Page:Edward Ellis--Seth Jones.djvu/110

Rh set forward. The sky again gave signs of a storm. Several rumbles of thunder were heard, but the lightning was so distant as to be of neither benefit or use to them. The sky was filled with heavy, tumultuous clouds, which rendered the darkness perfectly intense and impenetrable; and, as none of them understood a foot of the ground over which they were traveling, it may well be supposed that their progress was neither rapid nor particularly pleasant. The booming of the thunder continued, and shortly the rain commenced falling. The drops were of that big kind which are often formed in. summer, and which rattle through the leaves like a shower of bullets.

"Can you look ahead, Seth?" asked Graham.

"In course I can. The darkness don't make no difference not at all to me. I can see just as well on a dark night as I can in daylight, and, what is more, I do. I should like to see me make a misstep or stumble—"

Further utterance was checked by the speaker pitching, with a loud splash, head foremost over or into something.

"You hurt, Seth?" asked Graham in alarm, yet half tempted to give way to the mirth that was convulsing those behind him.

"Hurt!" exclaimed the unfortunate one, scrambling to his feet, "I believe every bone of my body is broken into, and by gracious! my head is cracked, and both legs put out of joint, the left arm broke above the elbow, and the right one severed completely!"

Notwithstanding these frightful injuries, the speaker was moving about with wonderful dexterity.

"My gracious! what do you suppose I've tumbled into?" he suddenly asked.

"Into a pitfall or a hole in the ground," replied Graham. "It's my opinion, too, that it will be very easy with this noise we are making to stumble into the Mohawks' hands."

"I should think you ought to know that I didn't fall," retorted Seth angrily. "I happened to see sumthin', and I stepped forward to see if it would hold my weight. What you are laughing at, I should like to know!"

"What is it that you have stepped into?" asked Haverland.