empest and lost
had not his cooler companion grasped his arm and dragged him violently
into the passage--where they were safe, though half suffocated by the
heat and sulphurous vapours that followed them.

At the same time the thunderous roaring became so loud that conversation
was impossible. Van der Kemp therefore took his friend's hand and led
him down to the cave, where the sounds were so greatly subdued as to
seem almost a calm by contrast.

"We are no doubt in great danger," said the hermit, gravely, as he sat
down in the outer cave, "but there is no possibility of taking action
to-night. Here we are, whether wisely or unwisely, and here we must
remain--at least till there is a lull in the eruption. 'God is our
refuge.' He ought to be so at _all_ times, but there are occasions when
this great, and, I would add, glorious fact is pressed upon our
understandings with unusual power. Such a time is this. Come--we will
see what His word says to us just now."

To Nigel's surprise, and, he afterwards confessed, to his comfort and
satisfaction, the hermit called the negro from his work, and, taking
down the large Bible from its shelf, read part of the 46th Psalm, "God
is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore
will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains
be carried into the midst of the sea."

He stopped reading at the verse where it is written, "Be still, and know
that I am God."

Then, going down on his knees,--without even the familiar formula, "Let
us pray"--he uttered a brief but earnest prayer for guidance and
deliverance "in the name of Jesus."

Rising, he quietly put the Bible away, and, with the calmness of a
thoroughly practical man, who looks upon religion and ordinary matters
as parts of one grand whole, ordered Moses to serve the supper.

Thus they spent part of that memorable night of 26th August 1883 in
earnest social intercourse, conversing chiefly and naturally about the
character, causes, and philosophy of volcanoes, while Perboewatan and
his brethren played a rumbling, illustrative accompaniment to their
discourse. The situation was a peculiar one. Even the negro was alive to
that fact.

"Ain't it koorious," he remarked solemnly in a moment of confidence
after swallowing the last bite of his supper. "Ain't it koorious, Massa
Nadgel, dat we're a sottin' here comf'rably enjoyin' our wittles ober de
mout' ob a v'licano as is quite fit to blow u