The comer was Dan Pepperill, breathless with haste, horror-struck, haggard. It was some time before he could reply to Penn's impetuous demand—what had brought him up thither?
"Carl!" he gasped.
"What has happened to Carl?"
"Ben tuck! durned if he hain't! But that ar ain't the wust!"
"What, then, is the worst?" for that seemed bad enough.
"Virginny—Miss Villars!"
"Virginia! what of her?"
"She's down thar! in the fire!"
"Virginia in the fire!"
"She ar,—durned if she ain't! Carl said she war on the mountain, and wanted me to hurry up and help her or find you; and I'd a done it, but I couldn't git off till we was runnin' from the fires we'd sot; then I kinder got scattered a puppus; t'other ones hung on to Carl, though, so I had to come alone."