Some of the house doors were open to the night, showing their occupants had gone forth hastily; some opened and let out men and women to join the little party of four. The Rangers passed them on horseback, and, as they came within sight of the house, they saw dark forms already flitting before the fiery background, living silhouettes against the flame. It was the great old-fashioned shed which was burning, but the summer wind was blowing straight for the house, and three minutes after the Simpsons arrived a flicker of flame shot out from the coach-house cornice, caught the gable of the old house, crept up it, and fled along the ridge pole like a venomous fiery serpent. Mabella came rushing up to old Mrs. Simpson.
“Will you take care of Dorothy?” she said; “Lanty isn’t here—oh, isn’t it terrible?” and then she fled back to show the men where the new harness was in the house, and to try to get her sewing machine and a few other of her housewifely treasures. All the neighbourhood was there working with mad energy. These people might gossip and backbite and perhaps misjudge each other sorely, but no need such as this found deaf ears. They knew what such a catastrophe meant, how vital a thing it was, and wild with the energy which is born of hopeless struggle, they strove to cheat the fire-fiend’s greedy maw. Ab Ranger and young Shinar were rolling out the barrels of flour from Mabella’s well-stocked storeroom, when, high above the noise of the flames and the excited hum of voices, there came the sound of wildly galloping hoofs. The next instant the roan, with Lanty on her back, took the high fence as though it were in her stride, and Lanty, flinging himself from the saddle, rushed to the burning house. He could see for the moment neither wife nor child, nor did he know if the neighbours had arrived in time. He was distraught with apprehension. His wild ride since he had first seen the glimmer of the fire had seemed to him as hours of agony. He ran hither and thither through the crowd uttering incoherent demands for his wife and child.
Mabella appeared in the doorway. The flames lit up his face, distorted with anxiety and terrible fear. A great throb of relief made his heart leap, and released the sanguine blood which rushed to his head.