Table of Contents

overflowings down their throats occurred in spite of all they could do, and
sudden retchings followed every time. Both boys were looking very pale and
miserable, now. Joe’s pipe dropped from his nerveless fingers. Tom’s followed.
Both fountains were going furiously and both pumps bailing with might and
main. Joe said feebly: “I’ve lost my knife. I reckon I better go and find it.” Tom
said, with quivering lip and halting utterance: “I’ll help you. You go over that
way and I’ll hunt around by the spring. No, you needn’t come, Huck-we can
find it.” So Huck sat down again, and waited an hour. Then he found it
lonesome, and went to find his comrades. They were wide apart in the woods,
both very pale, both fast asleep. But something informed him that if they had
had any trouble they had got rid of it.

They were not talkative at supper that night. They had a humble look, and when
Huck prepared his pipe after the meal and was going to prepare theirs, they said
no, they were not feeling very well-something they ate at dinner had disagreed
with them.

About midnight Joe awoke, and called the boys. There was a brooding
oppressiveness in the air that seemed to bode something. The boys huddled
themselves together and sought the friendly companionship of the fire, though
the dull dead heat of the breathless atmosphere was stifling. They sat still, intent
and waiting.

The solemn hush continued. Beyond the light of the fire everything was
swallowed up in the blackness of darkness. Presently there came a quivering
glow that vaguely revealed the foliage for a moment and then vanished. By and
by another came, a little stronger. Then another. Then a faint moan came sighing
through the branches of the forest and the boys felt a fleeting breath upon their
cheeks, and shuddered with the fancy that the Spirit of the Night had gone by.
There was a pause. Now a weird flash turned night into day and showed every
little grassblade, separate and distinct, that grew about their feet. And it showed
three white, startled faces, too. A deep peal of thunder went rolling and
tumbling down the heavens and lost itself in sullen rumblings in the distance. A
sweep of chilly air passed by, rustling all the leaves and snowing the flaky ashes
broadcast about the fire. Another fierce glare lit up the forest and an instant
crash followed that seemed to rend the tree-tops right over the boys’ heads. They
clung together in terror, in the thick gloom that followed. A few big rain-drops
fell pattering upon the leaves.

“Quick! boys, go for the tent!” exclaimed Tom.
They sprang away, stumbling over roots and among vines in the dark, no two
plunging in the same direction. A furious blast roared through the trees, making
everything sing as it went. One blinding flash after another came, and peal on
peal of deafening thunder. And now a drenching rain poured down and the
rising hurricane drove it in sheets along the ground. The boys cried out to each
other, but the roaring wind and the booming thunder-blasts drowned their
voices utterly.