All day the sky threatened rain, and distant rumbles of thunder were heard; but the storm held off until these preliminary measures had been carried out. Soon after dark the heavens opened. Thunder growled, cracked, bellowed: the air was one vast shaking noise. A vivid glare rose up from the horizon until all the world seemed on fire. Great bursts of light, now in one quarter, now in another, shot through the sky like gigantic squibs; and dazzling streaks of jagged brilliance rent the firmament. And then, in the midst of this wonderful phantasmagoria, it was as if the fire-maker set out to quench the universal conflagration. Down fell the rain, in sheets, in torrents, in cascades of hailstones as large as eggs. The people cowered, shivering, shrieking, in their huts. Out of the boiling lake the stream poured in angry flood, hissing and raving like a maddened beast let loose. Tingling in every nerve, Tom watched the amazing storm for hour after hour: what were man’s puny battles compared with this titanic conflict of the elements? And it was only when the thunder died away in sullen mutterings, and the lightning gave pale flickers and tired gleams, but still the rain roared unceasingly--it was only then that Tom became alive to the very practical question: would huts, stores, barricades, all be washed away? CHAPTER XVII--A GERMAN OFFER For the rest of the night Tom got no sleep. Listening to the rush of the torrent through the nullah he waited anxiously for the dawn. As soon as there was light enough, he went out to see what havoc the storm had wrought. The worst anticipations were not realised, but the damage was serious enough. Some of the huts were broken down; one or two of those nearest to the stream had been washed away; the defences at the bend almost obliterated; and the barricade of trees at the entrance of the nullah showed many gaps. But the slope of the ground and the depth of the channel had been sufficient to carry off almost all the overflow from the lake, and there seemed to be no danger of the village on the higher ground at the north end being flooded out. The prisoners’ hut on the island had suffered nothing except from leaks in the roof, and these Reinecke had at once set his subordinates to repair.