ll Tree. The result was equally discouraging.

In desperation he then, by means of his knife and flint, strove to
secure the ignition of a sort of sponge which grew under the rocks. He
fared no better. The particle of steel, lighted by the impact of the
silex, fell on to the substance, but went out immediately. Godfrey and
Tartlet were in despair. To do without fire was impossible. Of their
fruits and mollusks they were getting tired, and their stomachs began to
revolt at such food. They eyed, the professor especially, the sheep,
agouties, and fowls which went and came round Will Tree. The pangs of
hunger seized them as they gazed. With their eyes they ate the living
meat!

No! It could not go on like this!

But an unexpected circumstance, a providential one if you will, came to
their aid.

In the night of the 3rd of July the weather, which had been on the
change for a day or so, grew stormy, after an oppressive heat which the
sea-breeze had been powerless to temper.

Godfrey and Tartlet at about one o'clock in the morning were awakened by
heavy claps of thunder, and most vivid flashes of lightning. It did not
rain as yet, but it soon promised to do so, and then regular cataracts
would be precipitated from the cloudy zone, owing to the rapid
condensation of the vapour.

Godfrey got up and went out so as to observe the state of the sky.

There seemed quite a conflagration above the domes of the giant trees
and the foliage appeared on fire against the sky, like the fine network
of a Chinese shadow.

Suddenly, in the midst of the general uproar, a vivid flash illuminated
the atmosphere. The thunder-clap followed immediately, and Will Tree was
permeated from top to bottom with the electric force.

Godfrey, staggered by the return shock, stood in the midst of a rain of
fire which showered around him. The lightning had ignited the dry
branches above him. They were incandescent particles of carbon which
crackled at his feet.

Godfrey with a shout awoke his companion.

"Fire! Fire!"

"Fire!" answered Tartlet. "Blessed be Heaven which sends it to us!"

Instantly they possessed themselves of the flaming twigs, of which some
still burned, while others had been consumed in the flames. Hurriedly,
at the same time, did they heap together a quantity of dead wood such
as was never wanting at the foot of the sequoia, whose trunk had not
been touched by the lightning.

Then they returned into their gloomy habitation as