creatures of leaping lightning

[Bushwhacker]

Given the following paragraph,

His sons and daughter would have had to be creatures of leaping lightning to have responded so swiftly to any bidding of the butler.

Can "leaping lightning be understood as someting like "supreme intelligence" or the like?

Thank You

 

[bhaisahab]

Given the following paragraph,

His sons and daughter would have had to be creatures of leaping lightning to have responded so swiftly to any bidding of the butler.

Can "leaping lightning be understood as someting like "supreme intelligence" or the like?

Thank You

No, I would say it means "very fast".

 

[Bushwhacker]

No, I would say it means "very fast".

Thank You very much. Nevertheless, wouldn't it be tautological? Extremely fast and so swiftly seems to be the same.

 

[Anglika]

But since the author chose to use a particularly vivid phrase to express the sense of speed, there is no tautology.