, 1909-03-04
CHAPTER Xxx.
The Hurricane Blast.
OR a moment that seemed
a moment of eternity she


lay on her bed staring into
with a crashing uproar that brought
her to her feet with a shrek. Her
giant tree creaked and strained under
the impact Of the terrific hurricane
blasts that came bowling through the
allit like a rout of s~hrieking end
The Tcals of thunder merged into one
ccnHluous roar, beneath which the
solid lodges of rocks Jared and quiv-
cred. The sky was a pail of black
clouds, meshed with a dazzling net
work of forked lightning.
The girl stood m~otionless, stunned
by the uproar, appalled, by the binding
glare OF the thunderbolts; yet even
more fearful of the figure which every
fash showed her still lurking beneath
the door. A gust-borne bough struck
with numbing force against her up
raised arm. But she took no heed. She
was W of the swirl of rain and
sticks and leaves that was driving in
through the open entrance.
/ On a sudden the door shook free
from its props and whirled violently
around on it's balance-bar. There was
a shrek that pierced above the shrill-
ing of the cyclone-a single human
Shrek.
The girl sprang across the cave.
The heavy door swished up before her
and down again. its lower edge all but
grazing her face. For a moment it
stopped in a vertical position and
hung quivering, like a beast about to
1nan pnnn &c nrnp Too nNnitnI IN
comprehend the danger of the act. the
girl sprang forward and shot one of
the thick bars into its socket.
A fierce gust leaped against h out
er face of the door and thrust in upon
It,, striving to burst it bodily from its
bearings. The top and the free sid
of the bottom bowed in. But the
branches were still green and tough,
the bamboo like whalebone and the
shrunken creepers held the frame to-
gether as though the joints were
dashed with wire rone. Failing to
smash in the elastic structure o. to
SNAP the crossbar it were as If the
blast flung itself alternately against
the top and bottom in a fierce attempt
to again whirl the frame about. The
white glare streaming in through the
interstices showed he girl her oppor-
tunity. She grasped another bar and
shot it into its socket as the lower
part of the doc gave back with the
shifting of the pressure to the top. 1t
was then a simple matter to slide the
remaining bars into the deep-sunk
holes. Within half a minute she had
made the door fast from the first bar
to the sixth.
A heavy spray was beating in upon
her through the chinks Of the frame
work. She drew back and sought
shelter in a niche at the side. Mar
row as was the slit above the top of
the door, it let in a torrent of water,
which spouted clear across and
against the far wall of the cave. II
gushed down upon her bed and was
already flooding the cave floor.
She piled higher the %cocoanuts
stored in her niche, and perched her
self upon the heap to keep above the
water. But eevn in her sheltered cor
ner the eddying wind showered her
with spray. She waded across for her
skin-covered sunshade, and returned
to huddle beneath it, in the still mis-
cry and terror of a hunted animal that
has crept wounded into a hole.
During the first hurricane there had
been companions to whom she could
look for help and comfort, and she
had been to a degree of the
greatness Of the danger. But in the
few short weeks since she had caught
more han n glimpse Of Primeval
Nature-she of the bloody fang, blind,
remorseless, insensate, destroying,
ever destroying.
Continued Next Week.