and the Bottom, a man who had been
lying in the shelter out of the wind came to the door and called to the
colt.

"Whoa, little man!" he said. "Whoa then!"

CHAPTER XXVII

The Fire in the Dusk

It was Jerry who gave the alarm ten minutes later. He had been busy at
his garden in the Sloperies when he saw the smoke rise from the shelter
on the hill, and rushed into the yard to say the shed was ablaze.

Boy and Silver, after their leisurely walk home, had just entered the
yard and surrendered their horses to two of the lads. The girl was
releasing Billy Bluff from his chain, to Maudie's open annoyance, when
Jerry panted in with his news.

Silver ran to the gate.

"By Jove, so it is!" he cried.

He was in the saddle in a moment, but not so quickly as was the girl.

She led him through the gate.

Together they galloped across the Paddock Close and made for the hill,
Billy Bluff racing at their side.

The lads ran heavily behind.

The shed was belching smoke, and from the heather-thatch the flames were
leaping in red flicker.

"Jolly blaze!" cried Silver as he galloped.

A sound of banging came from the heart of that cloud of smoke, and then
the loud neigh of a frightened horse.

The young man's face changed.

"Four Pound's inside!" he cried.

He stormed up the hill, and for the first time in his life Banjo tasted
steel.

Boy, too, had heard that muffled cry, and came shooting by the
heavy-weight up the hill, Lollypop well extended.

"Keep clear!" cried Silver. "Hold my horse!"

He was off in a trice, and wading through the bellying smoke.

The girl could see him dimly as he kicked at the door of the shed.

It burst open.

A vast shadow came hurtling through the fog.

Silver was sent hurling backward and sprawled on the hillside.

He was on his feet in a moment.

"That's all right," he panted, as he watched the colt career whinnying
away, wreaths of smoke still clinging to his woolly coat. "He's not
taken much harm."

"I suppose he went in after we left," mused Boy. "And then the wind
banged the door."

"I don't think the wind dropped that bar," said the young man. "And I
doubt if it set the shelter alight."

The shed was blazing merrily, the flames devouring the tarred wood with
greed.

Jerry had seen a man leave the public path, cross the Paddock, and enter
the shed half an hour before.

"What kind of a man?" asked Silver.

"Trampy, sir," replied the lad.

"He got smok