“Dis is de first time I’se been wa’m since comin’ to dis place,” she announced.  “It reminds me of my ol’ home in de Souf, it sa’tinly does.”

At length a vivid flash of lightning streaked the air, followed immediately by a roll of thunder off to the west.

“It’s just what I’ve been expecting” the Colonel remarked, as he walked over to the door and looked out.  “Such heat as we’ve had to-day is generally followed by a thunder storm.  It is coming this way fast.  Listen to that.”

The storm was rolling up rapidly over the hills, while the play of the lightning was grand and terrible.  And mingled with the roar of thunder was the sound of the hurrying feet of the rain driven before the onrushing wind.  Suddenly a blinding flash illumined water and land, followed instantly by a crash that shook the cabin.  Old Mammy gave a shriek of fear, and caught Jean in her arms.

“Oh, oh, oh!” she moaned.  “Dis is turrible!  We’ll all be killed!  We’ll all be killed!”

“Hush, hush, Mammy,” Jean ordered.  “Don’t get so excited.  This storm will soon be over, will it not, daddy?”

“Most likely,” the Colonel replied.  “But come here, dear, I want you to see this wonderful electric display upon the water.”

Freeing herself from the colored woman’s embrace, the girl rose, crossed the room, and stood by her father’s side.  As she turned her eyes upon the river, she gave a gasp of astonishment.  Between the shore and the Isle of Vines the lightning was holding high carnival.  For an instant there was intense darkness, followed by a succession of brilliant, flickering illuminations, bewildering to the senses.  Several times she was forced to turn away her head, but only for a second, as she was compelled by some strange fascination to look upon the wonderful spectacle.  Flash upon flash, racing gleam upon gleam, Stygian darkness and crashing thunder intermingled in an appalling confusion.  Jean felt that she could endure the sight no longer.  Her body trembled, and her eyes ached.  She was about to go back to Mammy, when her father laid his hand upon her shoulder.

“What is that out there?” he asked.  “Ah, it’s gone now.  It seemed to me like a boat.  There it is again.”

Jean looked and for a few seconds was enabled to catch a glimpse of a craft of some kind coming to them straight from the island.

“It is a canoe, daddy, and I can see some one paddling.  Who can it be on the river in such a storm as this?”

And just then the rain swept down, forcing them to retreat a few steps within the cabin.  But still they peered forth, and with fast-beating hearts watched the approaching voyager.  Whenever a glimmering flash revealed the canoe, it resembled a mystic bark riding through the storm, encircled with a living fire.  So weird and mysterious did it seem that Jean caught her father impulsively by the arm, while a slight cry of awe escaped her lips.