Page:Barbour--Joan of the ilsand.djvu/274

262 it had been but the semblance of love, which he had allowed to show itself for a moment and then regretted? She was coiling her hair in two ropes, and studied her face closely in the glass. Scant though her toilet had been, perforce, Joan knew she was beautiful, and never had the knowledge given her greater joy than it did now. But she was sorely puzzled. If he had been a bashful type of person, that might have accounted for it somewhat, but nothing was further removed from Keith than bashfulness. He was strong in every sense of the word, determined without being inconsiderate, and unusually outspoken. A veil seemed to have been let down between them, and both Keith and the girl were conscious of it.

Soon after noon the sky became overcast. Dark clouds rolled up, and the sailor shook his head gravely as he looked out.

"Troubles never come singly," he said to Joan, "and this is the season of the year when there's liable to be a brute of a storm. I believe we're in for something special in the way of weather."

As he spoke there came a blinding flash which seemed to blaze its path round the walls of the house, and instantly it was followed by a crashing, tearing, rolling peal which sounded as though the very earth were being split asunder.

Maromi incontinently cast himself on his stomach in the kitchen, and continued to howl long after the