Page:Outdoor Girls in a Motor Car.djvu/149

Rh the whole room—throwing into ghastly outlines the faces of the girls.

Their lamps had gone out—or been blown out—they did not know which, and as they clung to each other, their hearts pounding, every startled nerve on the alert, Amy gasped:

"What—what made the lights go out? Can anyone tell?"

Even then, Betty confessed afterward, she felt a hysterical desire to propound the old question of where a certain Biblical personage was when the light went out, but instead Grace answered before her:

"They were blown out by—by" she hesitated.

"By the wind!" exclaimed Mollie, quickly. "What else? There's an awful draught in here. Who has the matches?"

It was the most sensible thing sht could have said under the circumstances, and it somewhat relieved the tension.

"I have some," answered Grace. "But—but what has happened, anyhow?"

"It's the thunder and lightning," declared Cousin Jane. "It must have struck somewhere around here. It hit our barn once, and I noticed something the same as now. Maybe that put out the lights."