he would not venture among the wood-cutters, with every probability of receiving even a ruder reception than he had experienced at the hands of the Panompin mob.
I was deeply puzzled. More so, far more so, than I had shown to my companions. I half expected, I own, to see him suddenly spring out upon us again. I would not have been surprised if I had spied him flying through the air above our heads like the witches of old. But I kept my thoughts to myself, and we hurried on.
Soon the wind had increased to a gale, and the giant trees of a belt of woodland which we had now entered bent beneath it. The thunder, too, was growing deafening, with claps alternately loud and stifled, short and prolonged, sharp and crackling, while blinding flashes of light illuminated our surroundings with terrible distinctness, only to make the darkness more profound when the change came.
But, as yet, no rain—that was still in reserve. Come it must, we knew, and we ran with all speed, peering about for the hill which Mr. Mirrikh had described.
“It’s no use, George! Either there is no tower, or we must have passed it!” cried Maurice.
The words were no more than spoken, when a frightful crash resounded through the forest, and a flash of unusual intensity showed us a gigantic tree whose trunk our united arms could not have encircled, topple and fall directly before us, bringing down with it a mass of orchids and other parasitic plants, while a colony of monkeys which had taken refuge among its branches, scampered away, screaming and chattering to seek other shelter. It is needless to say we were brought to a halt.
“Merciful God! but this is terrible!” cried the Doctor. “We are safe nowhere. Ha! here comes the rain at last!”
He was right. First great drops against our faces, then a torrent, then a flood. It was the first storm of the season and if there were any worse before the dry months came again, I thank God I was not there to see.
Now came a lightning flash hardly equal to its predecessor, but of vastly more interest to us.
“Look! look! shouted Maurice. “The tower!”
We saw it before he spoke, otherwise we might never have seen it at all, for in a second all was darkness and the thunder rolling and crashing again.
