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storm struck the worn-out building, it groaned and shuddered, and now a
mass of plaster from the wall would slide and smash, and now some
loosened tile would rattle down the roof and crash into the empty
greenhouse below. Elizabeth shuddered, and was still; Denton wrapped his
gay and flimsy city cloak about her, and so they crouched in the
darkness. And ever the thunder broke louder and nearer, and ever more
lurid flashed the lightning, jerking into a momentary gaunt clearness
the steaming, dripping room in which they sheltered.
Never before had they been in the open air save when the sun was
shining. All their time had been spent in the warm and airy ways and
halls and rooms of the latter-day city. It was to them that night as if
they were in some other world, some disordered chaos of stress and
tumult, and almost beyond hoping that they should ever see the city ways
again.
The storm seemed to last interminably, until at last they dozed between
the thunderclaps, and then very swiftly it fell and ceased. And as the
last patter of the rain died away they heard an unfamiliar sound.
"
What is that?" cried Elizabeth.
It came again. It was the barking of dogs. It drove down the desert lane
and passed; and through the window, whitening the wall before them and
throwing upon it the shadow of the window-frame and of a tree in black
silhouette, shone the light of the waxing moon....
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