It was easy, of course, to open it, and admit the free air just behind where he lay.
“That is better,” he soliloquized, in a satisfied tone, and, resuming his place on the hay, he was soon fast asleep.
Generally he was a good sleeper. His walking during the day was enough to insure that. To-night, however, was an exception.
Soon after midnight he awoke, and found the pale moon shining upon him through the small door.
He rose, and drawing near the window, looked out. Mechanically, for he had no object in so doing, he directed his glance toward the old barn, where he had been assigned a bed. He saw something that startled him.
Beside the barn was the stooping figure of a man. He seemed to have with him a basket, from which he drew out shavings, which he carefully placed just at the corner of the barn, at a place where the timbers were dry and broken.
“Good Heavens!” exclaimed Darius Darke, “he is going to set the barn on fire!”
“Who was the incendiary? What could be his object?”
These were questions which naturally addressed themselves instantly to the mind of the eager watcher. Was it possible——
A terrible suspicion formed itself in his mind. To resolve it, it was necessary to identify the incendiary. Here the moonlight, which had probably awakened him, did him a further service.