The Lost City

, prof

l, Waldo;

ous climate, broken loose from its native Ca

drawing a curved forefinger across his forehead, then flirting aside sundry drops of moisture. "I can't r

his gray pompadour, while the other was lifted in a deprecatory manner. "At sea, literally as well as

hen you mean green? Why don't you say Kansas zephyr? Or windy-auger? Or twister? Or whirly-gust on a corkscrew wiggle-waggle? Or-well, almost any other old thing that you can't think

force than grace, back supported against a gnarled juniper, loosening the cl

anticlimax, while Professor Featherwit was obl

ase, nephew;

ck up a high old bobbery with a man's political economy should it chance to go bu'st right there!

warned his brothe

ed the youngster, face grave, but eyes twinkling, as they tu

lone nor tornado could ever dep

lly! Nor you, my dear Bruno, although my inbr

shed and shanty which sheltered the pride of his brain and the pet of his heart, while Bruno smiled indulgen

hill, now showed an ugly-looking cloud-bank which almos

scalled "cyclone" almost invariably finds birth in the southwest. Then, too, nearly all the other symptoms were noticeable,-the close, "muggy" atmos

n shape and in colour, taking on a peculiar greenish lustre

ssor forth from the shed-like shanty, wh

over the salty drink, my worthy friends, w

e eyes turned towards that quarter of the heavens; but the fr

arkable shape, its crest a straight line as though marked by an enormous ruler, while the lower edge was br

ugly, I must confess," the wiry little p

. "Barring a certain little topsy-turvyness which is something out of the or

ing upon its wings a brief shower of hail, intermingled with great drops of rain

nge. "Who says this isn't 'way up in G?' Who says-out of the way, Bruno! Shut that trap-door in your

an ordinary size rebounded from that curly pate, sending its owner hurriedly to

against the shanty and its adjoining shed with an uproar au

beginning to lend those red sands a pearly tinge with their dancing particles. Now and then an aerial monster would fall, to draw a wondering cr

clenching one fist and holding a hailstone alongside by way of comparison. "Look at that, will you? Isn't

ourite nephew, having scuttled back beneath the shed, where he was busily stowing away sundry articles of

h them such of the storm as could be itemised. That was but little, thanks to the driving rain, which cut one's vision short

g as the plank roof was hammered by several mammoth stones of ice. "O

ing at a brace of those frozen marvels, heedless of his own risk or

hail falling thicker and heavier than ever for a few moments; but then, as suddenly as

le Phaeton?" asked Bruno, curiously watching that receding m

t or study," promptly responded the professor, in no wise loth to give a free lecture, no matter how brief it might be, perforce. "I

s cy-tornadoes, though?" interrup

parting storm. "And I have scarcely a doubt but that a tornado of no ordinary magnitude will be the final outcome of this remarkable display

win a fairer view of the space stretching away towards the south and the west. "I always laughed at tales of hailstones large as hen's eggs, but now I kn

fessor Featherwit confined his sapient remarks for the time being, giving no sligh

then again brought to the front the vital difference between a cyclone, as such, and the miscalled "twister,"

d scarcely be reproduced in this connection, more particularly as, just when the professor was getting fairly w

What a funny look

e, for Waldo was pointing almost due southeast; yet his excitement was so pronounced that both the professo

te and yellow all blending together and constantly shifting posit

as it swayed madly back and forth, an elongating trunk or tongue reaching still nea

ion, yet one and all recognised the truth,-this was a veritable tornado

word, but now their cheeks grew paler, and they seemed to shrink from yo

tacle, but his was the interest of a scientist, and his pulse b

their uneasiness. "According to both rule and precedent, yonder tornado will pass to the east of

move towards the nort

ons, of course. And unless this should

ticulation. "It's coming this way,

ar boy, I can promise you that-Upon my soul!" with an abrupt change

never know-hunt a hole and pull it in after y