"

"The key of the granary."

"Take it then. 'Tis on the nail. People coming disturbing women at
this time of night ought--"

Gabriel took the key, without waiting to hear the conclusion of the
tirade. Ten minutes later his lonely figure might have been seen
dragging four large water-proof coverings across the yard, and soon
two of these heaps of treasure in grain were covered snug--two cloths
to each. Two hundred pounds were secured. Three wheat-stacks
remained open, and there were no more cloths. Oak looked under the
staddles and found a fork. He mounted the third pile of wealth and
began operating, adopting the plan of sloping the upper sheaves one
over the other; and, in addition, filling the interstices with the
material of some untied sheaves.

So far all was well. By this hurried contrivance Bathsheba's
property in wheat was safe for at any rate a week or two, provided
always that there was not much wind.

Next came the barley. This it was only possible to protect by
systematic thatching. Time went on, and the moon vanished not to
reappear. It was the farewell of the ambassador previous to war.
The night had a haggard look, like a sick thing; and there came
finally an utter expiration of air from the whole heaven in the form
of a slow breeze, which might have been likened to a death. And now
nothing was heard in the yard but the dull thuds of the beetle which
drove in the spars, and the rustle of thatch in the intervals.

CHAPTER XXXVII

THE STORM--THE TWO TOGETHER

A light flapped over the scene, as if reflected from phosphorescent
wings crossing the sky, and a rumble filled the air. It was the
first move of the approaching storm.

The second peal was noisy, with comparatively little visible
lightning. Gabriel saw a candle shining in Bathsheba's bedroom,
and soon a shadow swept to and fro upon the blind.

Then there came a third flash. Manoeuvres of a most extraordinary
kind were going on in the vast firmamental hollows overhead. The
lightning now was the colour of silver, and gleamed in the heavens
like a mailed army. Rumbles became rattles. Gabriel from his
elevated position could see over the landscape at least half-a-dozen
miles in front. Every hedge, bush, and tree was distinct as in a
line engraving. In a paddock in the same direction was a herd of
heifers, and the forms of these were visible at this moment in the
act of galloping about in the wildest and maddest