as the fuel heaped on for the night; and
Tartlet, nevertheless, arose on many occasions to sweep the ashes
together and provoke a more active combustion. Having done this, he
would go to bed again, to get up as soon as the fire burnt low, and thus
he occupied himself till the day broke. The night passed without
incident, the cracklings of the fire and the crow of the cock awoke
Godfrey and his companion, who had ended his performances by falling off
to sleep.

At first Godfrey was surprised at feeling a current of air coming down
from above in the interior of Will Tree. He was thus led to think that
the sequoia was hollow up to the junction of the lower branches where
there was an opening which they would have to stop up if they wished to
be snug and sheltered.

"But it is very singular!" said Godfrey to himself.

"How was it that during the preceding nights I did not feel this current
of air? Could it have been the lightning?"

And to get an answer to this question, the idea occurred to him to
examine the trunk of the sequoia from the out side.

When he had done so, he understood what had happened during the storm.

The track of the lightning was visible on the tree, which had had a
long strip of its bark torn off from the fork down to the roots.

Had the electric spark found its way into the interior of the sequoia in
place of keeping to the outside, Godfrey and his companion would have
been struck. Most decidedly they had had a narrow escape.

"It is not a good thing to take refuge under trees during a storm," said
Godfrey. "That is all very well for people who can do otherwise. But
what way have we to avoid the danger who live inside the tree? We must
see!"

Then examining the sequoia from the point where the long lightning trace
began--"It is evident," said he, "that where the flash struck the tree
has been cracked. But since the air penetrates by this orifice the tree
must be hollow along its whole length and only lives in its bark? Now
that is what I ought to see about!"

And Godfrey went to look for a resinous piece of wood that might do for
a torch.

A bundle of pine twigs furnished him with the torch he needed, as from
them exuded a resin which, once inflamed, gave forth a brilliant light.

Godfrey then entered the cavity which served him for his house. To
darkness immediately succeeded light, and it was easy to see the state
of the interior of Will Tree. A sort of vault of irregular formation
s