CHAPTER XLIIL 



OUT IN THE NIGHT. 



AN AFRICAN TEMPEST. 



THERE is something soothing 

 in the sound of the wind at night, 

 when it moans around your house, 

 and you hear the snow sifting a- 

 gainst the window panes, or rust- 

 ling among the leafless branches. 

 Little possibility of our friends 



being lulled to sleep by anything in the nature of a snow-storm, though the sudden 

 cooling of the heated air and the violent puffs of wind suggested the thought; but 

 they had not journeyed all the way from Port Natal to learn the nature of an 

 African storm. 



" We're going to catch it," said Dick, noticing how rapidly the wind was rising. 

 " I don't think it will be worse than some of those tempests in the Drakenberg 

 Mountains helloa ! " 



Without the least warning a vivid flash of lightning clove the sky from horizon 

 to zenith, followed instantly by a crashing peal of thunder that shook the ground as 

 if by an earthquake. 



The animals in the camp, young and old, tame and wild, were startled into cries, 

 making a series of discords which deepened the shock, and brought the boys to a 

 sitting posture, causing them to look affrightedly around in the gloom. 



