n the marketplace, round
which the usual figures flitted dimly. The sight of them fascinated
me, although I did not want to look, fearing what I might see. Luckily,
however, we were too far off to discern anything at night.

While these unholy ceremonies were in progress the climax came, that is
so far as the weather was concerned. Of a sudden a great gale sprang
up, a gale of icy wind such as in Southern Africa sometimes precedes
a thunderstorm. It blew for half an hour or more, then lulled. Now
lightning flashed across the heavens, and by the glare of it we
perceived that all the population of Simba Town seemed to be gathered in
the market-place. At least there were some thousands of them, talking,
gesticulating, pointing at the sky.

A few minutes later there came a great crash of thunder, of which it
was impossible to locate the sound, for it rolled from everywhere. Then
suddenly something hard struck the roof by my side and rebounded, to be
followed next moment by a blow upon my shoulder which nearly knocked me
flat, although I was well protected by the skin rugs.

"Down the stair!" I called. "They are stoning us," and suited the action
to the word.

Ten seconds later we were both in the room, crouched in its farther
corner, for the stones or whatever they were seemed to be following us.
I struck a match, of which fortunately I had some, together with my pipe
and a good pocketful of tobacco--my only solace in those days--and, as
it burned up, saw first that blood was running down Marut's face,
and secondly, that these stones were great lumps of ice, some of them
weighing several ounces, which hopped about the floor like live things.

"Hailstorm!" remarked Marut with his accustomed smile.

"Hell storm!" I replied, "for whoever saw hail like that before?"

Then the match burnt out and conversation came to an end for the reason
that we could no longer hear each other speak. The hail came down with
a perpetual, rattling roar, that in its sum was one of the most terrible
sounds to which I ever listened. And yet above it I thought that I could
catch another, still more terrible, the wail of hundreds of people in
agony. After the first few minutes I began to be afraid that the roof
would be battered in, or that the walls would crumble beneath this
perpetual fire of the musketry of heaven. But the cement was good and
the place well built.

So it came about that the house stood the tempest, which had it been
roofed