he could judge his
fire was directly under the room in which the most of the commotion
upstairs was taking place.

It was not long before he heard coughing upstairs, the first sign that
the smoke was doing its work. By that time a brisk fire was burning. It
had run up the posts to the beams that formed the chief support of the
room above, and to his delight Frank saw that these burned far more
fiercely and quickly than he had hoped. Plainly the wood was old and
dry.

Above, as the fire spread, louder cries succeeded the coughing. And then
came the crucial test by which his daring experiment had to stand or
fall. Some one opened the door at the head of the stairs. Now, if ever,
he was to be discovered! But as the door was opened the smoke was drawn
up, and the German who had come to it jumped back.

"The whole place is burning! Get out!" he cried, in German. "There may
be explosive spirits still down there!"

He slammed the door shut, and Frank heard running footsteps above. He
waited until there were no more, and then, almost overcome by the smoke,
slipped through the door. No one was left in the hallway into which he
came. The place was full of smoke. He did not venture to the front door
by which he had entered, but, still dragging his can of petrol, went to
the back. Going through the kitchen, he found another door, as he had
been sure he would and in a moment he was drinking in the cool, fresh
air. The rain that was beating down on him now was welcome.

Just as he reached the open there was a sharp explosion behind him, and
he looked back, to see the windows on the ground floor glowing. That was
the other can of petrol, as he could guess readily enough. At once he
ducked, and, running low, got well to one side of the house. Then, just
as a great burst of flame lighted up the whole scene, he dropped to the
ground, and lay peering toward the road in front of the inn.

A dozen officers and as many men, all in the German uniform, with the
spiked helmets that made them so unmistakable, were in the road, staring
at the burning house. And it was not until Frank saw how angry one of
the officers was that he realized what a useful idea his had really
been. Now detection of the Germans was certain. Investigation was almost
certain to be made of a fire in a building so far out of the range of
the German artillery as this. And so, even if neither he nor Captain
Greene got back in time, the torch he had lighted, meaning on