my hatchet and
hunting-knife because, if the house collapses, I should not be able to get
them at the very time they would be the most required."

"If the house collapses! You think, then, we are going to have a bad
earthquake?"

"It is possible. This is an earthquake country; there has been nothing
more serious than a slight trembling since long before the abbe died; and
I have a feeling that something more serious is about to happen.
Underground thunder is always an ominous symptom.--Ah! There it is again.
Run into the garden. I will bring the chairs and wraps."

The house being timber built and one storied, I had little fear that it
would collapse; but anything may happen in an earthquake, and in the
garden we were safe from anything short of the ground on which we stood
actually gaping or slipping bodily down the mountain-side.

The second shock was followed by a third, more violent than either of its
predecessors. The earth trembled and heaved so that we could scarcely
stand. The underground thunder became louder and continuous and, what was
even more appalling, we could distinctly see the mountain-tops move and
shake, as if they were going to fall and overwhelm us.

But even this shock passed off without doing any material mischief, and I
was beginning to think the worst was over when one of the servants drew my
attention to the great reservoir. It smoked and though there was no wind
the water was white with foam and running over the banks.

This went on several minutes, and then the water, as if yielding to some
irresistible force, left the sides, and there shot out of it a gigantic
jet nearly as thick as the crater was wide and hundreds of feet high. It
broke in the form of a rose and fell in a fine spray, which the setting
sun hued with all the colors of the rainbow.

It was the most splendid sight I had ever seen and the most
portentous--for I knew that the crater had become active, and remembering
how long it had taken to fill I feared the worst.

The jet went on rising and falling for nearly an hour, but as the mass of
the water returned to the crater, very little going over the sides, no
great harm was done.

"Thank Heaven for the respite!" exclaimed Angela, who had been clinging to
me all the time, trembling yet courageous. "Don't you think the danger is
now past, my Nigel?"

"For us, it may be. But if the crater has really become active. I fear
that our poor people at San Cristobal will be in