In less than an hour it was upon them in all its fury, and Cummings said sharply as he pressed nearer the front of the fortification:
"Now we need all the eyes in the party. Keep a sharp watch, and fire at the first moving thing you see."
On this occasion thunder and lightning accompanied the wind and rain, and by the glare of the flashes it was possible to see as if at noon-day.
Never before had the boys witnessed such a terrible tempest. The entire heavens seemed ablaze at times, and the peals which echoed and re-echoed from one point to another appeared to shake the mountain.
The wind was so powerful that even Poyor could not stand against it, and Cummings said in a tone of deepest disappointment:
"Unless we choose to venture into the valley again flight is out of the question. We must stay here and take what the Indians care to give us when the storm clears away."
He had hardly ceased speaking when a flash of lightning nearly blinded them; the earth shook most decidedly before the thunder peal came, and then it was as if all nature was in convulsion.
The rocks forming the fortification were precipitated down the mountain; the little party were hurled violently forward, and then intense darkness and the most profound silence ensued.
Teddy reached out his hand to touch Neal; but the latter was not near him.
"Neal! Neal!" he shouted again and again, and several moments elapsed before he heard, as if far away, an answering cry.