He looked at Rolf, slumbering deep by the hearth; and he laughed sourly to think that one man could sleep while another moved heavy-footed with his troubles across the creaking boards. He sat down again, and watched his cousin listlessly; and little by little his own head dropped forward, and his eyes closed, and Janet and he were wandering, a dream boy and dream girl, up by the grey old kirkstone that kept watch over lovers' vows among the rolling wastes of heath.
He stirred uneasily, and Rolf's voice came vaguely to him from across the hearth. "Get up, Ned! The hall is full of smoke—the flames are whistling up the house-side——"
"Where's the little bairn? She must be looked to. Nell has wit enough to save herself," said Shameless Wayne sleepily.
Wayne of Cranshaw shook him to his feet. "They've fired the door! Get out thy sword, Ned, and step warily."
Ned was full awake by now; and as he rushed to the main door, his thoughts were neither of himself nor Nell, but of the house that had weathered fire and flood and tempest through a half-score generations of Waynes.
"The flames sing from without. There's no fire inside as yet. We can save the old place still," he cried, swinging back the heavy cross-beam that bolted the door.
"Stop, thou fool!" said the other, checking him. "Dost think the trap is not set plain enough, that thou should'st go smoke-blinded on to a Ratcliffe sword-point? We must try the side door leading to the orchard."
But Nell was downstairs by this time, with Mistress Wayne close behind her. "Ned, the kitchen-door's a-blaze, and the orchard door," she gasped—"and see—the oak is beginning to crack yonder, for all its thickness."
Shameless Wayne threw off his cousin's grasp, and drew the staples and turned the cumbrous key. The sweat stood on his forehead, and iron and wood alike were blistering to the touch. He jerked the door wide open, and over the threshold a live, glowing bank of peats fell dumbly on to the floor-boards. He strove to cross into the open, but could not; and athwart the red-blue reek he saw the Lean Man's eyes fixed steadfastly on his.
"God's mercy, this is what Barguest came to tell thee of," said Mistress Wayne, standing ghost-like and strangely undismayed in the lurid light.