"Well, maybe it'd do the job just as well if I shot the cayuse instead," Lanky suggested, drawing the line at taking human life, something that so far in his existence he had never tried to do.
"Hold your horses, Lanky," advised Frank. "He may be going in another minute or two, and it'll be some little time before that blaze can reach us. As a last resort, if all else fails, I'll agree to let you shoot at Zeke to cripple him or his bronc so that he'll not be able to ride away to warn Yesson, or, on the other hand, harm us here."
Three minutes more passed. So worked up were Lanky Wallace and Paul Bird that it seemed double that time to them.
The fire downstairs was now roaring, and the eyes of the boys began to smart because of the fumes of acrid smoke that ascended the open stairs.
"Oh, bully! Bully! He's whirled his pony around and is going off on a gallop!" announced Paul.
"About time, if he wanted to save his bacon; because I'd have got a bead on his pony in another minute," Lanky said in tones that breathed both jubilation and threats. "Me for the window and a long jump!"
"Take things coolly, Lanky," came from Frank. "You may break a leg if you go over in a hurry. The fire hasn't done much on this side of the house so far, and we can take our own time in getting down. Since the stairs are all ablaze, of course our only road is by way of the window. Here's a rope on this old bed mattress. If it's strong enough we can make good use of it."
A test proved this to be a fact, so Frank insisted that Paul go first, to be followed by Lanky Wallace. Then he himself left the room. His last glimpse of the interior of the upper story of the doomed hotel showed him that hungry tongues of flame were beginning to flash through the open doorway, as though reaching out for victims.
Once safely on the ground, the boys moved back, since the heat of the burning structure made it uncomfortable.
"Bully bonfire, all right!" declared Lanky. "Wonder if it's bound to tackle any of these other ghosts of shacks and clean off the whole of Gold Fork?"