Roused by the incident, and alert, another thought came quickly,
however. He was getting past the large black hill, but the lane turning
to it he had not found. Until he now tried with all his might to see, he
did not fully know how difficult seeing was.

The storm was not near enough to suggest danger, for there was still
more than a minute between each flash and its peal. As light rain
drifted in his face, he braced himself to see by the next flash and
remember what he saw; but when it came he only knew that it reflected
light into the pools on the road in front of him, and revealed a black
panorama of fence and tree, field and hill, that the next moment, was
all so jumbled in his mind that he did not know where to avoid the very
puddles he had seen so clearly, and splashed on through them, with no
better knowledge of his way, and eyes too dazzled to see what otherwise
they would have seen. In this plight he did not hesitate, but turned and
ran after the two he had met, to ask his way, thinking, as he did so,
that he must have already passed the lane.

With some effort he caught them up. They must have heard him coming, for
their voices were silent as he approached. He asked for the lane to
Cooper's Farm, which he had been told was the name of the house at the
foot of the mountain path. They both hesitated in their walk. The man,
who ought to have answered, seemed, for some reason, suddenly dumb.
After waiting impatiently, the lady took upon herself to reply. She said
they had not yet reached the turning to the farm. She remarked that they
were going to the same place.

Then they went on again, and he, too, walked quickly, supposing that he
could soon pass them and get in front. It is not the matter of a moment,
however, to pass people who are walking at a rate of speed almost equal