me
more conspicuous.

Pompey raised the stick I had handed to him, and the iguana, as if
likewise springing to arms to resist attack, elevated a sort of spiny
fringe, resembling a mane, that reached from the crest of its head to
the shoulders. At the same time, it slung round its tail, in crocodile
fashion, as if to give a blow with it to its assailant.

The old darkey, however, was not frightened at the motion. Stepping up
to the animal's side, he gave it one smart stroke on the nose, whereupon
the iguana was incontinently settled, turning over on its back a second
afterwards. The brightness at once faded from its green and gold skin,
while the rich cream-coloured throat changed to a dirty-white in the
hues of death, in the same way that a dolphin alters its colour when
taken from its native element.

"Guess um well kill' now, nohow," said Pompey grimly, taking up the
animal by the tail; but it was such a big one that he couldn't lift it,
so he had to drag it along the ground towards the quarters of himself
and the other negroes. Here it would, I knew, ere long be skinned and
dressed in a very savoury way, known only to African cooks, when a
portion of the banquet would be sent in anon to "the big house," for the
kindly acceptance of the white folks there--my mother, and sisters, and
myself--elegantly dished up in plantain leaves with red peppers for
dressing.

While I stood for a second watching old Pompey making off with his prey
in high good-humour, looking in the distance, as he climbed the slope of
the hill up to the huts, uncommonly like a lean monkey dragging away a
centipede, the intense glare of the tropical noontide, of which I was
for the moment oblivious, changed in an instant to a deep gloom
resembling the blackness of night. It seemed as if some interposing
body had suddenly been placed between the sun and the earth.

Then came a tremendous crash of thunder, like the sound of heaven's dome
breaking in, it was so fearfully loud and awesome; and the reverberating
roar was accompanied by a vivid flash of forked lightning, whose zigzag
stream struck a tall tamarind-tree standing in front of me, splintering
the trunk from top to bottom with a scrunching noise like that made in
rending timber!

I turned and ran back to the house for shelter as fast as I could,
anticipating what was coming, such storms being of frequent occurrence
in the tropics after exceptional heat and when there is no wind to
ag