seconds the pair were ringed by sound like that of crackling musketry
upon a battlefield, and by a pyrotechnic spectacle of terrifying
magnitude. Layson had heard guns pop in untrained volleys at State Guard
manoeuvres, and was instantly impressed by the amazing similarity of
sound, but he had never in his life seen anything to be compared to the
towering ring of flame-wall which almost instantly encircled them. He
lost, perhaps, a minute, in astonished contemplation of the situation.
Then realization of their peril burst upon him with a rush. To wait
there, where they were, too evidently meant certain death. Not only
would the pulsing heat from the pine-tops already burning soon become
unendurable, but there was enough of tindrous litter strewn about the
entire area of the little clearing to make it horribly apparent to him
that, in a moment, it would all become a bed of glittering flame. He
gazed at the menacing, encroaching fire, appalled.

Madge, understanding the desperation of their situation even better than
he did, knowing, too, that a stranger could, indeed, scarce conceive the
deadly peril of it, was, at first, the cooler of the two. Her life there
in the mountains, where any man she knew might meet, and her own father
had met, death stalking with a rifle in his bended elbow, or a knife
clutched in his clenched hand, had given her a certain poise in time of
peril, an admirable self-control, quick wits, firm nerves. She felt that
there was small chance of escape, yet she was not visibly terrified, and
made no outcry.

Had she been caught, thus, with a mountaineer (which scarcely could have
happened) she would have felt small apprehension. Learned in the perils
of the woods, heavy-booted, sturdy-legged, a native, like Joe Lorey, for
example, would, she felt quite certain, have been able to effect her
rescue. But the chances, she decided, were practically nil, with this
untrained "foreigner" as her companion. She had been told that
"bluegrass folks" were lacking in strong nerves and prone to panic if
real danger threatened. Barefooted as she was, there was little she,
herself, could do. She knew that she would quickly fall unconscious from
intolerable pain if she so much as tried to make a dash for safety. That
she was badly frightened she would have readily admitted, that she was
panic-stricken none who looked at her could, for a moment, dream.

She glanced at Layson with a curiosity which was almost calm, as,