aggons. And in the darkness the flashes
of lightning seemed more violent and blinding, so that they hurt
his eyes.

"Panteley!" called Yegorushka.

No answer followed. But now a gust of wind for the last time flung
up the mat and hurried away. A quiet regular sound was heard. A big
cold drop fell on Yegorushka's knee, another trickled over his hand.
He noticed that his knees were not covered, and tried to rearrange
the mat, but at that moment something began pattering on the road,
then on the shafts and the bales. It was the rain. As though they
understood one another, the rain and the mat began prattling of
something rapidly, gaily and most annoyingly like two magpies.

Yegorushka knelt up or rather squatted on his boots. While the rain
was pattering on the mat, he leaned forward to screen his knees,
which were suddenly wet. He succeeded in covering his knees, but
in less than a minute was aware of a penetrating, unpleasant dampness
behind on his back and the calves of his legs. He returned to his
former position, exposing his knees to the rain, and wondered what
to do to rearrange the mat which he could not see in the darkness.
But his arms were already wet, the water was trickling up his sleeves
and down his collar, and his shoulder-blades felt chilly. And he
made up his mind to do nothing but sit motionless and wait till it
was all over.

"Holy, holy, holy!" he whispered.

Suddenly, exactly over his head, the sky cracked with a fearful
deafening din; he huddled up and held his breath, waiting for the
fragments to fall upon his head and back. He inadvertently opened
his eyes and saw a blinding intense light flare out and flash five
times on his fingers, his wet sleeves, and on the trickles of water
running from the mat upon the bales and down to the ground. There
was a fresh peal of thunder as violent and awful; the sky was not
growling and rumbling now, but uttering short crashing sounds like
the crackling of dry wood.

"Trrah! tah! tah! tah!" the thunder rang out distinctly, rolled
over the sky, seemed to stumble, and somewhere by the foremost
waggons or far behind to fall with an abrupt angry "Trrra!"

The flashes of lightning had at first been only terrible, but with
such thunder they seemed sinister and menacing. Their magic light
pierced through closed eyelids and sent a chill all over the body.
What could he do not to see them? Yegorushka made up his mind to
turn over on his face. Cautiously, as thou