“I couldn’t help it, I say. It filled me with fear, and I broke away.”
“Well?”
“By and by the room became still, and I found that she was asleep at last.”
“That’s good.”
“In the room below I upset the lamp.”
“The devil you did, woman! You must have been badly frightened.”
“I was. In an instant it seemed the fire was everywhere. I saw it mount the stairs and dart toward the girl’s room. Fear almost paralyzed me. I tried to get upstairs, but failed. The fire was everywhere. It filled the whole house, it seemed. I could no more stop its progress than I could stop the river yonder. I fled for my life.”
“And left Margie to perish in the flames?”
“Got help me, I did.”
Lamont leaned back and looked at the woman, whose face was deathly white.