t stung the unprotected flesh and even burned
holes in their clothing of stout woollen. On and on, till their heads
felt light as a child's toy balloon and the blood in their ears pounded
like a mill-wheel. Piers Minor stumbled and fell.

"I am blind," he gasped. "Leave me." But Nanna would not give over,
tugging at the man's weight until she had him to his feet again, with a
convenient railing at his back. She picked up some water from the gutter
with her hands held cup-wise, and dashed the liquid in his face. Piers
Minor straightened up, and from his eyes the darkness cleared away.

"Courage!" she said, and he smiled back at her.

There was the shining of the river; now they could see the pier and the
boats of the shad-fishers lying alongside. Piers Minor cast off the
largest and most seaworthy-looking of the lot, and, without troubling to
bail out the standing water, he brought the craft broadside to the wharf
and held out his hand to Nanna. But she, looking to the northward, where
the gilded cupola of Arcadia House shone out against the sky, neither
moved nor spoke.

"Come," he said.

The girl turned. "She is there," she said, and pointed to the north. "I
must go to her--my little sister."

Piers Minor swung himself up on the wharf and seized her.

"You shall not," he said.

She tried to wrench herself free; she struck him full in the face. But
Piers Minor only smiled grimly and held on the tighter. And then, to his
astonishment, this tiger-cat became suddenly metamorphosed into a dove.
Her breast heaved, and she turned her head away; he knew that she was
weeping just like any other woman. Whereat Piers Minor smiled again, but
not grimly, and held her a little closer.

"Listen," he said, and forced her gently to look at him. "It is
impossible to reach Arcadia House; even now the fire is there before
you. You must believe that Constans received the message and was able to
get there in time. Believe it, because it is I who tell you."

She did believe, but, being a woman, she hesitated again--at the very
brink of surrender.

"Let me go," she said, in a low tone, and Piers Minor was so astonished
that he immediately complied, and stood looking at her helplessly. But
when, coloring like a rose and with downcast eyes, she would have passed
him, the masculine instinct of possession awoke again; he barred the way
determinedly.

A little distance away an enormous brick storehouse was burning
fiercely. A tremen