A shrill, frightful scream, the like of which I had never heard before or since, roused us to our feet.
"In the name of all the powers, what's that?" cried the lawyer.
"The horses, man—we have forgotten them!" answered the doctor, starting on a run to the front of the house around the east wing.
The oak to which the two beasts had been made fast was close to the side of the house. One of them had broken loose, and had made off into the garden, towing the chain behind him. The other (the saddle-horse) had wound the halter around the trunk of the tree, and, half strangled, was snubbed close to it, backing away with all his might. As we saw this again he emitted the horrid cry of fright and agony. I had never known that such tones were in the voice of any animal. The heat had shrivelled the upper branches of the oak, and even the bark on the side toward the house was singed and smoking.
The lawyer drew out a knife, and hastening up, shielding his face, cut the poor beast adrift. He galloped away toward the swamp.
The wooden wing was completely eaten by this time, and the flames were pouring from every window of the brick portion of the older part of the dwelling. Soon the walls alone would be left standing. I turned away from the sight and looked out to the river. A long white row of wild swan swayed in the current. Their halloings and cries, like those of a crowd of school-children at recess, came down to us on the damp wind. The smoke had evidently been seen from one of the plantations up the Gunpowder, for a boat under a small sprit-sail was making out from the farther shore.
The doctor was now in the garden examining the chaise, which had been overturned in a patch of brushwood. He tried each wheel mechanically, and I could see he felt relieved that no damage had been done.
"Well, what are we going to do now?" I nervously asked of Mr. Edgerton, speaking for the first time, and repeating the doctor's words of a few minutes before.
The lawyer fumbled in his pockets and drew forth the miniature and the paper he had taken from the desk. I remembered having noticed also that the doctor had slipped the coins in his pocket.
"This is all we have to go by," he replied. "Lord only knows what you've lost, Master Hurdiss. Oh, confound the thought that made me light the fire!" he added, kicking and pawing at the soaked ground like an angry bull.