en the gods play among the peaks
it's just as well for us to stay down here in the gorge."

"But the crashes still run regularly from north to east and on
around," said Robert. "I suppose that when they finish talking, the
rain will come, and we'll have plenty of need for our spruce shelter."

The deep rumbling continued all through the rest of the afternoon.
A dusk as of twilight arrived long before sunset, but it was of an
unusually dull, grayish hue, and it affected Robert as if he were
breathing an air surcharged with gunpowder. It colored and intensified
everything. The peaks and ridges rose to greater heights, the gorges
and valleys were deeper, the reports of the thunder, extremely heavy,
in fact, were doubled and tripled in fancy; all that Tayoga had said
about the play of the gods was true. Tododaho, the great Onondaga,
spoke across the void to Hayowentha, the great Mohawk, and Areskoui,
the Sun God, conversed with Manitou, the All Powerful, Himself.

The imaginative lad felt awe but no fear. The gods at play in the
heavens would not condescend to harm a humble mortal like himself and
it was an actual pleasure because he was there to hear them. Just
before the invisible sun went over the rim of the horizon, a brilliant
red light shot for a minute or two from the west through the gray
haze, and fell on the faces of the three, sitting in silence before
their spruce shelter.

"It is Areskoui throwing off his most brilliant beams before he goes,"
said Tayoga. "Now I think the play will soon be over, and we may look
for the rain."

The crashes of thunder increased swiftly and greatly in violence, and
then, as the Onondaga had predicted, ceased abruptly. The silence that
followed was so heavy that it was oppressive. No current of air was
moving anywhere. Not a leaf stirred. The grayish haze became thicker
and every ridge and peak was hidden. Presently a sound like a sigh
came down the gorge, but it soon grew.

"We'll go inside," said Tayoga, "because the deluge is at hand."

They crowded themselves into their crude little hut, and in five
minutes the flood was upon them, pouring with such violence that some
of it forced its way through the hasty thatch, but they were able
to protect themselves with their blankets, and they slept the night
through in a fair degree of comfort.

In the morning they saw a world washed clean, bright and shining, and
they breathed an autumnal air wonderful in its purity. Feeling s