tiny flakes that seemed to be of gold.
Tree, shed, barn, and chimney-stack, too, seemed to have been turned to
the brilliant metal; but to the lad's great relief he saw that the
wheelwright was wrong, the "thack" had not caught, and so far the house
was safe, though the burning stacks were so near that at any moment the
roof of the reed-thatched house might begin to blaze.

At last there was a sound--one that might have been going on before, but
kept by the distance from reaching Dick's ear--a cock crowed loudly, and
there was a loud cackling from the barn where the fowls roosted.

Then came the lowing of a cow; but all was perfectly still at the house,
and it seemed astounding that no one should have been alarmed.

Only another hundred yards or so and the farm would be reached. Dick
had settled down to a much slower speed. There was a sensation as if
the fire that shone in his face had made his breath scorching, so that
it burned his chest, while his feet were being weighted with lead.

"Tom!" he tried to shout as he drew near; but his voice was a hoarse
whisper, and it seemed to be drowned by the steady beat of the feet
behind upon the road.

"Tom!" he cried again, but with no better result, as he staggered on by
the wide drain which ran right up to the farm buildings from the big
pool in the fen where the reeds were cut.

And now that full drain and the pool gleamed golden, as if they too were
turned to fire, as Dick pushed by, realising that the hay-stack, the
great seed-stack, and the little stack of oats were blazing together,
not furiously, but with the flame rising up in a steady silent manner
which was awful.

There was a rough piece of stone in the way, against which Dick caught
his foot and nearly fell; but he saved himself, stooped, and picked up
the stone; and as he panted up to the long low red-brick farm, he hurled
it through a window on his left, and then fell up against, more than
stopped at, the door, against which he beat and kicked with all his
might.

The crashing in of the leaded pane casement had, however, acted like the
key which had unlocked the silent farmstead.

Tom Tallington rushed to the window.

"Who's--"

He would probably have said "that," but he turned his sentence into the
cry of "Fire! fire!"

The alarm spread in an instant. Farmer Tallington's window was thrown
open; and as he realised all, he dashed back, and then the rest of the
party came panting up, and Hickathr