cable to those who have never heard it, unforgettable to
those who have--a sound of a whispering roar, impressive and yet faint,
sharp and yet dull, like the far-off roll of breaking surf and the
rattle of rifle-shots. It told of a fire that was sweeping along through
miles of grass with the rush of an incoming tide, leaping, flinging,
dancing as it came, throwing up its columns of smoke, spark-laden and
dense; sweeping in long lines of flame, reaching out like endless
feelers from the great red demon behind; stretching out in thin streaks
of glowing red, flameless till a dozen had spread in a network, laced
and interlaced, in the dull buff hue of the grass, and a breath came out
from the smoke and fanned them all to a blaze, and the flames sprang up
with a roar, and leaping, rushed like a charging host when battle-cries
rend the air, devouring everything, destroying everything, in the
maddened swirl of heat. It told of standing timber bending before the
wind which sprang to life in the fury of the blaze, while sheets of
flame flung from tree to tree, hissing and roaring as they wrapped round
the topmost boughs, and, while yet the stems were enshrouded in smoke,
stripped off the leaves in a blazing shower, and tossed them far and
wide, as though the game were a frolic and death were a laughing glee.
It told of scorching blasts that rushed from the line of flame,
shrivelling the leaves that were green to make them ripe for the havoc
that was to come.

Shouts came to him from the smoke, telling him where the men were
fighting, and he hastened forward. A dozen men dashed out of the gloom
ahead, smoke-stained and grimed.

"Back to the road," the first one cried. "Ride back and fire the grass.
It's sweeping down for miles in front. There's twenty fires alight."

"The blacks have set it going," another yelled. "It's springing
everywhere."

"It's coming round both sides. It's all over the run," another shouted.

"The station-house?" Tony cried.

"The fires are all round it," was the answer. "Nothing can save it."

For a moment Tony sat still--for a moment. Then over him there swept a
wave of emotion which blotted out everything from his mind but a sense
of Ailleen's peril. A second thought would have suggested that she would
have been warned, that she would have fled from the station long before;
but he had no second thought. Only could he realize the peril she was
in; only could he realize the need there was of helping