“I will simply close the shutters, then, and call my boy to bring me a wooden bar. Pray, touch the bell-pull there.
“Are you frantic? That bell-wire might blast you. Never touch bell-wire in a thunder-storm, nor ring a bell of any sort.”
“Nor those in belfries? Pray, will you tell me where and how one may be safe in a time like this? Is there any part of my house I may touch with hopes of my life?”
“There is; but not where you now stand. Come away from the wall. The current will sometimes run down a wall, and—a man being a better conductor than a wall—it would leave the wall and run into him. Swoop! That must have fallen very nigh. That must have been globular lightning.”
“Very probably. Tell me at once, which is, in your opinion, the safest part of this house?
“This room, and this one spot in it where I stand. Come hither.”
“The reasons first.”
“Hark!—after the flash the gust—the sashes shiver—the house, the house!—Come hither to me!”
“The reasons, if you please.”
“Come hither to me!”