Hashknife drew Parker aside.
“Any idea how it happened, Parker?”
“Hell, no!”
“Lila ain’t in there. Me and Slim searched.”
“Thank God for that, Hartley!”
Parker ran back to tell the women. The house was doomed, and everybody seemed to realize it. Hashknife and Slim drew back nearer the fence when the flames shot through the roof with a crackle like a machine gun. Chuck, sweating, his shirt on fire in several places, came to them.
“Whatsa use?” he asked. “Yuh can’t do a thing, Slim.”
“Not a thing, Chuck. How did it get started?”
“Nobody knows. Ain’t she a dinger of a fire, though? Look at her blaze!”
Dell Blackwell and Boomer Weed, still half-drunk, joined them. They had tried to carry buckets of water, but neither of them could find the well after the first trip.