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With a jolt it stopped before the cottage, and a black-haired giant leaped out to run up onto the porch.
Without a pause he rushed into the house. On the couch lay Clayton. The man started in surprise, but
with a bound was at the side of the sleeping man.
Shaking him roughly by the shoulder, he cried:
My God, Clayton, are you all mad here? Don't you know you are nearly surrounded by fire? Where is
Miss Porter?
Clayton sprang to his feet. He did not recognize the man, but he understood the words and was upon
the veranda in a bound.
Scott! he cried, and then, dashing back into the house, Jane! Jane! where are you?
In an instant Esmeralda, Professor Porter and Mr. Philander had joined the two men.
Where is Miss Jane? cried Clayton, seizing Esmeralda by the shoulders and shaking her roughly.
Oh, Gaberelle, Mister Clayton, she done gone for a walk.
Hasn't she come back yet? and, without waiting for a reply, Clayton dashed out into the yard,
followed by the others. Which way did she go? cried the black-haired giant of Esmeralda.
Down that road, cried the frightened woman, pointing toward the south where a mighty wall of roaring
flames shut out the view.
Put these people in the other car, shouted the stranger to Clayton. I saw one as I drove up--and get
them out of here by the north road.
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
Leave my car here. If I find Miss Porter we shall need it. If I don't, no one will need it. Do as I say, as
Clayton hesitated, and then they saw the lithe figure bound away cross the clearing toward the northwest
where the forest still stood, untouched by flame.
In each rose the unaccountable feeling that a great responsibility had been raised from their shoulders; a
kind of implicit confidence in the power of the stranger to save Jane if she could be saved.
Who was that? asked Professor Porter.
I do not know, replied Clayton. He called me by name and he knew Jane, for he asked for her. And
he called Esmeralda by name.
There was something most startlingly familiar about him, exclaimed Mr. Philander, And yet, bless me,
I know I never saw him before.
Tut, tut! cried Professor Porter. Most remarkable! Who could it have been, and why do I feel that
Jane is safe, now that he has set out in search of her?
I can't tell you, Professor, said Clayton soberly, but I know I have the same uncanny feeling.
But come, he cried, we must get out of here ourselves, or we shall be shut off, and the party
hastened toward Clayton's car.
When Jane turned to retrace her steps homeward, she was alarmed to note how near the smoke of the
forest fire seemed, and as she hastened onward her alarm became almost a panic when she perceived
that the rushing flames were rapidly forcing their way between herself and the cottage.
At length she was compelled to turn into the dense thicket and attempt to force her way to the west in an
effort to circle around the flames and reach the house.
In a short time the futility of her attempt became apparent and then her one hope lay in retracing her
steps to the road and flying for her life to the south toward the town.
The twenty minutes that it took her to regain the road was all that had been needed to cut off her retreat
as effectually as her advance had been cut off before.
A short run down the road brought her to a horrified stand, for there before her was another wall of
flame. An arm of the main conflagration had shot out a half mile south of its parent to embrace this tiny
strip of road in its implacable clutches.
Jane knew that it was useless again to attempt to force her way through the undergrowth.
She had tried it once, and failed. Now she realized that it would be but a matter of minutes ere the whole
space between the north and the south would be a seething mass of billowing flames.
Calmly the girl kneeled down in the dust of the roadway and prayed for strength to meet her fate
bravely, and for the delivery of her father and her friends from death.
Suddenly she heard her name being called aloud through the forest:
Jane! Jane Porter! It rang strong and clear, but in a strange voice.
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
Here! she called in reply. Here! In the roadway!
Then through the branches of the trees she saw a figure swinging with the speed of a squirrel.
A veering of the wind blew a cloud of smoke about them and she could no longer see the man who was
speeding toward her, but suddenly she felt a great arm about her. Then she was lifted up, and she felt the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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With a jolt it stopped before the cottage, and a black-haired giant leaped out to run up onto the porch.
Without a pause he rushed into the house. On the couch lay Clayton. The man started in surprise, but
with a bound was at the side of the sleeping man.
Shaking him roughly by the shoulder, he cried:
My God, Clayton, are you all mad here? Don't you know you are nearly surrounded by fire? Where is
Miss Porter?
Clayton sprang to his feet. He did not recognize the man, but he understood the words and was upon
the veranda in a bound.
Scott! he cried, and then, dashing back into the house, Jane! Jane! where are you?
In an instant Esmeralda, Professor Porter and Mr. Philander had joined the two men.
Where is Miss Jane? cried Clayton, seizing Esmeralda by the shoulders and shaking her roughly.
Oh, Gaberelle, Mister Clayton, she done gone for a walk.
Hasn't she come back yet? and, without waiting for a reply, Clayton dashed out into the yard,
followed by the others. Which way did she go? cried the black-haired giant of Esmeralda.
Down that road, cried the frightened woman, pointing toward the south where a mighty wall of roaring
flames shut out the view.
Put these people in the other car, shouted the stranger to Clayton. I saw one as I drove up--and get
them out of here by the north road.
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
Leave my car here. If I find Miss Porter we shall need it. If I don't, no one will need it. Do as I say, as
Clayton hesitated, and then they saw the lithe figure bound away cross the clearing toward the northwest
where the forest still stood, untouched by flame.
In each rose the unaccountable feeling that a great responsibility had been raised from their shoulders; a
kind of implicit confidence in the power of the stranger to save Jane if she could be saved.
Who was that? asked Professor Porter.
I do not know, replied Clayton. He called me by name and he knew Jane, for he asked for her. And
he called Esmeralda by name.
There was something most startlingly familiar about him, exclaimed Mr. Philander, And yet, bless me,
I know I never saw him before.
Tut, tut! cried Professor Porter. Most remarkable! Who could it have been, and why do I feel that
Jane is safe, now that he has set out in search of her?
I can't tell you, Professor, said Clayton soberly, but I know I have the same uncanny feeling.
But come, he cried, we must get out of here ourselves, or we shall be shut off, and the party
hastened toward Clayton's car.
When Jane turned to retrace her steps homeward, she was alarmed to note how near the smoke of the
forest fire seemed, and as she hastened onward her alarm became almost a panic when she perceived
that the rushing flames were rapidly forcing their way between herself and the cottage.
At length she was compelled to turn into the dense thicket and attempt to force her way to the west in an
effort to circle around the flames and reach the house.
In a short time the futility of her attempt became apparent and then her one hope lay in retracing her
steps to the road and flying for her life to the south toward the town.
The twenty minutes that it took her to regain the road was all that had been needed to cut off her retreat
as effectually as her advance had been cut off before.
A short run down the road brought her to a horrified stand, for there before her was another wall of
flame. An arm of the main conflagration had shot out a half mile south of its parent to embrace this tiny
strip of road in its implacable clutches.
Jane knew that it was useless again to attempt to force her way through the undergrowth.
She had tried it once, and failed. Now she realized that it would be but a matter of minutes ere the whole
space between the north and the south would be a seething mass of billowing flames.
Calmly the girl kneeled down in the dust of the roadway and prayed for strength to meet her fate
bravely, and for the delivery of her father and her friends from death.
Suddenly she heard her name being called aloud through the forest:
Jane! Jane Porter! It rang strong and clear, but in a strange voice.
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
Here! she called in reply. Here! In the roadway!
Then through the branches of the trees she saw a figure swinging with the speed of a squirrel.
A veering of the wind blew a cloud of smoke about them and she could no longer see the man who was
speeding toward her, but suddenly she felt a great arm about her. Then she was lifted up, and she felt the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]