“Confound them! Have they escaped us again?” came another voice.
“Look’s like it. Scatter and find them—back for your lives, all of you!”
The warning cry was followed almost instantly by a deafening explosion. A vivid flash of blue flame occurred simultaneously.
“Gollyation!” gasped Jumbo, “de end ob de worl’ am comin’.”
The whole hut seemed to burst into flame at once. Lurid, vivid fire seemed to gush from every window and opening in the place. In color it was an intense blue.
“Shades ob Massa George Wash basin!” yelled Jumbo, “all de debils in dat pit we see back dar is on de job! Come on, Marse Rob. Let’s git out ob here in double quick jig time.”
“Nonsense,” said Rob sharply, “I see it all, now, Jumbo. That place was a moonshine joint—an illegal distillery. Those men who just attacked it are revenue officers. The explosion was caused by hundreds of gallons of spirits. I guess the moonshiners set it on fire to destroy the evidence.”
Each instant the blaze rose higher. The hut, within its four walls, was a mass of flames. It glowed like a red hot furnace. Rob watched it with fascinated eyes. The whole clearing was bright as day. The dark woods beyond were bathed in a blood-red glare from the flames.
The intense heat fairly blistered the trunks of the nearest hemlocks. Resin ran from them freely.
“Let’s get further back, Jumbo, it’s too hot here,” said Rob presently.