as let loose. It was as though
this particular spot of the earth's surface was the meeting-place of
all the powers that attack and devastate and undermine and slay. In
the whirlpools, or the water-spouts, or the eddies of overflowing
rivers, under the crash of uprooted trees, crumbling cliffs, falling
scaffoldings and walls, tottering belfries and factory-chimneys and of
all the objects carried by the wind, the deaths increased steadily.
Twenty families were thrown into mourning on the first day, forty on
the second. As for the number of victims destroyed by the great
convulsion which accompanied the tremendous event, it was doubtful
whether this was ever accurately estimated.

As happens in such periods of constant danger, when the individual
thinks only of himself and those akin to him, Simon knew hardly
anything of the disaster save through the manifestations that reached
him directly. After receiving a wireless telegram from Isabel which
assured him of her safety, he spread the newspapers only to make
certain that his flight with her was not suspected. With the
rest--details of the foundering of the _Queen Mary_, articles in which
his presence of mind, his courage and Isabel's pluck were extolled, or
in which the writer endeavoured to explain the convulsions in the
Channel--with all this he had hardly time to concern himself.

He remained with his father. He told him the secret of his love, told
him the story of the recent incidents, told him of his plans. Together
they wandered through the town or out into the country, both of them
drenched and blinded by the showers, staggering under the squalls and
bowing their heads beneath the bombardment of slates and tiles. The
trees and telegraph-poles along the road were mown down like corn.
Trusses of straw, stacks of fodder, faggots of wood, palings, coils of
wire were whirled through the air like autumn leaves. Nature seemed to
have declared a merciless war upon herself for the sheer pleasure of
spoiling and destroying.

And the sea was still trundling its gigantic waves, which broke with
deafening roar. All navigation between France and England was
suspended. Wireless messages signalled the danger to the great liners
coming from America or Germany; and none of them dared enter the hell
that was the Channel.

On the fourth day, the last but one, Tuesday the 3rd of June, there
was a slight lull.

The final assault was marshalling its forces. M. Dubosc worn out with