180 THE FOREST AND THE FIELD. 



have become so absorbed in his occupation, that 

 he did not observe the threatening appearance 

 of the horizon, until his attention was called 

 to it by one of the Ghoorkas, when he gave us 

 warning. 



An appalling calm reigned, but a momentary 

 glance at the dark mass of clouds enveloping the 

 summit of the mountain, satisfied us that a violent 

 storm was brewing, for the usual deep blue sky 

 was gone, and a gray murky vapour seemed to be 

 approaching us rapidly from the wind's eye. Not 

 a breath of air was stirring, still there was a 

 strange indistinct rushing sound heard, like that 

 of the wind sweeping through some distant gorge, 

 or the monotonous soughing of a tempest-tost 

 ocean. Behind us the valley and the mountain 

 peaks were still lighted up by the golden rays 

 of the sun, but before us all was dark and black, 

 and there seemed to be a spot where the bright 

 day met the lowering gloom without mingling. I 

 swept the now circumscribed horizon with my 

 field-glass in the hope of discovering some tem- 

 porary shelter from the violence of the coming 



