And as she spoke, a bright tongue of flame began to lick the shingles of the roof, gilding them with its fierce fiery slaver, till first one and then another began to glow; and sparks and flakes fell from them, illumining the interior of the shed; while soon an opening appeared, through which the flames rushed careering out, the heat the while becoming insupportable.
“Katie, dear,” sighed the wounded man, “would you add torture to my death?”
“No, no,” she sobbed, as she dragged him nearer the door. “Are we not one?” And she sank exhausted by his side, to lay her face upon his arm. “Ned, my own Ned! pray—pray to heaven that our death may come quickly, and that we may wake soon where there is peace. I can do no more.”
As her simple words fell upon his ear, a loud demoniac drunken shout rose from outside, apparently close by the door; and from the trampling, mingled with the roar of the flames, it was evident that the ruffians were taking their departure.
Nerving himself for a last effort, Murray half lifted himself into a sitting position, fell back, struggled up again; and Katie rose to her knees.
“Try again—again,” he gasped; for he felt that she would not leave him; and together they struggled almost to the door, when, half-suffocated, the young man fell back once more. “Now go; leave me. You can escape yet, Katie,” he gasped. “O, if I had strength!”
But for answer he felt the two soft clinging arms round his neck, and a choking voice breathed two words in his ear:
“Forever!”
But the dread of the impending death seemed to give strength—the strength he had prayed for; and straggling a few inches at a time, with the red-hot embers gathering where they had lain but a few minutes before, and the flames crawling and dancing round the side of the house, Murray, now hardly aided by the fainting girl, contrived to reach the door, with one hand to thrust it back, so that a rush of air darted in, driving from them the smoke, as he uttered a loud cry for help.
The cry was heard; and they were seen for an instant ere the cloud of smoke wrapped them again in its folds. Two men darted forward to seize the prize, one of them, however, being daunted by the threatening roof, which, ruddy and golden, seemed ready to fall; while the other seized Katie’s dress in his hands to drag her out; but so tightly did she cling to Murray, that he was drawn forward and half raised before sinking back into the cloud of falling sparks and smoke.