o be
terribly cold outside, all right." He was interrupted by a deafening
peal of thunder. "Lord, what an echo! Lucky you don't mind. It's worth
watching out there. We needn't come in yet."

The green light grew murkier and murkier. The smaller vegetation was
blotted out. The yuccas, the cedars, and PINONS stood dark and rigid,
like bronze. The swallows flew up with sharp, terrified twitterings.
Even the quaking asps were still. While Fred and Thea watched from the
doorway, the light changed to purple. Clouds of dark vapor, like
chlorine gas, began to float down from the head of the canyon and hung
between them and the cliff-houses in the opposite wall. Before they knew
it, the wall itself had disappeared. The air was positively
venomous-looking, and grew colder every minute. The thunder seemed to
crash against one cliff, then against the other, and to go shrieking off
into the inner canyon.

The moment the rain broke, it beat the vapors down. In the gulf before
them the water fell in spouts, and dashed from the high cliffs overhead.
It tore aspens and chokecherry bushes out of the ground and left the
yuccas hanging by their tough roots. Only the little cedars stood black
and unmoved in the torrents that fell from so far above. The rock
chamber was full of fine spray from the streams of water that shot over
the doorway. Thea crept to the back wall and rolled herself in a
blanket, and Fred threw the heavier blankets over her. The wool of the
Navajo sheep was soon kindled by the warmth of her body, and was
impenetrable to dampness. Her hair, where it hung below the rubber hat,
gathered the moisture like a sponge. Fred put on the slicker, tied the
sweater about his neck, and settled himself cross-legged beside her. The
chamber was so dark that, although he could see the outline of her head
and shoulders, he could not see her face. He struck a wax match to light
his pipe. As he sheltered it between his hands, it sizzled and
sputtered, throwing a yellow flicker over Thea and her blankets.

"You look like a gypsy," he said as he dropped the match. "Any one you'd
rather be shut up with than me? No? Sure about that?"

"I think I am. Aren't you cold?"

"Not especially." Fred smoked in silence, listening to the roar of the
water outside. "We may not get away from here right away," he remarked.

"I shan't mind. Shall you?"

He laughed grimly and pulled on his pipe. "Do you know where you're at,
Miss Thea Kronborg?" he said