Had Pomp been able to find them? Or might they not all have
become entangled in the intricacies of the wilderness until encompassed
by the fire and destroyed?

Penn watched in vain for their coming--in vain for some signal of their
safety on the crags above the forest. Had they reached the crags, he
thought he might discover them somewhere with a glass, so vividly were
those grim rock-foreheads of the hills lighted up beneath the red sky.

He sent Cudjo to find Dan, ran to the cave for Pomp's glass, and
returned to the ledge. There he waited; there he watched; still in vain.
Wider and wider, spread the destroying sea; fiercer and fiercer leaped
the billows of flame--the billows that did not fall again, but broke
away in rent sheets, in red-rolling scrolls, and vanished upward in
their own smoke.

And now Penn, lowering the glass, perceived what he must long since have
been made aware of, had not the greater light concealed the less. It was
morning; a dull and sunless dawn; the despairing daylight, filtered of
all warmth and color, spreading dim and gray on the misty valleys, and
on the sombre, far-off hills, under an interminable canopy of cloud.

Pepperill came clambering up the rocks. Penn turned eagerly to meet and
question him.

"Find him?"

"Wal, a piece on him."

"Killed?"

"I reckon he ar that!"

"Who is it?"

"Durned if I kin tell! He's jammed in thar 'twixt two gre't stuns, and
the hoss is piled on top, and you can't see nary featur' of his face,
only the legs,--but durned if I know the legs!"

"Couldn't you move the horse?"

"Nary a bit. His neck is broke, and he lays wedged so clust, right on
top o' the poor cuss, 'twould take a yoke o' oxen to drag him out."

"Are you sure the man is dead?"

"Shore? I reckon! He had one arm loose. I jest lifted it, and it drapped
jest like a club when I let go; then I see 'twas broke square off jest
above the elbow, about where the backbone o' the hoss comes. Made me
durned sick!"

"What have you got in your hand?"

"A boot--one o' his'n--thought I'd pull it off, his leg stuck up so kind
o' handy; didn't know but some on ye might know the boot." And Dan held
it up for Penn's inspection.

"What is this on it? Blood?"

"It ar so! Mebby it's the hoss's, and then agin mebby it's his'n; I
hadn't noticed it afore."

"I'll go back with you, Daniel. Together perhaps we can move the horse."

"Ye're behind time for that! The fire's thar. I hadn't only jest