"You were inspired," he said with a grave smile, addressing me; "you did not observe our entrance."
I was about to reply, when a loud, appalling crash of thunder rattled above us, as if some huge building had suddenly fallen into ruins. It startled us all into silence for a moment, and we looked into each other's faces with a certain degree of awe.
"That was a good one," remarked Mr. Challoner. "There was nothing undecided about that clap. Its mind was made up."
Zara suddenly rose from her seat, and drew aside the window-curtains.
"I wonder if it is raining," she said.
Amy Everard uttered a little shriek of dismay.
"Oh, don't open the blinds!" she exclaimed. "It is really dangerous!"
Heliobas glanced at her with a little sarcastic smile.
"Take a seat on the other side of the room, if you are alarmed, madame," he said quietly, placing a chair in the position he suggested, which Amy accepted eagerly.
She would, I believe, have gladly taken refuge in the coal-cellar had he offered it. Zara, in the meantime, who had not heard Mrs. Everard's exclamation of fear, had drawn up one of the blinds, and stood silently looking out upon the night. Instinctively we all joined her, with the exception of Amy, and looked out also. The skies were very dark; a faint moaning wind stirred the tops of the leafless trees; but there was no rain. A dry volcanic heat pervaded the atmosphere—in fact we all felt the air so stifling, that Heliobas threw open the window altogether, saying, as he did so: