The air had become as still as death.
My body appeared to move from side to side. No, no! The ground was rising, falling! It seemed no longer solid. Like a wave it rose and fell. The foot-hills below us separated, reft into awful chasms. I looked toward our home. Just then cried Pippity:
"Oh, our palace! Our palace!"
"Ah, ah! It falls! It falls! See, see, how the huge rocks rive and crumble!"
What a fall was there! A crash that echoed terribly in that circle of mountain wildness!
A cloud of dust rolled in fearful mockery where one moment before had stood the proud pinnacle. An enormous mass of rocks fell into the lake below, and the vapors rose in a rival cloud. High in the firmament they curled and twisted, their wreathing forms together telling a woful tale of destruction.
We forgot our own danger in watching all our grandeur dashed to nothingness.
Destruction as it was, it was grand!
But Grilly! Where was he? "Ah, Grilly, Grilly!" cried I, "I fear he is lost!"
"Come, come!" said Pippity. "Where's Grilly? Find Grilly! Quick, quick!"