ch with her exertions had sent the
perspiration streaming down her face. For now, balancing herself with
great care, she moved her tortured arms, half numb with pain, up and
down against the rusty edges. A sharp pain and she bit her
lips,--readjusting herself to her task. But she felt the saw cutting
into the rope--one strand, another, and in a moment her hands were
released.

In her joy of the achievement, she toppled over on the floor, but
managed to release her elbows. Now, panting with her exertions and
moving her arms quickly to restore the circulation, she felt for the
knots at her knees and ankles and in a moment her limbs were free. But
she had not reckoned with the effects of their long period of
inactivity, for when she tried to get to her feet she found that her
limbs were powerless. But she moved her knees up and down, suffering
keenly as the blood took up its course, and after a time managed to
scramble to her feet, and stagger to the opening in the wall.

It seemed that all the forest was now a mass of flaming brands and that
the roar of the flames was at her very ears. It was stiflingly hot too
and in one corner of the cabin there was a tiny bright spot and a curl
of smoke. Had her liberty come too late? She was not even free yet, for
the hole in the wall of the building was no larger than a single pane of
glass and the door of the shanty was fastened by the hasp on the
outside.

There was no time now to hesitate unless she wished to be burned alive.
With an effort she threw herself against the door--again and again, but
it would not yield. Despairing and blinded by smoke, she staggered to
the box hunting an ax, when her fingers met the handle of the friendly
saw. It was heavy but she knew how to use it, and set it at the hole in
the wall, drawing it back and forth. The wood was dead and she felt it
yield to the strong teeth of the tool, so that she struggled on, the
width of the board; then cut again, at the upper edge of the aperture,
and in a moment the board fell away.

She was not a moment too soon, for as she crawled through the opening
and fell exhausted on the outside, one end of the building suddenly
caught fire, blazing fiercely. The sparks were all around her and her
skirt caught fire in the flaming leaves into which she had fallen, but
she put it out with her blistered hands and rose to her feet. A figure
was coming toward her, bent, its hand before its eyes. She could not
make out who it