Part 42 (2/2)

”Oh, Nelson, it's like hail!” she gasped.

A vivid flash of lightning cleaved the cloud; the thunder-peal drowned the schoolmaster's reply. But Janice felt herself fairly caught up in his arms and he mounted some steps quickly. A voice shouted:

”Bring her right this way, school teacher! Right in here!”

It was Lem Parraday's voice. They had mounted the side porch of the Inn and when Janice opened her eyes she was in the barroom. The proprietor of the Inn slammed to the door against the thunderous rush of the breaking storm. The rain dashed in torrents against the house.

The blue flashes of electricity streaked the windows constantly, while the roll and roar of the thunder almost deafened those in the darkened barroom.

Joe Bodley was behind the bar briskly serving customers. He nodded familiarly to Janice, and said:

”Bad storm, Miss. Glad to see you. You ain't entirely a stranger here, eh?”

”Shut up, Joe!” commanded Mr. Parraday, as Janice flushed and the schoolmaster took a threatening step toward the bar.

”Oh, all right, Boss,” giggled the barkeeper. ”What's yours, Mister?”

he asked Nelson Haley.

A remarkable clap of thunder drowned Nelson's reply. Perhaps it was as well. And as the heavy roll of the report died away, they heard a series of shrieks somewhere in the upper part of the house.

”What in good gracious is the matter now?” gasped Lem Parraday, hastening out of the barroom.

Again a blinding flash of light lit up the room for an instant. It played upon the fat features of Joe Bodley--pallidly upon the faces of his customers. Some of them had shrunk away from the bar; some were ashamed to be seen there by Janice and the schoolmaster.

The thunder discharged another rolling report, shaking the house in its wrath. The rain beat down in torrents. Janice and Nelson could not leave the place while the storm was at its height, and for the moment, neither thought of going into the dining room.

Again and again the lightning flashed and the thunder broke above the tavern. It was almost as though the fury of the tempest was centered at the Lake View Inn. Janice, frankly clinging to Nelson's hand, cowered when the tempest rose to these extreme heights.

Echoing another peal of thunder once again a scream from within the house startled the girl. ”Oh, Nelson! what's that?”

”Gee! I believe Marm Parraday's on the rampage,” exclaimed Joe Bodley, with a silly smile on his face.

The door from the hall flew open. In the dusky opening the woman's lean and masculine form looked wondrous tall; her hollow eyes burned with unnatural fire; her thin and trembling lips writhed pitifully.

With her coming another awful flash and crash illumined the room and shook the roof tree of the Inn.

”It's come! it's come!” she said, advancing into the-room. Her face shone in the pallid, flickering light of the intermittent flashes, and the loafers at the bar shrank away from her advance.

”I told ye how 'twould be, Lem Parraday!” cried the tavern keeper's wife. ”This is the end! This is the end!”

Another stroke of thunder rocked the house. Marm Parraday fell on her knees in the sawdust and raised her clasped hands wildly. The act loosened her stringy gray hair and it fell down upon her shoulders. A wilder looking creature Janice Day had never imagined.

”Almighty Father!” burst from the quivering lips of the poor woman.

”Almighty Father, help us!”

”She's prayin'!” gasped a trembling voice back in the shrinking crowd.

”Help us and save us!” groaned the woman, her face and clasped hands uplifted. ”We hear Thy awful voice. We see the flash of Thy anger.

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