bitation stood.

That was not the worst either!

While they were pondering as to the best means for extricating
themselves from the danger of being washed away, a new one arose.

Through the melting of the snow on the mountains above, a sparkling
cascade commenced all at once to leap down the face of the cliff at the
back of the house, right on to the roof over their heads.

This was serious; for, should this peril not be guarded against and some
sort of pent-house put up as a shield, the slight timber work of the
roof would soon be crushed in and swept away by the ever-increasing
weight of the falling water.

In the midst of these imminent dangers, a phenomenon occurred which for
the moment appalled everybody, not even excepting Mr Meldrum--it was so
strange, so awe-inspiring!

It commenced snowing again; but there was nothing unusual in that. What
was unusual was, that the flakes which fell, instead of being white,
were as black as ink!

What could the awful portent foretell?

It was inexplicable.

CHAPTER THIRTY.

AN APPARITION!

"Goodness gracious me!" exclaimed Mrs Major Negus in accents of genuine
terror, "the world's coming to an end!" and she sank down in a heap on
the ground, close to the door of the general room, where she had been
standing uncertain whether to go out or in.

There was ample reason for the good lady's consternation, for danger
seemed staring her in the face in either direction.

On the one hand, the flood in the valley appeared approaching as if to
swallow up the hut and all its belongings; while, on the other, the
deafening noise of the water pouring down from the cliff above on to the
roof made everybody feel impelled to quit the house.

Mary Llewellyn, the stewardess, generally a quiet and retiring person,
was driven into a fit of hysterics by the concatenation of horrors that
all at once surrounded them.

As for the children, they shared the fright of their elders, Florry
clinging convulsively to Kate, who had dropped on her knees and was
praying in the corner--believing really that the last supreme moment was
at hand.

The men, too--they had been hastily called together the moment the
dangerous predicament of the roof was noticed, and had begun to knock
together a sort of wooden shield to interpose between the cliff and the
top of the house, so that the water might rim over it in the fashion of
a spout--stopped in their task with one accord, staring as if bewilde