his excitement, that such things as sky and air had no
part then in his life, but now in the long dead silence, they obtruded
themselves upon him.

The last wisp of smoke drifted away among the trees, and the sunlight,
although it was mid-afternoon, was fading. Presently the skies were a
vast dome of dull, lowering gray, and the breeze had a chill edge. Then
the wind died and not a leaf or blade of grass in the forest stirred.
Somber clouds came over the brink of the horizon in the southwest, and
crept threateningly up the great curve of the sky. The air steadily
darkened, and suddenly the dim horizon in the far southwest was cut by a
vivid flash of lightning. Low thunder grumbled over the distant hills.

"It's a storm, an' it's to be a whopper," said Shif'less Sol.

"Ay," returned Ross, who had been back among the horses, "an' it may
save us. All you fellows be sure to keep your powder dry."

There would be little danger of that fatal catastrophe, the wetting of
the powder, as it was carried in polished horns, stopped securely, nor
would there be any danger either of the salt being melted, as it was
inclosed in bags made of deerskin, which would shed water.

"One of the men," continued Ross, "has found a big gully running down
the back end of the hill, an' I think if we're keerful we can lead the
horses to the valley that way. But just now, we'll wait."

Henry and Paul were watching, as if fascinated. They had seen before the
great storms that sometimes sweep the Mississippi Valley, but the one
preparing now seemed to be charged with a deadly power, far surpassing
anything in their experience. It came on, too, with terrible swiftness.
The thunder, at first a mere rumble, rose rapidly to crash after crash
that stunned their ears. The livid flash of lightning that split the
southwest like a flaming sword appeared and reappeared with such
intensity that it seemed never to have gone. The wind rose and the
forest groaned. From afar came a sullen roar, and then the great
hurricane rushed down upon them.

"Lie flat!" shouted Ross.

All except four or five who held the struggling and frightened horses
threw themselves upon the ground, and, although Henry and Paul hugged
the earth, their ears were filled with the roar and scream of the wind,
and the crackle of boughs and whole tree trunks snapped through, like
the rattle of rifle fire. The forest in front of them was quickly filled
with fallen trees, and fragments whis