We were struggling together when the woman, who had seized hold of the lamp, passed us and dashed it violently into the heap of saturated hay and shavings.
The effect was instantaneous. A blinding flare of flame burst out, almost like an explosion, and a volume of pungent suffocating smoke filled the place.
Volna, quick-witted as ever, wrenched the door open, and I staggered out after her into the night, dragging the chief with me.
CHAPTER XI
FATHER AMBROSE
THE pendulum of luck had swung over again to our side and I lost no time in taking advantage of it. I pushed the man away from me at random, and chanced to send him staggering up against the two police horses which were tied up close to the door. They were already snorting with fear at the fire, and they now began to plunge and kick and rear until they had dragged themselves free and dashed off into the darkness.
Nor was this all the luck.
“Come,” I cried to Volna. We ran to the shed and found our own animals standing ready saddled outside. “They were going to bolt on our horses,” I said, as I put her in the saddle and then mounted. “Which is the way?”
“Any way. We’re in luck; let us trust to it,” I answered; and guided by the light of the fire which was now consuming the whole house, we pushed along at random as quickly as we could. Fortune was with us still. We gained the road, and in a few minutes were rattling back at a brisk pace along the road we had travelled so laboriously in the storm some hours before.
“I had given everything up,” said Volna, when we were breathing the horses and were able to talk. “I had the papers in my hand ready to throw them into the blaze.”
“I am glad you didn’t. We’ll get them through yet; but just how to do it is the question. We’ve escaped by sheer luck and that old hag’s devilment in firing the house; but they’ve got the passports, all my papers and what’s almost as bad, nearly all my money.”