k the sash and seek escape
that way. They had doomed him to death, but he could climb roofs like a
cat and feared nothing when once relieved from this smoke. Catching up
the chair, he advanced toward the window.

But before reaching it he paused. It was not only he they sought to
destroy, but the room. There was evidence of crime in the room. In that
moment of keenly aroused intelligence he felt sure of it. What was to be
done? How could he save the room, and, by these means, save himself and
her? A single glance about assured him that he could not save it. The
boards under his feet were hot. Glints of yellow light streaking
through the shutters showed that the lower storey had already burst into
flame. The room must go and with it every clue to the problem which was
agitating him. Meanwhile, his eyeballs were smarting, his head growing
dizzy. No longer sure of his feet, he staggered over to the wall and was
about to make use of its support in his effort to reach the window, when
his eyes fell on the spot from which he had peeled the paper, and he
came to a sudden standstill. A bit of pink was showing under one edge of
the blue.

Dropping the chair which he still held, he fumbled for his knife, found
it, made a dash at that wall, and for a few frenzied moments worked at
the plaster till he had hacked off a piece which he thrust into his
pocket. Then seizing the chair again, he made for the window and threw
it with all his force against the panes. They crashed and the air came
rushing in, reviving him enough for the second attempt. This not only
smashed the pane, but loosened the shutters, and in one instant two
sights burst upon his view--the face of a man in an upper window of the
adjoining barn and the sudden swooping up from below of a column of
deadly smoke which seemed to cut off all hope of his saving himself by
the means he had calculated on. Yet no other way offered. It would be
folly to try the door again. This was the only road, threatening as it
looked, to possible safety for himself and her. He would take it, and if
he succumbed in the effort, it should be with a final thought of her
who was fast becoming an integral part of his own being.

Meanwhile he had mounted to the sill and taken another outward look.
This room, as I have already intimated, was in the rear of an extension
running back from the centre of the main building. It consisted of only
two stories, surmounted by a long, slightly-peaked roof.