It was only when the water ran gurgling into the pit, that he exclaimed:
"Hurry on, hurry on!"
A formidable flash of lightning interrupted him. This time, the tall windows stood out so distinctly against the flaming sky, that the very numerous broken panes of glass could have been counted. To the left, a thin sheet of iron, which had remained fixed in one of the vices serving for the repairs, resounded with the prolonged vibration of a bell. All the antiquated timber-work of the roof had cracked.
"The devil!" simply said the fireman.
The driver made a gesture of despair. This put an end to his appointment, and the more so, as a perfect deluge was now pouring down on the engine-house. The violence of the rain threatened to break the glazed roof. Up there some of the panes of glass must also have been broken, for big raindrops were falling on La Lison in clusters. A violent wind entered by the doors which had been left open, and anyone might have fancied that the body of the old structure was about to be swept away.
Pecqueux was getting to the end of his work on the locomotive.
"There!" said he; "we shall be able to see better to-morrow. I have no need to tidy it up any more to-night."
And, returning to his former idea, he added:
"I must get something to eat. It's raining too hard to go and stick oneself on one's mattress."