At this moment the storm burst with a violence unknown in .  
It was providential that Dick Sand and his companions had found this refuge!
 
In fact, the rain did not fall in distinct drops, but in streams of various thickness. Sometimes it was a compact mass forming a sheet of water, like a , a Niagara. Imagine an aerial basin, containing a whole sea, being upset. Under such showers the ground was hollowed out, the plains were changed to lakes, the streams to , the rivers, , vast territories. In temperate zones the violence of the storms decreases according to their duration; but in Africa, however heavy they are, they continue for several entire days. How can so much electricity be collected in the clouds? How can such quantities of be accumulated? It is very difficult to comprehend this. However, such are the facts, and one might suppose himself transported to the extraordinary epochs of the diluvian period.
 
Fortunately, the ant-, with its thick walls, was . A beaver's hut, of well-beaten earth, could not have been more water-tight. A could have passed over it without a single drop of water filtering through its pores.
 
As soon as Dick Sand and his companions had taken possession of the cone they occupied themselves in examining its interior arrangement. The lantern was lighted, and the ant-hill was . This cone, which measured twelve feet in height inside, was eleven feet wide, except in its upper part, which rounded in the form of a sugar loaf. Everywhere the walls were about one foot in thickness, and there was a distance between the stories of cells which them.
 
We may be astonished at the construction of such monuments, due to these of insects, but it is true that they are frequently found in the interior of Africa. Smeathman, a Dutch traveler of the last century, with four of his companions, occupied the top of one of these . In the Lounde, Livingstone observed several of these ant-hills, built of reddish clay, and a height of fifteen and twenty feet. Cameron has many a time mistaken for a camp these collections of cones which dotted the plain in N'yangwe. He has even stopped at the foot of great , not more than twenty feet high, but composed of forty or fifty enormous rounded cones, flanked with bell-towers like the of a cathedral, such as Southern Africa possesses.
 
To what species of ant was due, then, the style of architecture of these cones?
 
"To the warlike ," Cousin Benedict had replied, without hesitating, as soon as he had recognized the nature of the materials employed in their construction.
 
And, in fact, the walls, as has been said, were made of reddish clay. Had they been formed of a gray or black alluvian earth, they must have been attributed to the "termes mordax" or the "termes atrox." As we see, these insects have not very cheering names—a fact which cannot but please a strong entomologist, such as Cousin Benedict.
 
The central part of the cone, in which the little troop had first found shelter, and which formed the empty interior, would not have contained them; but large cavities, in close contact, made a number of divisions, in which a person of medium height could find refuge. Imagine a succession of open drawers, and at the bottom of those drawers millions of cells which the had occupied, and the interior of the ant-hill is easily understood. To sum up, these drawers are in tiers, like the in a ship's cabin. In the upper ones Mrs. Weldon, little , Nan, and Cousin Benedict took refuge. In the lower row Austin, Bat, and Acteon hid themselves. As for Dick Sand, Tom, and Hercules, they remained in the lower part of the cone.
 
"My friends," then said the young to the two blacks, "the ground is becoming damp. We must fill it up by the red clay from the base; but take care not to the hole by which the air enters. We cannot risk being in this ant-hill."
 
"We have only one night to spend here," replied old Tom.
 
"Well, let us try and make it recover us from our . This is the first time in ten days that we have not to sleep in the open air."
 
"Ten days!" repeated Tom.
 
"Besides," added Dick Sand, "as this cone forms a solid shelter, perhaps we had better stay here twenty-four hours. During that time, I will go in search of the stream that we are in need of; it cannot be very distant. I think that until we have constructed our raft, it will be better not to quit this shelter. The storm cannot reach us here. Let us make the floor stronger and ."
 
Dick Sand's orders were executed at once. Hercules, with his ax, the first story of cells, which was composed of crisp red clay. He thus raised, more than a foot, the interior part of the earth on which the ant-hill rested, and Dick Sand made sure that the air could freely to the interior of the cone through the orifice pierced at its base.
 
It was, certainly, a fortunate circumstance that the ant-hill had been abandoned by the termites. With a few thousands of these ants, it would have been uninhabitable. But, had it been for some time, or had the newroptera but just quitted it? It was not to ponder this question.
 
Cousin Benedict was so much surprised at the abandonment, that he at once considered the reason for it, and he was soon convinced that the emigration had been recent.
 
In fact, he did not wait, but, to the lower part of the cone, and taking the lantern, he commenced to examine the most secret corners of the ant-hill. He thus discovered what is called the "general store-house" of the termites, that is to say, the place where these industrious insects lay up the provisions of the colony.
 
It was a cavity hollowed in the wall, not far from the royal cell, which Hercules's had destroyed, along with the cells for the young .
 
In this store-room Cousin Benedict collected a certain quantity of particles of gum and the juices of plants, scarcely , which proved that the termites had lately brought them from without.
 
"Well, no!" cried he. "No!" as if he were replying to some contradiction, "No, this ant-hill has not been long abandoned."
 
"Who says to the contrary, Mr. Benedict?" said Dick Sand. "Recently or not, the important thing for us is that the termites have left it, because we have to take their place."
 
"The important thing," replied Cousin Benedict, "will be to know why they have left it. Yesterday—this morning, perhaps—these sagacious newroptera were still here, because, see these liquid juices; and this evening——"
 
"Well, what do you conclude, Mr. Benedict?" asked Dick Sand.
 
"That a secret has caused them to abandon the cone. Not only have all the termites left their cells, but they have taken care to carry away the young larvae, of which I cannot find one. Well, I repeat that all this was not done without a , and that these sagacious insects foresaw some near danger."
 
"They foresaw that we were going to invade their ," replied
Hercules, laughing.
"Indeed!" replied Cousin Benedict, whom this answer sensibly shocked. "You think yourself so strong that you would be dangerous to these insects? A few thousand of these newroptera would quickly reduce you to a skeleton if they found you dead on the road."
 
"Dead, certainly," replied Hercules, who would not give up; "but, living, I could crush masses of them."
 
"You might crush a hundred thousand, five hundred thousand, a million," replied Cousin Benedict, with , "but not a thousand millions; and a thousand millions would you, living or dead, to the last ."
 
During this discussion, which was less than might be supposed, Dick Sand reflected on the observations made by Cousin Benedict. There was no doubt that the savant knew too much about the habits of the termites to be mistaken. If he declared that a secret instinct warned them to leave the ant-hill recently, it was because there was truly in remaining in it.
 
Meanwhile, as it was impossible to abandon this shelter at a moment when the storm was raging with unparalleled , Dick Sand looked no farther for an explanation of what seemed to be , and he himself with saying:
 
"Well, Mr. Benedict, if the termites have left their provisions in this ant-hill, we must not forget that we have brought ours, and let us have supper. To-morrow, when the storm will be over, we will consult together on our future plans."
 
They then occupied themselves in preparing the evening meal, for, great as their fatigue was, it had not the appetite of these vigorous walkers. On the contrary, the food, w............