rrent of
life seemed to bound again in his veins, and, with a feeling of wonder
that he could have been so supine--

"Father!" he cried; but there was no reply. "Father!"

Still no response, and he could just make out that the wounded man's
eyes were closed. But Scarlett was full of energy now, and, leaping up,
he seized Sir Godfrey by the arm, and dragged him by main force to the
foot of the great staircase.

"I must get him to the corridor somehow," he thought; and, stooping
down, he clasped his arms about him, terribly impeded by the breastplate
and backpiece he wore, and then, panting and suffocating, he dragged him
up step by step, every one being into a more stifling atmosphere. The
increasing heat bathed him with perspiration, and a growing sense of
languor made him feel as if each step would be the last.

But, raging and grinding his teeth in his efforts, he toiled on till the
topmost step was reached, and there he paused, chilled now by a terrible
and despairing sense of his position. The fire had eaten its way
upwards, and to drag his insensible burden to the right through the door
leading to the servants' apartments, or to the left along the corridor,
was on either hand into a burning furnace.

Scarlett Markham sank upon his knees beside his father on the polished
oaken floor of the gallery, and giddy now with the heat and exhaustion,
his lips cracking, and every breath he drew laden with the poisonous
fumes, he felt that all was over, and, with a prayer coming confusedly
to his mind, he made a snatch at his father's hand, missed it, and fell
sidewise.

But even then there was the natural involuntary effort to save himself
from falling headlong backwards from top to bottom of the stairs, and
one hand grasped at the balustrade, caught one of the carved oaken
pilasters; there was a sharp cracking sound, the stair by his shoulder
shot back an inch or two, and a draught of cold revivifying air
literally rushed whistling through the orifice.

It was life, energy, hope, renewed courage, all in one, as he gasped and
panted and wildly thrust back the loose stair till the way was open;
and, gathering strength as the fresh air rushed up into his nostrils on
its way to fan the growing flames, he seized his father where he lay on
the top of the staircase, drew him towards his breast, and let him drop
right into the opening, whose sloping floor made the rest comparatively
easy.

But Scarlett worked manfully,