As the black column mounted higher and higher, she lifted herself to her toes, posing there absolutely unconscious of herself.

Jack saw her face grow pale; saw her eyes darken and glow with inner excitement.

She was once more the goddess on the mountain top, gazing down at one of the wonders she had wrought.

It was as though she pulled that black column up and up and up with the tensity of her desire.
The column mushroomed suddenly, rolling out in great, puffy billows before it dipped and went streaming away on the wind.

The mountain beneath it spewed sluggish masses of vapor and ashes up into the black moil above, until the whole mountain was obscured and only an angry, rolling cloud churning lumpishly there, told what was hidden beneath.
Marion relaxed, took a long, deep breath and settled again to her trim heels.