98 THE LOO OF A TIMBER CEUISER 



slapped across camp by a blow from the heavy cloth. 



Wetherby's was the voice we had heard. He was 

 alternately calling for aid and anathematising the 

 world, while Wallace, less loudly, but fully as heart- 

 ily, berated his tent fellow for alleged contributory 

 negligence. 



"Doggone it!" he cried, "didn't I tell you not to 

 fasten the ropes so tight? You might have known 

 the tent would shrink and pull up the stakes !" 



We did not hear Horace's defence. It is possible 

 that he had none. 



After an extremely strenuous ten minutes the two 

 unfortunates succeeded in securing the tent once 

 more. They skipped inside like rats, and had no 

 more than crawled into their wet beds when a blind- 

 ing fla,sh and a terrific thunder clap that seemed to 

 split the earth came simultaneously. 



The air was full of flying wood and burning 

 splinters. By the next quick flash we saw the cook 

 tent hanging to a shattered tree. We arose at once. 

 Bert was stunned, but unhurt a miracle in itself 

 and pulling his bed into one of the other tents we left 

 him cursing as he crawled into his wet blankets and 

 sought our own couches. 



On another occasion, a short time after this mid- 

 night alarm, a thunderstorm was indirectly respon- 

 sible for about the worst scare I got during the 

 season. I was crossing a ridge between Shepherd 

 Creek and East Canyon when the sound of thunder 

 first came and I made haste to descend into the can- 



