"From the discharges of lightning among these mountain peaks, which contain so much iron ore. We will be in grave danger."
The fact that the scientist had not always made correct predictions was not now considered by his hearers, and Tom and the two men gazed at Mr.
Parker in some alarm.
"Is there anything we can do to avoid it?" asked Mr. Jenks.
"The only thing to do would be to leave the mountain," was the answer, "and, as the iron ore extends for miles, we can not get out of the danger zone before the storm will reach us. It will be here in less than half an hour."
"Then we"d better have supper," remarked Tom, practically, "and get ready for it. Perhaps it may not be as bad as Mr. Parker fears."
"It will be bad enough," declared the gloomy scientist, and he seemed to find pleasure in his announcement.
The meal was soon over, and Tom busied himself in looking to the guy ropes of the tent, for he feared lest there might be wind with the storm. That it was coming was evident, for now low mutterings of thunder could be heard off toward the west.
Black clouds rapidly obscured the heavens, and the sound of thunder increased. Fitful flashes of lightning could be seen forking across the sky in jagged chains of purple light.
"It"s going to be a heavy storm," Tom admitted to himself. "I hope lightning doesn"t strike around here."
The storm came on rapidly, but there was a curious quietness in the air that was more alarming than if a wind had blown. The campfire burned steadily, and there was a certain oppressiveness in the atmosphere.
It was now quite dark, save when the fitful lightning flashes came, and they illuminated the scene brilliantly for a few seconds. Then, by contrast, it was blacker than ever.
Suddenly, as Tom was gazing up toward the peak of Phantom Mountain, he saw something that caused him to cry out in alarm. He pointed upward, and whispered hoa.r.s.ely:
"The ghost again! There"s our friend in white!"
The others looked, and saw the same weird figure that had menaced them when they were encamped on the other side of the peak.
"They must have followed us," said Mr. Jenks, in a low voice.
Slowly the figure advanced, It waved the long white arms, as if in warning. At times it would be only dimly visible in the blackness, then, suddenly it would stand out in bold relief as a great flash of fire split the clouds.
The thunder, meanwhile, had been growing louder and sharper, indicating the nearer approach of the storm. Each lightning flash was followed in a second or two, by a terrific clap. Still there was no wind nor rain, and the campfire burned steadily.
All at once there was a crash as if the very mountain had split asunder, and the adventurers saw a great ball of purple-bluish fire shoot down, as if from some cloud, and strike against the side of the crag, not a hundred feet from where stood the ghostly figure in white.
"That was a bad one," cried Mr. Damon, shouting so as to be heard above the echoes of the thunderclap.
Almost as he spoke there came another explosion, even louder than the one preceding. A great ball of fire, pear shaped, leaped for the same spot in the mountain.
"There"s a ma.s.s of iron ore there!" yelled Mr. Parker. "The lightning is attracted to it!"
His voice was swallowed up in the terrific crash that followed, and, as there came another flash of the celestial fire, the figure in white could be seen hurrying back up the mountain trail. Evidently the electrical storm, with lightning bolts discharging so close, was too much for the "ghost."
In another instant it looked as if the whole place about where the diamond seekers stood, was a ma.s.s of fire. Great forked tongues of lightning leaped from the clouds, and seemed to lick the ground. There was a rattle and bang of thunder, like the firing of a battery of guns.
Tom and the others felt themselves tingling all over, as if they had hold of an electrical battery, and there was a strong smell of sulphur in the air.
"We are in the midst of the storm!" cried Mr. Parker. "We are standing on a ma.s.s of iron ore! Any minute may be our last!"
But fate had not intended the adventurers for death by lightning. Almost as suddenly as it had begun, the discharge of the tongues of fire ceased in the immediate vicinity of our friends. They stood still--awed--not knowing what to do.
Then, once more, came a terrific clap! A great ma.s.s of fire, like some red-hot ingot from a foundry, was hurled through the air, straight at the face of the mountain, and at the spot where the figure in white had stood but a few minutes before.
Instantly the earth trembled, as it had at Earthquake Island, but it was not the same. It was over in a few seconds. Then, as the diamond seekers looked, they saw in the glare of a score of lightning flashes that followed the one great clap, the whole side of the mountain slip away, and go crashing into the valley below.
"A landslide!" cried Mr. Parker. "That is the landslide which I predicted! The lightning bolt has split Phantom Mountain!"
CHAPTER XVI--THE VAST CAVERN
For a time the roiling, slipping, sliding and tumbling of the ma.s.s of earth and stones, down the side of the mountain, effectually drowned all other sounds. Even the thunder was stilled, and though Tom and his companions called to one another in terror, their voices could not rise above that terrific tumult.
Finally, when they found that the direction of the slide was away from their tent, and that they were not likely to be engulfed, they grew more calm.
Gradually the noise subsided. The great boulders had rolled to the bottom of the valley, and now only a ma.s.s of earth and stones was sliding down. Even this stopped in about five minutes, and, as though satisfied with what it had done, the electrical storm pa.s.sed. Not a drop of rain had fallen.
"Bless my shirt studs!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, who was the first to speak after the din had quieted. "Bless my soul! But that was awful!"
"It was just what I expected," said Mr. Parker, calmly. "I knew, from my observations, that we were in a region where landslides and terrific electrical storms may be expected at any time. I fully looked for this."
"Well," remarked Mr. Jenks, rather sarcastically, "I hope it came up to your expectations, Mr. Parker."
"Oh, fully," was the answer, "though I wish it could have happened in daylight, so that I could better have observed certain phenomena regarding the landslide. They are very interesting."
"At a distance," admitted Tom, with a laugh of relief. "Well, I"m glad it"s over, though we"ll have to wait until morning to see what damage has been done. Lucky we weren"t struck by lightning. I never saw such bolts!"
"Me, either!" declared Mr. Damon. "This mountain seems to attract them."
"It is like a magnet," said Mr. Parker. "I think I shall be able to make some fine observations here."
"If we live through it," murmured Mr. Jenks.
They watched the play of lightning about a distant bank of clouds, but the storm was now far away, only a faint rumbling of thunder being heard.
"I"m wondering what happened to the phantom," said Tom, after a pause.
"Seems to me he was right in that track of the storm."
"Do you think it was a "he"?" asked Mr. Jenks.
"I think we"ll find that it"s some sort of a man," answered the young inventor. "We may find out very soon, now. I"ve changed my theory about the ghost being reflections of light."
"How"s that?" Mr. Damon wanted to know.
"Well, I think we are on the side of Phantom Mountain where the diamond cave is," went on the lad. "The fact that the phantom appeared here, soon after we arrived, shows that the men kept close track of our movements. It also shows, I think, that the phantom did not have to travel far to be on the spot, whereas we had to make quite a trip to get around the base of the mountain. I think the cave is up there," and Tom pointed toward the spot where the weird figure had been last seen, before the storm drove it back.