Just then there came a flash of lightning. [p 120] It was so bright that the children saw what they hadn’t noticed before. It was a hollow place in the side of the pyramid where a great stone had fallen out, and the dirt underneath had been washed away, leaving a hole big enough for them to crawl into, but it was far above their heads.
At last Tonio climbed into a small tree that grew beside it, bent a branch over, and dropped down into the hollow, holding to the branch by his hands.
Poor Tita never had felt so lonely in her whole life as she did when she saw Tonio disappear into that hole! In a minute he was out again and looking over the edge at her.
“It’s all right. You climb up just as I did,” he said.
Tita tied the mesquite pods in the end of her rebozo and threw it up to Tonio. Then she too climbed the little tree and dropped from the branch into the mouth of the tiny cave.
A hole in the side of a queer pyramid isn’t exactly a cheerful place to be in during [p 121] a storm, but it was so much better than being lost in a cactus grove that the children felt a little comforted.
The rain began to fall in great splashing drops, but they were protected in their rocky house. They ate the mesquite pods for their supper, and then Tonio said: “Of course, no one will find us to-night, so we’d better go to sleep. We’ll play we are foxes. The animals and birds sleep in such places all the time and they’re not afraid.”
So they curled down in the corner of the cave, and, being very tired, soon fell asleep.
