eak
after the din had quieted. "Bless my soul! But that was awful!"

"It was just what I expected," said Mr. Parker, calmly. "I knew, from
my observations, that we were in a region where landslides and terrific
electrical storms may be expected at any time. I fully looked for this."

"Well," remarked Mr. Jenks, rather sarcastically, "I hope it came up to
your expectations, Mr. Parker."

"Oh, fully," was the answer, "though I wish it could have happened
in daylight, so that I could better have observed certain phenomena
regarding the landslide. They are very interesting."

"At a distance," admitted Tom, with a laugh of relief. "Well, I'm glad
it's over, though we'll have to wait until morning to see what damage
has been done. Lucky we weren't struck by lightning. I never saw such
bolts!"

"Me, either!" declared Mr. Damon. "This mountain seems to attract them."

"It is like a magnet," said Mr. Parker. "I think I shall be able to make
some fine observations here."

"If we live through it," murmured Mr. Jenks.

They watched the play of lightning about a distant bank of clouds,
but the storm was now far away, only a faint rumbling of thunder being
heard.

"I'm wondering what happened to the phantom," said Tom, after a pause.
"Seems to me he was right in that track of the storm."

"Do you think it was a 'he'?" asked Mr. Jenks.

"I think we'll find that it's some sort of a man," answered the young
inventor. "We may find out very soon, now. I've changed my theory about
the ghost being reflections of light."

"How's that?" Mr. Damon wanted to know.

"Well, I think we are on the side of Phantom Mountain where the diamond
cave is," went on the lad. "The fact that the phantom appeared here,
soon after we arrived, shows that the men kept close track of our
movements. It also shows, I think, that the phantom did not have to
travel far to be on the spot, whereas we had to make quite a trip to get
around the base of the mountain. I think the cave is up there," and
Tom pointed toward the spot where the weird figure had been last seen,
before the storm drove it back.

"There may be two phantoms," suggested Mr. Jenks. "They may keep one on
this side of the mountain, and one on the other, to warn intruders away.

"It's possible," admitted Tom. "Well, we'll see how things look in the
morning, when we'll take up our march again, and go up the mountain.
We'll reach the top, if possible, which we couldn't do from the other
s