She gave way to a paroxysm of heart-breaking grief, while Mineola, weeping in sympathy, sought to console her.
Suravia went back to the tablet. The opal was entirely opaque; not a particle of its fire and sparkle was visible.
“I will see what the other stones have to reveal. The sensitive turquoise, the forget-me-not of gems, lives and suffers as we do. It has the power of reproduction, and by its employment the Dorado intended to express a hope for the future. But this symbol of youth, love and tenderness seems to have shriveled in size, and has turned to a sickly green. Beside it is the sympathetic ruby faded to a pale coral. Misfortune—”
A sharp, swaying, rocking movement, sending the windowpanes to the ground with a crash, and throwing the women against each other violently, blanched their faces and caused them to cling together for support. A deafening explosion followed, and then the cry of her panic-stricken people aroused Kerœcia.
“Run for thy lives!” shouted a voice in the street. “The mountains are smoking and spitting fire! Quick! quick! quick! Run!”
They barely escaped in time to miss the falling walls. In the streets an indescribable scene was being enacted.
What is now known as Lassen Peak sent up a long fiery column, and the earth heaved and groaned under the exertion.
Ashes, smoke and lava began pouring down the sides of the peak, and there was a mad rush of wild animals, coming to man in their mute helplessness from the rocking mountains hemming in the little valley.
Suddenly the gloom was lighted by a meteoric shower, which for an hour made the heavens blaze in a magnificent electrical display. A terrific crash of thunder followed, then an ominous rumble, ending in a long groan which seemed to rend the bosom of the trembling earth.
Red-hot stones and burning cinders fell like a storm of fire upon the whole surrounding country. Land surfaces subsided and rose again like immense chests in regular and lusty breathing. The rubble walls and battlements of the pavilion fell as a pack of cards.