-how _can_ there be a
draught here?"

As he spoke the humming sound strengthened and with it the draught blew
stronger.

"Merciful God!" cried Coquenil in a flash of understanding, "it's a
blower!"

"A blower?" repeated the girl.

M. Paul turned his face upward and listened attentively. "No doubt of it!
It's sucking through an air shaft--up there--in the ceiling."

"I--I don't understand."

"He's _forcing_ a draught from that room to this one. He has started a
blower, I tell you, and----"

"What _is_ a blower?" put in Alice.

At her frightened tone Coquenil calmed himself and answered gently: "It's
like a big electric fan, it's drawing air out of this room very fast, with
a powerful suction, and I'm afraid--unless----"

Just then there came a sharp pop followed by a hissing noise as if some one
were breathing in air through shut teeth.

"There goes the first one! Come over here!" He bent toward the logs,
searching for something. "Ah, here it is! Do you feel the air blowing
through _toward_ us? The blower has sucked out one of our cloth plugs.
There goes another!" he said, as the popping sound was repeated. "And
another! It's all off with our barricade, little girl!"

"You--you mean the fire will come through now?" she gasped. He could hear
her teeth chattering and feel her whole body shaking in terror.

Coquenil did not answer. He was looking through one of the open cracks,
studying the dull glow beyond, and noting the hot breath that came through.
What could he do? The fire was gaining with every second, the whirling
blower was literally dragging the flames toward them through the dry wood
pile. Already the heat was increasing, it would soon be unbearable; at this
rate their hold on life was a matter of minutes.

"The fire may come through--a little," he answered comfortingly, "but
I--I'll fix it so you will be--all right. Come! We'll build another
barricade. You know wood is a bad conductor of heat, and--if you have wood
all about you and--over you, why, the fire can't burn you."

"Oh!" said Alice.

"We'll go over to this door as far from the passageway as we can get. Now
bring me logs from that side pile! That's right!"

He glanced at the old barricade and saw, with a shudder, that it was
already pierced with countless open cracks that showed the angry fire
beyond. And through these cracks great volumes of smoke were pouring.

Fortunately, most of this smoke, especially at first, was borne away u