"I went up to the shed," shouted the man, "but there wasn't any horses there, nor carriage either."
"Where are they?" asked George, in bewilderment.
"How should I know?" was the reply, in an angry tone.
And then, before anything more could be said, a shout, almost of despair, arose from those who were working nearer the town—
"The waste oil has caught fire!"
The oil which had been drawn off from the tanks, through the perforations made by the cannon balls, had been set on fire by the heat of the blazing stream by its side, and the flames were moving rapidly toward the two other large tanks in the immediate vicinity.
CHAPTER XIII.
A FRUITLESS SEARCH.
Many conflagrations, caused by the lightning striking an oil-tank, have been known since the discovery of petroleum; but none had ever been so disastrous as the one of which the reader has had but an imperfect account.