surprised if it prove true; these rumours have the knack of
being right. - Our weather this last month has been
tremendously hot, not by the thermometer, which sticks at 86
degrees, but to the sensation: no rain, no wind, and this the
storm month. It looks ominous, and is certainly
disagreeable.

No time to finish,
Yours ever,
R. L. S.



CHAPTER XVIII



MAY 1ST. 1892.


MY DEAR COLVIN, - As I rode down last night about six, I saw
a sight I must try to tell you of. In front of me, right
over the top of the forest into which I was descending was a
vast cloud. The front of it accurately represented the
somewhat rugged, long-nosed, and beetle-browed profile of a
man, crowned by a huge Kalmuck cap; the flesh part was of a
heavenly pink, the cap, the moustache, the eyebrows were of a
bluish gray; to see this with its childish exactitude of
design and colour, and hugeness of scale - it covered at
least 25 degrees - held me spellbound. As I continued to