“Lucky for us they weren’t roses!” gasped Wally, picking himself up out of the soft soil. “A fellow wants to have on more than pyjamas for this sort of a lark!” They tore on, ploughing over Hogg’s most cherished flower beds.
“Where is that blessed hose?” Jim uttered, wrathfully. He dived into various dark corners where taps existed. Then he stopped, frowning.
“Hogg was mending it. Confound the delay!” he said. “Start with the little one, Wal.; you know, it’s near that palm you were climbing. I’ll find Hogg.” Shouting, he ran round the corner of the house, and collided violently with the gardener, hurrying to meet him with the great rubber coil in his hands. The shock sent them both staggering, and Hogg sat down abruptly.
“Ye took me—fair i’ the wind!” he gasped. “Run on, laddie. A’ll get ma breath presently.”
Flames were shooting from half the windows upstairs when Jim at length got his hose to work. The fire had caught the wooden balcony, spreading from it to the upper rooms, and downstairs the kitchen was burning, and the back verandah had caught. Mr. Linton, running over after carrying Norah far out of the way of heat, and leaving her in Jean’s care, saw how the flames were being sucked into the house through the wide-open back door.
“Won’t do!” he muttered. Dashing in through the smoke, and gripping the almost red-hot door-handle with his felt hat, he managed to slam the door. He staggered off the verandah just as the flooring collapsed.
Black Billy, his eyes apparently starting out of his sable face, was at his elbow.
“Run round and shut the front door, if it’s open, Billy!” Mr. Linton said, coughing.
“Plenty!” murmured Billy. He disappeared round the corner of the house, a black streak of fear.
On the eastern side the window of Mr. Linton’s office stood open. The squatter swung himself through it with the lightness of a boy, and ran to his desk, which stood open, its roll-top flung back. It held papers that must not be risked—he thrust them into his overcoat pockets hurriedly; then, spreading the cloth from a little table on the floor, he emptied the drawers upon it, working by the dancing glow of the flames that lit up all the surroundings. Already the heat and smoke were almost unbearable.