m the increasing flame.

The next minute he saw that this corner was the one nearest the window,
and that if he had to take refuge there, and the flame extended to the
straw, there would be a tremendous blaze almost beneath him.

Setting to work, he dragged it away into another corner, sweeping up the
loose pieces as rapidly as he could, and even as he did so the
fluttering blue-and-orange flames advanced steadily across the floor,
cutting off his access to the window, and rapidly spreading now all over
the place, for the passage had a gradual descent to the door, and nearly
the whole of the spilt spirit came bubbling and streaming in.

It was a beautiful, although an appalling sight, for the surface of the
spirit was all dancing tongues of fire--red, blue, and orange, mingled
with tiny puffs of smoke and bright sparks as it consumed the fragments
of straw that lay upon the stones.

It had reached the opposite wall now, and ran as well right up to the
window, the floor being now one blaze, except in the corner where Hilary
stood on guard, as if to keep the flames back from the straw.

But now he found that he had another enemy with which to contend, for a
peculiarly stifling vapour was arising, producing a sensation of
giddiness, against which he could not battle; and as Hilary drew back
from the approach of the tiny sea of waves of fire, pressing back, as he
did so, the straw, he felt that unless he could reach the window he
would be overcome.

There was no time for pause; help, if it were coming, could not reach
him yet. In another instant he knew that the straw would catch fire.
Even now a little rill of spirit had run to it, along which the flames
were travelling, so, nerving himself for the effort, he made a dash to
cross to the window.

At his first step the burning spirit splashed up in blue flames; at his
second, the fire rose above his ankles; then, placing his foot upon a
plate that had been left upon the floor, he slipped and fell headlong
into the burning tongues that seemed to rise and lick him angrily.

The sensation was sharp to his hands, but not too pungent, and,
fortunately, he kept his face from contact with the floor, while
struggling up he for the moment lost his nerve, and felt ready to rush
frantically about the place.

Fortunately, however, he mastered himself, and dashed at the window,
leaped at the sill, and climbed up to breathe the pure cool air that was
rushing in, just as the str