"Nothing," replied Salina, "only the house is afire."
XXXIII.
CARL MAKES AN ENGAGEMENT.
Lysander looked in through the doors and saw flames. She had touched the lamp to the sitting-room curtains, and they had ignited the wood-work.
"Your own house," he said, furiously. "What a fiend!"
"It was my father's house until you took possession of it," she answered. "Now it shall burn."
If he had not already considered that he had an interest at stake, that gentle remark reminded him.
"Boys! come quick! By——! we must put out the fire!"
He rushed into the kitchen. The German brothers had come to execute his commands: whether to flay a negro or extinguish a fire, was to them a matter of indifference; and they followed him, seizing pails.