f rescue. "Fire at that miserable little chip
that holds it," he cried; "fire, since you can't hit it otherwise. Oh,
for an asbestos suit, and I would have styed." They fired pistol and gun
with no effect, till the lawyer, out in the skiff with Bill, got his
rifle sighted to the point in the blue flame, where he thought the
preventing ridge ought to be. He fired at close range, the ball hit the
rock projection, and at once the great block slid away into the lake,
with a splash that damped the flames with a column of spray, and
revealed an awful corridor of fire. No living creature was there, but
the detective, dipping his feet in the lake, took a boat hook out of the
returning skiff, and then, standing in the flames, hauled out two
charred masses, and extinguished them in the shallow water by the shore.

Mr. Terry came running down and crying: "Out on the wather wid yeez,
ivery mother's son av yeez; the foire's spreadin' an' the threes is
fallin'; fer yer loife, min." Mr. Bangs, still in command, asked:--

"How many will the skiff howld, Bill?"

"Seven, anyway," replied the Richards of that name.

"Mr. Coristine and Mr. Terry take commend and choose crew."

"Come, Matilda and Monty," said the lawyer.

"Come on, Sylvanus, Timotheus, Rufus," cried Mr. Terry.

"I'll row," said the Irishman.

"And me, too," added Sylvanus.

"Look after my prisoner, Mr. Bangs," cried Rufus; and the skiff went out
to sea.

Bill transferred himself to the scow, with his brother Harry and Mr.
Bigglethorpe. The detective lifted the two charred masses to the
opposite side of the middle thwart from that against which the prisoner
lay. Then, Bill and Bigglethorpe having taken the bow, he and Harry took
the stern, and the scow followed the skiff. For a time the two boats
stood stock still, fascinated by the awful scene. The explosions were
over, but the forest was blazing fiercely, and up towards the
smouldering buildings, but underground, blazed a vault of blue fire that
reached up to the standing brick chimney of Rawdon's house. Hundreds of
animals were in the water around them, squirrels and snakes and
muskrats, even mice, swimming for dear life. Then, pitter, patter, came
the rain, hissing on the flames. It fell more heavily; and the lawyer,
having doffed his coat to row, threw it over the woman's shoulders,
while Mr. Terry put that of Sylvanus about the boy. "Lead on, Mr.
Coristine," cried the detective; and the skiff shot through th