"Three miles more and we shall be safer than in these bottom-lands." "Hurry! hurry!" cried Hercules.
The brave black would have wished to take that whole world in big arms and carry it alone.
Those words inspired those courageous men, and in spite of the fatigue of a day's march, they advanced more quickly than they had done at the commencement from the halting-place.
When the storm burst forth the end to be attained was still more than two miles off.

Now--a fact which was the more to be feared--the rain did not accompany the first lightnings exchanged between the ground and the electrical clouds.

Darkness then became almost complete, though the sun had not disappeared below the horizon.

But the dome of vapors gradually lowered, as if it threatened to fall in--a falling in which must result in a torrent of rain.

Lightnings, red or blue, split it in a thousand places, and enveloped the plain in an inextricable network of fire.
Twenty times Dick and his companions ran the risk of being struck by lightning.