Page:Tom Swift Among the Diamond Makers.djvu/220

210 the ground and make the earth a good conductor of electricity, they probably would have been badly shocked. But the electrical outburst was not accompanied by rain.

Tom looked up. He saw a compact mass of cloud moving toward the summit of the mountain on the slope of which they stood. From this cloud there played shafts of reddish-green fire.

"Look!" called the young inventor to Mr. Parker. The instant the latter saw the cloud, he cried:

"We must get away from here by all means! That is the center of the storm. As soon as it gets over the mountain, where that lightning rod is, all the electrical fluid will be discharged in one bolt at the mountain, and it will be destroyed! We must run, but keep on the dirt places! Run for your lives!"

They needed no second warning. Turning, they fled down the steep side of the mountain, slipping and stumbling, but taking care not to step on any iron ore. Behind them flashed the lightning bolts.

Suddenly there was a most awful crash. It seemed as if the end of the world had come, and the ear drums of Tom and his companions almost burst with the fearful report. The