"Yes, Mr. Kazallon," said Curtis, "our raft has been driven into
the region of storms, of which it has been justly remarked that
any one endowed with very sensitive organs can at any moment
distinguish the growlings of thunder."
"Hark!" I said, as I strained my ears to listen, "I think I can
hear it now."
"You can," he answered; "yet what you hear is but the first
warning of the storm which, in a couple of hours, will burst upon
us with all its fury. But never mind, we must be ready for it."
Sleep, even if we wished it, would have been impossible in that
stifling temperature. The lightning increased in brilliancy, and
appeared from all quarters of the horizon, each flash covering
large arcs, varying from 100deg. to 150deg., leaving the
atmosphere pervaded by one incessant phosphorescent glow.
The thunder became at length more and more distinct, the reports,
if I may use the expression, being "round," rather than rolling.
It seemed almost as though the sky were padded with heavy clouds
of which the elasticity muffled the sound of the electric bursts.
Hitherto, the sea had been calm, almost stagnant as a pond. Now,
however, long undulations took place, which the sailors
recognized, all too well, as being the rebound produced by a
distant tempest. A ship, in such a case, would have been
instantly brought ahull, but no manoeuvring could be applied to
our raft, which could only drift before the blast.
At one o'clock in the morning one vivid flash, followed, after
the interval of a few seconds, by a loud report of thunder,
announced that the storm was rapidly approaching.
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