The next instant he had one great shoulder under the tree root.  Heaving with all his mighty strength he slowly moved the great trunk, and I saw it topple over into the abyss; I saw his burly figure tottering on the very brink—­then one awful flash lit up the sky, so blinding me that I sank face downward on the rock.  The cliff shook as if riven from crest to valley, a single peal of thunder reverberating like the report of a thousand guns.

CHAPTER XXXVII

THE DEAD BURY THEIR DEAD

I may have lost consciousness; I do not know.  That awful glare, the thunderous report, the speechless terror of feeling myself a mere pygmy in the midst of such tremendous convulsions of nature, shocked me into momentary insensibility.  I lay huddled against the rock like a man dead, one arm yet clasping the motionless form of Eloise.  Stunned, unable to move a muscle, I believed death had overtaken us all; that out from the very heavens a bolt had stricken us down.  I struggled painfully to arouse myself, every nerve in my body appearing paralyzed.  At first I could not even see, but light came back gradually to my blinded eyes, and I staggered to my feet, slowly adjusting my mind to the situation.

I began to understand then what had happened—­that deadly bolt had smitten the cliff as by the wrath of God, yet I was spared.  I still lived, as by a miracle.  I stared across the chasm and up the steep ascent beyond, still clearly revealed in the lightning flashes.  It was vacant; not a human form stood where those pursuing savages had been.  A cry burst from my lips as I gazed—­a vast, irregular gash showed clearly in the cliff face, but where the entrance to the cave had yawned was a solid front of rock.  I staggered with the shock, reeling on the very edge of the path, and barely saved myself by dropping to my knees.  Again I looked, half believing my brain crazed, that I beheld visions.  As God guards me, it was true!  Out of the very heavens He had struck, sealing those fiends into a living tomb.  Trembling like a frightened child, I bowed my face and sobbed as I prayed for mercy.

I know not how long I lay unable for either thought or action.  But at last I was upon my knees again, creeping forward to where a black figure lay at the very edge of the chasm, one arm dangling over the brink.  I drew the inert body back to safety, peering down into the white face of the priest.  My touch seemed to arouse him into consciousness, his dark eyes staring up into my face.  I helped him to sit up and lean back against the wall.  An instant he gazed about wildly, like one suddenly awakened from sound sleep, then hid his face in his hands.

“The Puritan—­” I questioned—­“the man who bore you here—­what happened to him?”

He shuddered, and pointed into the black abyss.

“’Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends,’” he quoted solemnly.