en luminous points on the
volcano's side just before it burst.

He said that all about him when the explosion came, there was a
terrible suction of air which seemed to be dragging him irresistibly
toward the mountain in spite of all his resistance. The volcano then
emitted a sheet of flame which swept down toward St. Pierre. There was
no sharp, distinct roar of explosion as when a great cannon is fired,
but only awful jarring rumblings.

He thought that the entire outburst that did all the work of havoc did
not last more than thirty seconds. Then there was complete darkness
for ten minutes, caused by the dense volumes of sulphurous smoke and
clouds of dust and shattered rocks. The entire country all about St.
Pierre was turned into a chaotic waste. All the trees were either torn
up by the roots or snapped off, to lie level with the ground.

The outlines of the town but imperfectly remained. The tangle of
debris was such that after the rescuers came, it was with difficulty
that the course of streets could be followed.

In spite of the horrible surroundings, and the universal wave of human
sympathy which had been evoked, looting began almost as soon as
relief. As soon as it was possible to land, ghouls began to rob the
bodies of the victims. The monsters plied their nefarious trade in
small boats. Skimming along the shore they would watch for an opening
when troops and rescue parties were elsewhere, then land, grab what
they could, and sail away again.

The United States government tug Potomac, while on her way to Fort de
France with supplies from San Juan, Porto Rico, overhauled a small
boat containing five negroes and a white man. Something in the
appearance of the men excited the suspicions of the commander of the
Potomac, Lieutenant McCormick, and he ordered them to come on board.
When they were searched, their pockets were found to be filled with
coin and jewelry. Rings in their possession had evidently been
stripped from the fingers of the dead. Lieutenant McCormick placed
them all under arrest, and later turned them over to the commander of
the French cruiser Suchet for punishment.

Thus it was that no detail of grewsome horror was lacking to make the
shocking tale of the destruction of St. Pierre complete.

The hour of the disaster is placed at about eight o'clock. A clerk in
Fort de France called up another by telephone in St. Pierre and was
talking with him at 7:55 by Fort de France time, when he heard a