ady spread to the larger
pieces of pine, and it could not go out now. The sound made by the
flames blended exactly with the roaring of the wind, and another minute
or two might pass before the Iroquois detected it.

Now his heart throbbed again, and exultation was mingled with his anger.
By the time the Iroquois were aroused to the danger the flames would be
so high that the wind would reach them. Then no one could put them out.

It might have been safer for him to flee deep into the forest at once,
but that lingering desire to make his task complete and, also, the wish
to see the result kept him from doing it. He merely walked across the
open space and stood behind a tree at the edge of the forest.

Braxton Wyatt and his Tories and Iroquois were very warm, very snug, in
the shelter of the old house with the great bed of coals before them.
They may even have been dreaming peaceful and beautiful dreams, when
suddenly an Iroquois sprang to his feet and uttered a cry that awoke all
the rest.

"I smell smoke!" he exclaimed in his tongue, "and there is fire, too! I
hear it crackle outside!"

Braxton Wyatt ran to the window and jerked it open. Flame and smoke blew
in his face. He uttered an angry cry, and snatched at the pistol in his
belt.

"The whole side of the house is on fire!" he exclaimed. "Whose neglect
has done this?"

Coleman, shrewd and observing, was at his elbow.

"The fire was set on the outside," he said. "It was no carelessness of
our men. Some enemy has done this!"

"It is true!" exclaimed Wyatt furiously. "Out, everybody! The house
burns fast!"

There was a rush for the door. Already ashes and cinders were falling
about their heads. Flames leaped high, were caught by the roaring winds,
and roared with them. The shell of the house would soon be gone, and
when Tories and Iroquois were outside they saw the remainder of their
band pouring forth from the other house, which was also in flames.

No means of theirs could stop so great a fire, and they stood in a sort
of stupefaction, watching it as it was fanned to greatest heights by the
wind.

All the remaining outbuildings caught, also, and in a few moments
nothing whatever would be left of the tiny village. Braxton Wyatt and
his band must lie in the icy wilderness, and they could never use this
place as a basis for attack upon settlements.

"How under the sun could it have happened?" exclaimed Wyatt.

"It didn't happen. It was done," said Colem