re talking over
that just the other day. There hasn't been any change of weather. The
winters to-day average the same that they did fifty years ago. There's
some sort of an eleven-year cycle in rainfall, and there's a variation
in temperature that seems to swing around about once in every
thirty-seven or thirty-eight years, but the differences are so small
that only Weather Bureau records can prove them. The weather isn't any
hotter or any colder than it used to be, it's just about the same."

But Ross was not listening. His eyes were fixed on the horizon.

"Anton," he said, "I wish you'd come here a minute."

Struck by his companion's tone, the younger lad looked up and, grasping
his crutch, limped to the door. He took a glance at the sky and whistled
in a low and thoughtful way.

"Look at those clouds to the north-west," said Ross. Then, pointing to
the south-west quarter, "And look at them there!"

Anton looked, his eyes dilating. In the north-west, swarthy, curling
wreaths of vapor that seemed as though they rose from a monstrous
burning straw-stack writhed their way upward to a great height, the
upper portion seeming to tremble threateningly, as though there were a
shaking fist within the swirl, hidden by clouds. The column was smoky
and threatening, yet a whitish light came from beneath it suggesting
phosphorescent vapors.

To the south-west were clouds of a different character, darker and more
compact. They were not blacker than many clouds preceding a heavy
rainstorm, but they had an uneasy motion. From these came no whitish
phosphorescent light; instead, there was a greenish glitter, like a
snake's eyes seen in the dark. There was something evil and sinister
about them. The air was reverberant, sounds could be heard to a great
distance. The farm animals were unquiet and moved restlessly. Anton
wiped the perspiration from his forehead with the back of his hand. He
glanced up at the weather-vane.

"It ought to pass to the east of us," he said.

Ross also looked at the weather-vane, and then at the advancing cloud.
He knew that nearly all such storms traveled to the north-east.

"It may pass us," he said, "but sometimes they swing north."

"I know it," Anton answered, and fell silent, watching the coming of the
storm.

In the distance a faint moaning was heard.

The two huge cloud masses from the two quarters of the sky, as though
advancing to give battle, hurled themselves toward each other, the
wh