branch
showered raindrops upon him. It was now past sunset and the dusk was
increasing; this he welcomed as hiding him. He travelled on till nearly
dawn, and then, turning to the right, swept round, and regained the line
of the mountainous hills after sunrise. There he rested, and reached a
camp about nine in the morning, having walked altogether since the
preceding morning fully fifty miles. This camp was about fifteen miles
distant from that of his friends; the shepherds knew him, and one of
them started with the news of his safety. In the afternoon ten of his
friends came over to see him, and to reproach him.

His weariness was so great that for three days he scarcely moved from
the hut, during which time the weather was wet and stormy, as is often
the case in summer after a thunderstorm. On the fourth morning it was
fine, and Felix, now quite restored to his usual strength, went out with
the shepherds. He found some of them engaged in throwing up a heap of
stones, flint, and chalk lumps near an oak-tree in a plain at the foot
of the hill. They told him that during the thunderstorm two cows and ten
sheep had been killed there by lightning, which had scarcely injured the
oak.

It was their custom to pile up a heap of stones wherever such an event
occurred, to warn others from staying themselves, or allowing their
sheep or cattle to stay, near the spot in thunder, as it was observed
that where lightning struck once it was sure to strike again, sooner or
later. "Then," said Felix, "you may be sure there is water there!" He
knew from his study of the knowledge of the ancients that lightning
frequently leaped from trees or buildings to concealed water, but he had
no intention of indicating water in that particular spot. He meant the
remark in a general sense.

But the shepherds, ever desirous of water, and looking on Felix as a
being of a different order to themselves, took his casual observation in
its literal sense. They brought their tools and dug, and, as it chanced,
found a copious spring. The water gushed forth and formed a streamlet.
Upon this the whole tribe gathered, and they saluted Felix as one almost
divine. It was in vain that he endeavoured to repel this homage, and to
explain the reason of his remark, and that it was only in a general way
that he intended it. Facts were too strong for him. They had heard his
words, which they considered an inspiration, and _there_ was the water.
It was no use; _there_ w