breath of wind whispered through the forest, and died away, sighing, in
the pines.

Ramon awoke suddenly.

Straight from the centre of that sea of blackness, like the plummet of
an engineer, like the lead of a storm-tossed sailor, shot a drop of
rain. Down it came with unerring swiftness, right through one of the
spectacled gentleman's improvised "sky-lights" in the roof, and splashed
in the Cuban's face. Half-dreaming still, he sleepily rolled over out of
range; he had been awakened before in that way, and was used to it.

There was a slope now in the pile of boughs, and Harry Eveleth slid down
into the vacated place unconsciously. Splash! and the raindrop covered
his cheek with water. Dimly through his dormant brain the idea crept
that he was back in the dormitory, and some one was trying the old trick
of hanging a saturated sponge above his head; he had done it himself,
once, and this was retribution. With a smothered grunt of discontent he
gave Ramon a shove that sent him further, and rolled over into his
place. Frank Hapgood began to slide--began to dream that he was falling
down through a frightful place that had no bottom! The air whistled
shrilly past his head. The black walls of the pit shot upward swiftly
and he could see the faint light far up at the mouth of the shaft
growing dimmer until it too went out! He tried to scream, but the wind
caught the sound and carried it away with a rush of mocking laughter; he
tried to reach out and grasp the walls but his hands were bound! Then he
felt that he was drawing near the end; he had fallen miles!--and now his
speed was slackening, and he was falling so softly, so lightly, till at
last, like a downy feather he floated on the air, as a spirit from
another world. He had reached the centre of the earth!

Splash! came the rain upon his face, and the cold breath of the night
and storm.

"Great Caesar! boys, it's raining!"

There wasn't much doubt of that fact. And as stream after stream began
to pour through the roof there was a sudden resurrection among the white
mummies stretched upon the spruce boughs. Frank glanced around, and then
made another equally wise observation:

"This old shanty's mighty leaky!"

As the ground covered by the mansion thus disrespectfully alluded to was
about eight feet by twelve, and there were at that particular moment
sixteen different streams of water pouring down upon their heads, the
rest had already discovered the fact, and th