A SAD FATE.
For one instant, Dyke Darrel was paralyzed.
It was for a moment only, however. He shook the door furiously, blinded by smoke, and almost strangled by hot air.
The door would not yield.
At this moment, the girl awoke and began to scream. Bits of burning wood fell all about them.
Soon the roof would tumble in with a crash. When that moment came, every living thing must perish within the house.
Dyke Darrel moved to the window, leading Sibyl. She staggered and seemed ready to fall.
"Courage!" he cried, "we will soon be out of this."
Reaching the narrow window, the detective dashed out sash and glass with a stool, and the air from outside seemed like a breath from fairy land.
"You must go first?"