there, writhing across the ground for closer cover, Indians in open order. Spurts of fire showed and a hail of bullets drove them back to crouch behind the wall, waiting for the assault that should follow the rifle fire. They had shifted some of the rocks for peepholes though they were not of much use.
"We ought to have blocked thet trail somehow," growled Harvey.
"'Ell!" said Larkin. "W'y don't they come?" And Stone echoed his sentiment.
Suddenly the whole valley was lit up with an incandescent glare of lavender lightning high in the heavens through which javelined a zigzag streak that seemed to rend the sky and let out the fearful crash of thunder that deafened them, while the cliff above them appeared to rock on its foundations and the reverberations rolled reëchoing down the cañon. Another frightful flare followed instantly with more thunder that sounded like the grinding together of great drums of metal. The air was sulphurous, choking. Then, while the peals still shook the narrow valley, there came a sound that topped it, the roaring, lashing noise of many waters.
The fire beneath them hissed and went out in steam. A third flash showed blurry through a wall of rain that fell in heavy volume, its spray drenching them as the mass of it struck the lip of the cave. It was as if the sky had been the roof of a submarine tunnel and the sea had smashed through.
Stone saw Harvey's lips move in the last livid light that flickered before the downpour blotted out every-
