gh. Do you think we shall be struck?'

This as a peal of thunder louder than any which had preceded it rolled
over their heads, making Ann Eliza clutch Tom's arm in nervous terror
which was not feigned.

'Struck? No. But don't screech and hang on to me so. We can never get
along if you do,' Tom growled; and, taking her by the wrist, he dragged
rather than led her through the woods where the great rain-drops were
beginning to fall so fast as the two showers--one from the west and one
from the south--approached each other, until at last they met overhead,
and then commenced a wild and fierce battle of the elements, the
southern storm and the western storm each seemingly trying to outdo the
other and come off conqueror.

As the thunder and lightning and rain increased, Tom went on faster and
faster, forgetting that the slip of a girl, who scarcely came to his
shoulders, could not take so long strides as a great, hulking fellow
like himself.

'Oh, Tom, Tom--please not so fast. I can't keep up, my heart beats so
fast and my boots hurt me so,' came in a faint, sobbing protest more
than once from the panting girl at his side; but he only answered:

'You _must_ keep up, or we shall be soaked through and through. I never
knew it rain so fast. Take off your boots, if they hurt you. You've no
business to wear such small ones.'

He had heard from Maude that Ann Eliza was very proud of her feet, and
always wore boots too small for them, and he experienced a savage
satisfaction in knowing that she was paying for her foolishness. This
was not very kind in Tom, but he was not a kind-hearted man, and he held
the whole Peterkin tribe, as he called them, in such contempt that he
would scarcely have cared if the tired little feet, boots and all, had
dropped off, provided it did not add to his discomfort. They were out of
the woods and park by this time, and had struck into a field as a
shorter route to Le Bateau. But the way was rough and stony, and Tom had
stumbled himself two or three times and almost fallen, when a sharp,
loud cry from Ann Eliza smote his ear, and he felt that she was sinking
to the ground.

His first impulse was to drag her on, but that would have been too
brutal, and stopping short he asked what was the matter.

'Oh, I don't know. I guess I've sprained my ankle. It turned right over
on a big stone, you went so fast, and hurts me awfully. I can't walk
another step. Oh, what shall we do, and am I going to die?'