"Because a great tempest is brewing, and if you have not we shall
certainly be killed when we stand yonder on the Place of Fire."

"John," he said, "I cannot speak to the lightning in a voice which it
can hear. I cannot say to it 'go yonder,' or 'come hither,' but He Who
made it can do so. Why do you tempt me with your doubts? Have I not
told you the story of Elijah the prophet and the priests of Baal? Did
Elijah's Master forsake him, and shall He forsake us? Also this is
certain, that all the medicine of Hokosa and his wizards will not turn a
lightning flash by the breadth of a single hair. God alone can turn it,
and for the sake of His cause among these people I believe that He will
do so."

Thus Owen spoke on till, in reproving the weakness of another, he felt
his own faith come back to him and, remembering the past and how he
had been preserved in it, the doubt and trouble went out of his mind to
return no more.

The third day--the day of trial--came. For sixty hours or more the
heat of the weather had been intense; indeed, during all that time the
thermometer in Owen's hut, notwithstanding the protection of a thick
hatch, had shown the temperature to vary between a maximum of 113 and a
minimum of 101 degrees. Now, in the early morning, it stood at 108.

"Will the storm break to-day?" asked Owen of Nodwengo, who came to visit
him.

"They say so, Messenger, and I think it by the feel of the air. If so,
it will be a very great storm, for the heaven is full of fire. Already