And then, with the suddenness of a stupendous weight dropped from heaven, came rain, rain in torrents and billows, rain solid as the volume of Niagara, a crushing mighty force.

The tempest shrieked through the compound.  The lightning glimmered, leapt, became continuous.  The night was an inferno of thunder and violence.

And suddenly out of the inferno, out of the awful strife of elements, out of that frightful rainfall, there came—­a woman!

CHAPTER VI

LOVERS

She came haltingly, clinging with both hands to the rail of the veranda, her white face staring upwards in terror and instinctive appeal.  She was like an insect dragging itself away from destruction, with drenched and battered wings.

He saw her coming and stiffened.  It was his vision returned to him, but till she came within reach of him he was afraid to move.  He stood upright against the wall, every mad instinct of his blood fiercely awake and clamouring.

The noise and wind increased.  It swirled along the veranda.  She seemed afraid to quit her hold of the balustrade lest she should be swept away.  But still she drew nearer to the lighted window, and at last, with desperate resolution, she tore herself free and sprang for shelter.

In that instant the man also sprang.  He caught her in arms that almost expected to clasp emptiness, arms that crushed in a savage ecstasy of possession at the actual contact with a creature of flesh and blood.  In the same moment the lamp in the room behind him flared up and went out.

There arose a frightened crying from his breast.  For a few moments she fought like a mad thing for freedom.  He felt her teeth set in his arm, and laughed aloud.  Then very suddenly her struggles ceased.  He became aware of a change in her.  She gave her whole weight into his arms, and lay palpitating against his heart.

By the awful glare of the lightning he found her face uplifted to his.  She was laughing, too, but in her eyes was such a passion of love as he had never looked upon before.  In that moment he knew that she was his—­wholly, completely, irrevocably his.  And, stooping, he kissed the upturned lips with the fierce exultation of the conqueror.

Her arms slipped round his neck.  She abandoned herself wholly to him.  She gave him worship for worship, passion for passion.

Later, he awoke to the fact that she was drenched from head to foot.  He drew her into his room and shut the window against the driving blast.  She clung to him still.

“Isn’t it dreadful?” she said, shuddering.  “It’s just as if Something Big is trying to get between us.”

He closed the shutter also, and groped for matches.  She accompanied him on his search, for she would not lose touch with him for a moment.

The lamp flared on her white, childish face, showing him wild joy and horror strangely mingled.  Her great eyes laughed up at him.