stant thunder, the precursor of what threatened to be a thunderstorm
of unusual violence. The flickering of sheet lightning became more
frequent, while occasional flashes of forked lightning emanating from a
point low down upon the south-western horizon, began to light up the
surroundings for a fraction of a second with their transient glare.
Soon low moaning sounds became fitfully audible far aloft, and little
scurrying gusts of hot wind came sweeping across the lagoon, causing the
fire on the knoll to roar and blaze with sudden intensity, while the
sparks flew far inland.

"Stand by the topsail halliards!" remarked Dick, with a grin. "We are
going to have it hot and heavy in a minute or two, or I'm a Dutchman!"
And the words were hardly out of his mouth when, with a shrieking roar,
the tempest swooped down upon them, and they abruptly sat down, to avoid
being swept off their feet, while the blazing embers of the fire,
snatched up by the wind, went whirling far and wide. At the same
instant a flash of blindingly vivid lightning leapt from the zenith and
seemed to strike the waters of the lagoon only a few yards away, while
simultaneously there came a crash of thunder that caused their ears to
ring and tingle, and effectually deafened them for several minutes.
This was the outburst of the storm, which thereafter raged with
indescribable fury for a full hour, the lightning incessantly flashing
all round the little knoll with such dazzling brilliancy that the entire
landscape, almost to its uttermost confines, was nearly as fully
revealed as at noonday, while the thunder crashed and rattled and boomed
with a nerve-shattering violence that effectually drowned all other
sounds. And, to add still further to the weird impressiveness of the
scene, the storm had scarcely been raging ten minutes when the swamp was
seen to be on fire in several places immediately to leeward of the
knoll, the dry herbage having been undoubtedly kindled by the flying
embers and sparks of the fire, which had been completely swept away by
the wind. For the first half-hour of its duration the storm was a dry
one, that is to say, it was unaccompanied by rain; and while the tempest
raged about them Dick and Earle lay prone, side by side, watching the
marvellous scene revealed by the incessant lightning flashes. And Earle
afterwards confided to Dick--and, still later, to many others--that what
he then beheld more than repaid him for all that the ent