of the island where the trees grew, for here the rocks piled up together
made a kind of cave in which Rachel and her mother had sat for a little
while when they visited the place. As they groped their way towards it the
lightning blazed out and they saw a great jagged flash strike the tallest
tree and shatter it, causing some wild beast that had sheltered there to
rush past them snorting.

"That doesn't look very safe," said Richard halting, "but come on, it
isn't likely to hit the same spot twice."

"Hadn't you better leave your gun?" she suggested, for all this while that
weapon had been slung to his back and she knew that lightning has an
affinity for iron.

"Certainly not," he answered, "it is a new one which my father gave me,
and I won't be parted from it."

Then they went on and reached the little cave just as the rain broke over
them in earnest. As it chanced the place was dry, being so situated that
all water ran away from it. They crouched in it shivering, trying to cover
themselves with dead sticks and brushwood that had lodged here in the wet
season when the whole island was under water.

"It would be nice enough if only we had a fire," said Rachel, her teeth
chattering as she spoke.

The lad Richard thought a while. Then he opened a leather case that hung
on his rifle sling and took from it a powder flask and flint and steel and
some tinder. Pouring a little powder on the damp tinder, he struck the
flint until at length a spark caught and fired the powder. The tinder