e, and reached it in the
course of the next ten minutes. He had been cramped up in one position
so long that he felt the need of exercise, and started off at a rapid
pace, with no more idea of the precise direction he was following than
if he were blind.

The clouds sweeping across the sky grew heavier and darker, and the
wind, strong and chilling, soughed through the trees of the forest with
a dismal, wailing sound that would have frightened one of more years
than young Chadmund. Even he would have shrunk from the task of going
through the wood had the circumstances been different, but he was so
actuated by the one all-controlling desire of escape that he forgot the
real danger which encompassed him. Besides the risk of encountering the
Apaches, there was the ever-present peril from wild beasts and venomous
serpents. None of the latter as yet had disturbed him, but he was likely
to step upon some coiling reptile, unseen in the dark, whose sting was
certain death.

It soon became apparent that a storm of a most violent character was
about to burst forth. The wind grew stronger and colder, lightning
flashed athwart the darkening sky, and the thunder boomed with an
increasing power peculiar to warm countries. The wanderer had been
fortunate thus far in preserving himself from a ducking, and he was
still desirous of doing so. There was nothing to be gained by pressing
forward, and he began groping around for some kind of a shelter. This
was difficult to find, as the gloom was so dense that eyesight was
useless, and he could only use his hands.

"I guess I'll have to climb a tree," he thought, running his hand along
the bark of one.

But at this juncture he ran against a rock, striking with such violence
that he saw stars. As soon as he recovered he began an examination, and
was not a little pleased to find that under one portion of it there was
a hollow big enough for him to crawl in and protect himself from the
tempest. He had scarcely done so when the storm burst forth.

First a few large drops pattered upon the leaves, and then it seemed as
if the windows of Heaven had been opened. The rain descended in
torrents, the firmament flamed with a blinding intensity--and the earth
trembled with the reverberating thunder. The vivid sheets of electric
fire made the darkness and gloom deeper by contrast. The trees, with
their swaying branches, and the spear-like columns of rain, stood out
and vanished again so rapidly that