I was unconscious of danger from that source. I had become in spirit an
actual component of the clashing, roaring mass. Tremendous sparks of
electricity, veritable lightning strokes, darted about me in every
direction, but I bore a charmed life. As the comet drew in nearer to
the sun, under the terrible stress of the solar attraction, the meteors
seemed to crowd closer, crashing and grinding together, while the whole
mass swayed and shrieked with the uproar of a million tormented devils.
The heat had become terrific. I saw stone and iron melted like snow and
dissipated in steam. Stupendous jets of white-hot vapor shot upward,
and, driven off by the electrical repulsion of the sun, streamed
backward into the tail.

Suddenly I myself became sensible of the awful heat. It seemed without
warning to have penetrated my vitals. With a yell I jerked my feet from
a boiling rock and flung my arms despairingly over my head.

"You had better be careful," said my wife, "or you'll knock over the
telescope."

I rubbed my eyes, shook myself, and rose.

"I must have been dreaming," I said.

"I should think it was a very lively dream," she replied.

I responded after the manner of a young man newly wed.

At this moment the occultation began.