"Now, we don't want to seem harsh," went on the
man who seemed to be the spokesman, "but you'd better get away
from here. This is private ground, and dangerous too--how'd you
ever get up the trail--we heard it was destroyed."
"There is still a narrow path," said Mr. Jenks. "We came up
that--the lightning and landslide haven't left much of it,
though."
Mr. Parker looked quickly up from the rocks at which he was
tapping with his small hammer. "You have terrific lightning up
here," he said. "I am much interested in it, from a scientific
standpoint. I predict that some day the entire mountain will be
destroyed by a blast from the sky."
"I hope it won't be right away," spoke one of the men. "Now I
guess you folks had better be leaving while there's a path left
to go down by."
"Might I ask," broke in Mr. Parker, as calmly as though he was
lecturing to a class of students, "might I ask if you have
noticed any peculiar effect of the lightning up here on the
summit of the mountain? Does it fuse and melt rocks, so to
speak?"
"What's that?" cried the spokesman, with a sudden flash of
anger. The two men looked at each other.
"I wanted to know, merely for scientific reasons, whether the
lightning up here ever melted rocks?" repeated Mr. Jenks.
"Well, whether it's for scientific reasons or for any other,
I'm not going to answer you!" snapped the man.
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