“Quick, Ingen; jump into the mill-wheel, and down into the water!”
They were about to adopt this plan of escape, when the wheel started with great rapidity, rendering it seemingly impossible to do so.
“Now,” yelled Walker, as he seized Miss Mamie and bore her from the mill, “you shall see the folly of opposing me! You shall see how I triumph over all obstacles, and how those who oppose me perish!”
Inside of the mill, and near the door, was a quantity of hay and unthreshed grain, stored there for use by some neighboring farmer or guerrilla. Striking a match, Walker lit the inflammable material. In a moment it blazed high, and communicated with the woodwork. Walker only waited to see this, and then, almost dragging Miss Hayward along, he reached the river, drew the boat into the stream, and was once more floating with the current.
“Look, Miss Mamie, is not that a lovely sight?” he cried, pointing to the mill, now thoroughly enveloped in flames. “Nettleton is there, and Fall-leaf is there, and they have been brought there by you. They will perish in those flames, and you must be responsible for their murder. When will you learn that it is useless to oppose me, and cease to do so? To submit to my proper and honorable requests is the only way you can save your friends.”
When Nettleton and Fall-leaf found their mode of escape thus cut off, they naturally turned to each other for advice. But the water thrown from the wheel so blinded and choked them that they could not hold conversation at all. It was not long before our prisoners became aware of the fact that, however disagreeable the water might be, they were likely to be visited by an element, and that very soon, far more disagreeable, under the present circumstances. The flames were seizing upon every part of the mill, and all around them soon became a mass of lurid, destroying light. The rafters, flooring and upper work threatened to fall at any moment. Still the room in which our friends were confined remained unscathed, surrounded as it was by water. But, it must soon yield to the fiery element. The wheel still moved; yet it seemed as if its speed was somewhat lessened. At length Nettleton yelled:
“Ingen, I’m going; take your chances!”
With a bound he sprung into the wheel. He escaped any severe blow, but, upon alighting he was tossed, and pitched, and tumbled over, until at last, catching upon the centre-bar, he held himself until he had made his calculation as to where his next jump should be. At last he ventured the hazardous leap, and was precipitated into the foaming waters beneath the wheel, which in its revolution struck him lightly, calling forth a grumble or a grunt. But Nettleton battled bravely with the rushing waters, and at length, half dead with suffocation, he crawled upon the bank as the burning rafters of the mill were falling around him.
“Wal, I suppose Ingen is roasted alive, and I must do the work alone. I’m darn sorry. And I’ve lost my gun, too. But I ought to be glad that I didn’t lose myself. The villain, but won’t I roast him if ever I lay these hands on him!”
Thus he muttered as he sat for a moment gazing upon the appalling spectacle before him. He then sprung up, and seeing the old woman, at once started for the cabin. Madge met him at the door.