Metis_, who had slackened their efforts, and
the foam swirled up at the bows as they drove the paddles through the
water.

CHAPTER XXII

BEFORE THE WIND

Soon after the island melted into the gloom, a flash of lightning leaped
from the cloud and spread like a sheet of blue flame across the water.
For a second, Agatha saw black rocks and trees stand out against an
overwhelming glare, and then they vanished and she saw nothing at all.
Lightning is common in Canada, but this had a terrifying brilliance
unlike any that she had known. While her dazzled eyes recovered from the
shock she was deafened by a crash that rolled among the cloud-banks in
tremendous echoes, and before it died away another blaze leaped down. It
was rather a continuous stream of light than a flash, because it did not
break off but, beginning overhead, ran far across the lake. The next
enveloped the canoes in an awful light and she felt her hair crackle
before the thunder came.

She was too entranced to feel afraid, and glanced at Thirlwell with
half-closed eyes