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Now, one day, as he was sitting plunged in thought, he heard voices round about him, as he was wont to do. They whispered in the stately palm-tree that raised its crown high above his head:
“Two-Legs is mighty ... greater than any other in the world ... he rules the earth and all that is upon it.”
They sang in the river that ran down to the sea:
“Two-Legs rules the waters ... they carry his ships wherever he will ... they breed fish for his table.”
The warm wind blew over his face:
“Two-Legs is greater than any other ... he rules me ... I have to toil in his service, like the ox and the horse.... Blow east, blow west, he catches me and uses me.”
Two-Legs passed his hand down his long, white beard and nodded with pride and contentment.
At that moment, a peculiar thundering noise was heard. It was as though it came from the interior of the earth; and, indeed, one could not imagine where else it should come from. For the sky was cloudless and clear and the sun shone bright and warm, just at noonday.
“What was that?” said Two-Legs.
“Who knows?” said the palm-tree, trembling right down to its roots. “Who can fathom the forces that prevail in nature?”
“Who can say?” said the river, tossing its waves in terror, like a rearing horse. “What do any of us know, after all?”
“Who has so much as an idea?” said the wind, dropping suddenly, like a tiger preparing to spring. “The earth is full of mighty forces, which not one of us knows anything about.”
There came another booming sound. Two-Legs rose. He looked at the mountain in the middle of the plain and saw that the column of smoke had turned into a great black cloud, which grew and spread faster than his eyes could follow it.
Now, it masked the sun; now, the waves in the river foamed and met the waves of the sea, which came dashing over the land; now, the wind rose, in a moment, into a furious gale.
And, before Two-Legs could look round, it was suddenly black as midnight.
He saw, just as the light disappeared, that something dropped from the sky, but could not see what it was. He groped his way to the stable, where his horse stood tethered, jumped on its back and darted away from the region where danger lay. The beast was mortally frightened, like himself, and ran for its life.
He could not see his hand before his eyes, but thought he heard a wailing and crying through the storm, all over the plain, wherever he came. He was able to tell a voice here and there, but he merely rushed on and on, until his horse dropped under him.
Then he ran as fast as his legs could carry him, stumbled and fell and got up again and ran and ran, while the cries rang out around him, when they were not drowned in the roar of the storm and the thundering noise from the mountain.
He was struck by a stone on the back of the head and felt the blood trickle down his neck. His foot trod in something that was like boiling water. He drew it back with a cry and ran the other way. At last, he lost consciousness and had not himself the least idea how he had managed to escape. When he recovered, he was lying on a knoll, right at the end of the plain. Round about him lay half a score of people of his family, bewildered and exhausted like himself. They did not speak, but gazed at one another in dismay and wept, with trembling hands.