aid to release them
for fear they might snap. She stood there looking at the receiver as her
hands came together.

As though she were talking to a person instead of the telephone before
her, she gasped: "So--so THIS is what it has all been for--this. Into
the world, into Martin's world--and this way out of it. Burned to
death--Billy."

The rain had lessened a little and now the wind began to shake the
house, rattle the windows and scream as it tore its way over the plains.
The sky flared white and the world lighted up suddenly, as though the
sun had been turned on from an electric switch. At the same instant she
saw a bolt of lightning strike a young tree by the roadside, heard the
sharp click as it hit and then watched the flash dance about, now on
the road, now along the barbed wire fencing. Then the world went black
again. And a rumble quickly grew to an earth-shaking blast of thunder.
It was as though that tree were Billy--struck by a gush of flying fire.
The next bolt broke above the house, and the light it threw showed
her the stripling split and lying on the ground. In the impenetrable
darkness she realized that the house fuse of their Delco system must
have been blown out, and she groped blindly for a match. She could hear
the rain coming down again, now in rivers. There was unchained wrath in
the downpour, viciousness. It was a madman rushing in to rend and tear.
It frothed, and writhed, and spat hatred. Rose shook as though gripped
by a strong hand. She was afraid--of the rain, the lightning, the
thunder, the darkness; alone there, waiting for them to bring her Billy.
She was too terrified to add her weeping to the wail of the wind--it
would have been too ghastly. Would she never find a match! As she lit
the lamp, like the stab of a needle in the midst of agony, came the
thought of how long it had been after Martin had put in his electrical
system and connected up his barns before she had been permitted to have
this convenience in the house. What would he think now? She wished he
were home. Anyone would be better than this awful waiting alone. She
could only stand there, away from the window, looking out at the sheets
of water running down the panes and shivering with the frightfulness and
savageness of it all.

Her ears caught a rumble, fainter than thunder, and the splash of
horses' hoofs--"it's too muddy for the motor ambulance," she thought,
mechanically. "They're using the old one," and her heart contr