As the dropping shells burst nearer and nearer, what final self- control he possessed left him.

Such was his utter panic that he might well have bitten his veins and howled.

With a lunatic scream, he sprang to his feet and rushed inside the house as if forsooth its grass thatch could protect his head from such huge projectiles.

He collided with the door-jamb, and, ere Jerry could follow him, whirled around in a part circle into the centre of the floor just in time to receive the next shell squarely upon his head.
Jerry had just gained the doorway when the shell exploded.

The house went into flying fragments, and Nalasu flew into fragments with it.
Jerry, in the doorway, caught in the out-draught of the explosion, was flung a score of feet away.