“It’s going to strike us this time, boys, as sure as anything!”
“What another irate farmer?” cried Josh, laughingly. “Whatever have the scouts been doing this time to raise trouble? We’ve been accused of trespassing, and stealing chickens; p’raps they’ll try to make out we have evil designs on some country bank.”
“It looks like a storm,” admitted Tom; upon which Billy Button began to stare at the clouds in plain sight, and Horace seemed to be listening anxiously to catch the first distant mutter of thunder in the air.
“If you are all through eating,” said Mr. Witherspoon, “perhaps we had better move out of this. I’m not the best judge of such things, but I think we could find a better spot than this to stay during the storm.”
“There! listen to that, will you?” exclaimed George as they heard a heavy boom that seemed to throb on the heavily charged air like the roar of a monster siege gun.
Horace was looking a little pale, though he set his teeth hard together, and apparently had made up his mind to at least refrain from showing the white feather, no matter how frightened he felt.
They did up their packs, keeping the rubber ponchos out, according to the advice of the patrol leader.
“At the worst we can put our heads through the slit in the center,” he explained to them; “and then it serves as a waterproof to keep the upper part of you dry. But perhaps we can find an overhanging shelf of rock under which all of us can crawl.”
“But how about that fine big tree yonder, couldn’t we take shelter under that?” asked Horace, pointing to a massive oak with wide-spreading branches that made a canopy through which even a downpour of rain could hardly penetrate.
“Never!” Tom told him hastily. “A tree standing apart like that is always one of the most dangerous places you can select when seeking shelter from an electrical storm. Far better stay out and take your little soaking than to take chances in a barn, or under an isolated tree. In the forest it is not so bad, where there are hundreds of trees; but then you ought to be careful which one you select. Lightning loves a shining mark, you know.”