stepped out into a tremendous storm which was raging all over the
mountain. The thunder was bellowing, and the lightning lancing out of
a
huge black cloud which lay above it, and hung down its edges of thick
mist over its sides. The lightning was breaking out of the mountain,
too, and flashing up into the cloud. From the state of the brooks, now
swollen into raging torrents, it was evident that the storm had been
storming all day.
The wind was blowing as if it would blow him off the mountain, but,
anxious about his mother and the princess, Curdie darted up through
the
thick of the tempest. Even if they had not set out before the storm
came
on, he did not judge them safe, for, in such a storm even their poor
little house was in danger. Indeed he soon found that but for a huge
rock against which it was built, and which protected it both from the
blasts and the waters, it must have been swept if it was not blown away;
for the two torrents into which this rock parted the rush of water
behind it united again in front of the cottage--two roaring and
dangerous streams, which his mother and the princess could not
possibly
have passed. It was with great difficulty that he forced his way through
Madhuri Noah
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