He could hear the loud patter of a fierce tropical shower on the roof of his hut.

His Shadow, at his feet, slept still unmoved; but when Felix rose on his elbow, the Shadow rose on a sudden, too, and confronted him curiously.

The young man heard the rain; then he bowed down his face with an awed air, not visible, but audible, in the still darkness.

"It has come!" he said, with superstitious terror.

"It has come at last! my lord has brought it!" After that, Felix lay awake for some hours, hearing the rain on the roof, and puzzled in his own head by a half-uncertain memory.