a couple of sweeps were
hastily run out; and the _Loseis_ was pulled for the nearest point of
the shore. With true breed seamanship she was beached on a steep and
stony incline on the lee side of a point. Garth tried his best to
make their folly clear to them; but none of the crew, and least of all
Hooliam, retained presence of mind to comprehend. With united strength
the breeds dragged her up as far as they could, which was but little,
and went through the same business of driving stakes into the bottom of
the lake, and lashing the sternpost between. Garth threw up his hands in
helpless exasperation. Tarpaulins and sails were spread over the cargo
and lashed down. Charley made Natalie snug with a tarpaulin roof over
her seat. Garth commanded him, no matter what might happen, not to
leave her side.

The storm came roaring down the lake like a vast animate being; and
there, in their exposed position, smote them hip and thigh. Each crash
of thunder fell forth right upon the echo of the last; and the lightning
played like wicked laughter on the face of the destroying heavens. Then
came the rain, with pitiless, whistling whips that lashed the water, and
bit cruelly into exposed flesh. Every man on board, save one, instantly
dived under the sail-cloths; and Hooliam was the first to seek shelter.

Only Garth dared not relax his watch in the open. He maintained his
place with his back against the stern, a piece of tarpaulin across his
knees to keep his gun dry, and his eyes bent forward in the boat whence
any move must be made on him. So sure was he that Grylls would attack
him, he was scarcely conscious of the tumult that roared about his ears.
The wind tore his hat off; and the cold rain drenched him to the skin.

Before him, the lightning luridly showed up the trees on the shore,
writhing horridly; and the wet mast and the guy ropes were often wreathed
in faint, bluish flames. The _Loseis_ forward, with her irregularly piled
cargo, and the crouching forms under the sail-cloths, presented a thousand
shifting, fantastic shapes in the playing flashes; and Garth had a score
of false alarms. In the end, his enemy crept almost upon him undiscovered.

By the light of a great blaze, which held all the earth and the heavens
suspended in flames for a moment, Garth suddenly saw revealed a crouching
figure, and a hideous, distorted face no more than six feet from his own.
In the blinding glare it was outlined with a horrid clearness;