rly
unable to essay another yard. Panting for breath, my arms yet clasping
the motionless figure of Eloise, I glanced backward in apprehension. I
could perceive Cairnes footing the log, the head of the priest showing
black and distinct above his broad shoulder; beyond, a medley of dark
figures appeared to dance dizzily along the cliff face. I staggered to
my knees. With a growl of relief the Puritan dropped his burden. The
next instant he had one great shoulder under the tree root. Heaving
with all his mighty strength he slowly moved the great trunk, and I saw
it topple over into the abyss; I saw his burly figure tottering on the
very brink--then one awful flash lit up the sky, so blinding me that I
sank face downward on the rock. The cliff shook as if riven from crest
to valley, a single peal of thunder reverberating like the report of a
thousand guns.

CHAPTER XXXVII

THE DEAD BURY THEIR DEAD

I may have lost consciousness; I do not know. That awful glare, the
thunderous report, the speechless terror of feeling myself a mere pygmy
in the midst of such tremendous convulsions of nature, shocked me into
momentary insensibility. I lay huddled against the rock like a man
dead, one arm yet clasping the motionless form of Eloise. Stunned,
unable to move a muscle, I believed death had overtaken us all; that
out from the very heavens a bolt had stricken us down. I struggled
painfully to arouse myself, every nerve in my body appearing paralyzed.
At first I could not even see, but light came back gradually to my
blinded eyes, and I staggered to my feet, slowly adjusting my mind to
the situation.

I began to understand then what had happened--that deadly bolt had
smitten the cliff as by the wrath of God, yet I was spared. I still
lived, as by a miracle. I stared across the chasm and up the steep
ascent beyond, still clearly revealed in the lightning flashes. It was
vacant; not a human form stood where those pursuing savages had been.
A cry burst from my lips as I gazed--a vast, irregular gash showed
clearly in the cliff face, but where the entrance to the cave had
yawned was a solid front of rock. I staggered with the shock, reeling
on the very edge of the path, and barely saved myself by dropping to my
knees. Again I looked, half believing my brain crazed, that I beheld
visions. As God guards me, it was true! Out of the very heavens He
had struck, sealing those fiends into a living tomb. Trembling l