forked tongues of lightning darting back and forth far
below them, and hear the heavy rumble of thunder.

"It seems so wondahful to think that we are safe up above the storm. Look!
There is a rainbow! And there is anothah and anothah! Oh, it is so
beautiful, I'm glad it rained!"

The storm, that had lasted for nearly an hour, gradually cleared away till
the valley lay spread out before them once more, in the sunshine, green
and dripping from the summer shower.

"Well," said the Little Colonel, as they started homeward, "aftah this
I'll remembah that no mattah how hard it rains the sun is always shining
somewhere. It nevah hides itself from us. It is the valley that gets
behind the clouds, just as if it was puttin' a handkerchief ovah its face
when it wanted to cry. It's a comfort to know that the sun keeps shining,
on right on, unchanged."

It was nearly dark when they reached the little inn again in Zug. The
narrow streets were wet, and the eaves of the houses still dripping. The
landlord came out to meet them with an anxious face. "Your friend, the old
Major," he said, in his broken English, "he have not yet return. I fear
the storm for him was bad."

"Where did he go?" inquired Mr. Sherman. "I did not know that he intended
leaving the hotel at all to-day. He did not seem well."

"Early after lunch," was the answer. "He say he will up the mountain go,
behind the town. He say that now he vair old man, maybe not again will he
come this way, and one more time already before he die, he long to gather
for himself the Alpine rosen."

"Have you had a hard storm here?" asked Mrs. Sherman.

The landlord shrugged his shoulders and spread out his hands.

"The vair worst, madame. Many trees blow down. The lightning he strike a
house next to the church of St. Oswald, and a goatherd coming down just
now from the mountain say that the paths are heaped with fallen limbs, and
slippery with mud. That is why for I fear the Major have one accident
met."

"Maybe he has stopped at some peasant's hut for shelter," suggested Mr.
Sherman, seeing the distress in Lloyd's face. "He knows the region around
here thoroughly. However, if he is not here by the time we are through
dinner, we'll organise a searching party."

"Hero knows that something is wrong," said the Little Colonel, as they
went into the dining-room a few minutes later. "See how uneasy he seems,
walking from room to room. He is trying to find his mastah."

The longer