FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162  
163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   >>   >|  
ttacked it, and as his laughter changed to curses, she wrenched free once more and flew across the room. With both hands she seized the candles and flung them into the pillowed divan; holding the last two to the draperies. Like magic the little flames zigzagged up the cotton hangings. He threw himself upon the fire, dragging down the hangings, beating on the cushions, but the corner was ablaze. Overhead the flames seized cracklingly on the dry wood and darted little red tongues over the dry surface and a scarlet snake ran out over the carved ceiling. In utter wildness Arlee had carried the last candle to the open hamper and the garments there caught instant fire. She was oblivious of the sparks falling about her, oblivious of the increasing peril. When Kerissen ran to the door, tearing open the bolts, furiously cursing her, she gave him back the ghost of his earlier mocking laughter and threatened him with a blazing cloth as he turned to drag her from the room. But the fire reached her fingers and she flung the cloth at him, to have him trample it under foot as he sprang toward her again. "Would you be burned--be marred?" he shouted at her. "You are mad, you----" Behind him the door opened. Behind him a tall figure appeared through the thickening smoke. She saw a face she knew; a voice she knew cried out her name: "Arlee!" "Oh, here!" she cried and flung herself toward him. "Not unless you want another?" said Billy B. Hill to the Captain, turning his gun suggestively. One tense instant the three faced each other in that flaming room, then with a sound of impotent fury, Kerissen turned and darted out the door. But as Billy turned to follow, his hand on Arlee's, there was a sound of sliding bolts. "Burn, burn, then! Burn together!" called a hoarse voice through the wood. Hill flung himself against the door; it was unyielding. On the other side the taunts continued. He ran to the window, catching up the little table as he ran, and rained a fury of blows with the table against the close-carved screen. The wood splintered and broke; he wrenched a side away, and dropping his gun in his pocket he crashed through the hole and hung on the outside by his hands. "Climb out on my shoulders," he commanded, and Arlee climbed--how, she never knew. For one instant she had an impression of hanging out over an abyss with fire crackling in her face; the next instant the soles of her feet were smarting and her
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162  
163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
instant
 

turned

 

oblivious

 

Behind

 

Kerissen

 
darted
 
carved
 

hangings

 
flames
 

seized


wrenched

 

laughter

 
turning
 

suggestively

 
Captain
 

smarting

 
hanging
 
climbed
 

crackling

 

impression


flaming

 

unyielding

 

splintered

 

pocket

 

hoarse

 

dropping

 

taunts

 

catching

 

window

 

continued


screen

 
called
 

impotent

 

shoulders

 

rained

 
follow
 

crashed

 
sliding
 

commanded

 
cushions

corner
 

ablaze

 
beating
 
dragging
 

Overhead

 

cracklingly

 
ceiling
 

wildness

 
scarlet
 

tongues