Charlie peeped out from under his arm with a pitiful little whimper, and Helmsley's heart smote him.
"Poor wee Charlie!" he said, fondling the tiny head; "I know what you would say to me! You would say that if I want to risk my own life, I needn't risk yours! Is that it?
Well!--I'll try to get you out of this if I can! I wish I I could see some sign of a house anywhere! I'd make for it and ask for shelter." He trudged patiently onwards,--but he was beginning to feel unsteady in his limbs,--and every now and then he had to stop, overcome by a sickening sensation of giddiness.

The tempest had now fully developed into a heavy thunderstorm, and the lightning quivered and gleamed through the trees incessantly, followed by huge claps of thunder which clashed down without a second's warning, afterwards rolling away in long thudding detonations echoing for miles and miles.

It was difficult to walk at all in such a storm,--the youngest and strongest pedestrian might have given way under the combined onslaught of rain, wind, and the pattering shower of leaves which were literally torn, fresh and green, from their parent boughs and cast forth to whirl confusedly amid the troubled spaces of the air.

And if the young and strong would have found it hard to brave such an uproar of the elements, how much harder was it for an old man, who, deeming himself stronger than he actually was, and buoyed up by sheer nerve and mental obstinacy, had, of his own choice, brought himself into this needless plight and danger.

For now, in utter weariness of body and spirit, Helmsley began to reproach himself bitterly for his rashness.