But there were none that we could see. Above the roar and crackling of the flames we could hear the shouting of the mob and voices shrieking out more than crying, “Jump! Jump!” Everything, though, was one whirl of confusion; and I felt half-stifled with the terrible heat and the choking fumes that came up between the boards and beneath the door.
It was rapidly blinding as well as confusing us; and in those exciting moments leadership seemed to have gone, and if even I had made a bold start the others would have followed.
At last after what seemed to have been a long space of time, though it was doubtless only moments, Uncle Jack cried fiercely:
“Look: the floor’s beginning to burn. You, Dick, out first, Cob shall follow; and we’ll drop the two tin boxes to you. You must save them. Now! Are you ready?”
“Yes,” cried Uncle Dick, climbing on a chair, and thrusting his arm out of the window.
As he did so, there was a puff like some gigantic firework, and a large cloud of fiery smoke rose up full of tiny sparks; and he shrank back with an ejaculation of pain.
“Hot, Dick?” cried Uncle Jack almost savagely. “Go on, lad; it will be hotter here. In five minutes the floor will be burned through.”
“Follow quickly, Cob,” cried Uncle Dick; and then he paused, for there was a curious rushing noise, the people yelled, and there were shrieks and cries, and above all, a great trampling of feet.
We could see nothing for the flame and smoke that rose before the window; and just then the roar of the flames seemed to increase, and our position became unendurable.
But still that was a curious rushing noise in the air, a roar as of thunder and pouring, hissing rain, and a railway train rushing by and coming nearer and nearer every moment; and then, as Uncle Dick was about to step forth into the blaze and leap into the dam, Uncle Jack caught him and held him back.