hot as if it were blown
out of an oven."

She got up quickly and, filling a cup with water, emptied it on the
 that burned on the hearth.

"What are you doing?" cried Irma.

"We mustn't have a  now," replied Gundel, and, after that, they sat
there in the dark room, almost stifled by the smoke, for the storm
raged so wildly that they dared not open a window.

"If father were only home," said Gundel; "I , for God's sake, he'll
get home safe!"

Her last words were drowned by a sudden peal of thunder that
reverberated from the mountains, with a crash as if the whole world
were being destroyed. And now the wind raged and stormed more violently
than before. The firmly built hut seemed to totter, the roof trembled,
and one of the great boulders with which it had been secured fell to
the ground.

"Give me your hand!" cried Gundel, in the dark. "If we must die--let's
pray." She prayed aloud, but the crashing thunder drowned her voice.
Suddenly the noise changed, and it sounded as if countless iron hammers
were descending on the roof; the rattling, pounding