dless of
aught else--and then came the thunder.

It ran across the cloudy vault as though the very sky were being ripped
apart, rolling in mighty echoes here and there before it died away. As
it stopped, the rain also fell less heavily for a minute, and as I lay
with my face low down I heard the low, contented lapping of numberless
tongues unceasing, insatiable. Then came the lightning again, lighting
up everything as though it were daytime. The twin black apes were
still drinking, but the panther across the puddle had had enough; I saw
him lift his grateful head up to the flare; saw the limp red tongue
licking the black nose, the green eyes shining like opals, the water
dripping in threads of diamonds from the hairy tag under his chin and
every tuft upon his chest--then darkness again.

To and fro the green blaze rocked between the thunder crashes. It
struck a house a hundred yards away, stripping every shingle from the
roof better than a master builder could in a week. It fell a minute
after on a tall tree by the courtyard gate, and as the trunk burst into
white splinters I saw every leaf upon the feathery top turn light side
up against the violet reflection in the sky beyond, and then the whole
mass came down to earth with a thud that crushed the courtyard palings
into nothing for twenty yards and shook me even across the square.

Another time I might have stopped to marvel or to watch, as I have
often watched with sympathetic pleasure, the gods thus at play; but
tonight there were other things on hand. When I had drunk, I picked up
an earthen crock, filled it, and went to Heru. It was a rough
drinking-vessel for those dainty lips, and an indifferent draught,
being as much mud as aught else, but its effect was wonderful. At the
first touch of that turgid stuff a shiver of delight passed through the
drowsy lady. At the second she gave a sigh, and her hand tightened on
my arm. I fetched another crockful, and by the flickering light
rocking to and fro in the sky, took her head upon my shoulder, like a
prodigal new come into riches, squandering the stuff, giving her to
drink and bathing face and neck till presently, to my delight, the
princess's eyes opened. Then she sat up, and taking the basin from me
drank as never lady drank before, and soon was almost herself again.

I went out into the portico, there snuffing the deep, strong breath of
the fragrant black earth receiving back into its gaping self what t