CHAPTER XXXVI.
OUT IN THE STORM.
For half an hour or more before the young people left the house a dark mass of clouds had been rolling up from the west, and by the time that they were out of the grounds and on the highway, the moonlight was wholly obscured and the sky was overcast as with a pall, while frequent groans of thunder and flashes of lightning in the distance told of the fast coming storm.
'Oh, I am so afraid of thunder! Aren't you ?' Ann Eliza cried, in terror, as she clung closer to Tom, who, beside her, seemed a very giant, and who did not reply until there came a gleam of lightning which showed him the white face and the loose hair blowing out from under his companion's hat.
There was a little shriek of fear and a smothered cry.

'Oh, Tom, aren't you a bit afraid ?' And then the giant answered the trembling little girl whom he would like to have shaken off, she clung so closely to him 'Thunder and lightning, no!' I'm not afraid of anything except getting wet; and if you are, you'd better run before the whole thing is upon us; the sky is blacker than midnight now.

I never saw a storm come on so fast.

Can you run ?' 'Yes--some,' Ann Eliza gasped out; 'only my boots are so tight and new, and the heels are so high.

Do you think we shall be struck ?' This as a peal of thunder louder than any which had preceded it rolled over their heads, making Ann Eliza clutch Tom's arm in nervous terror which was not feigned.
'Struck?
No.