roof-ladder which he wanted to hang on the next hook above the door.
This seemed impossible to the workmen. The storm would certainly tear
the ladder down, and all too possibly the man with it. It came in well
for Apollonius that the wind pressed the ladder against the surface of
the roof. There was plenty of light by which to find the hook; but the
fine snow which flurried about and, rolling down from the roof, struck
him in the eyes, was a hindrance. He could feel, however, that the
ladder hung securely. There was no time to lose; he swung himself up
on it. He had to trust more to the strength and sureness of his arms
and hands than to a secure footing as he climbed upward, for the storm
swayed man and ladder to and fro like a bell. Above, to one side of
the topmost rung of the ladder, blue flames with yellow points leaped
forth from under the gap and licked the edges of the slate roof. The
lightning had struck two feet below the point where the sheet of lead
was lacking. A short hour ago he had been frightened by the thought of
the mere possibility that the lightning could strike there and that he
would have to climb up--a series of dark, deadly fever visions had
risen before him: now, all had happened as he had pictured it--but the
gap was like any other part of the tower-roof and he stood on the
ladder, free from all dizziness, pervaded only by a keen, strong
desire to avert impending danger from church and town. Yes, something
that had enhanced his vague fears now proved to be of distinct
advantage to him. The water which had been pouring into the hole for
weeks, and which was now frozen in the wood, prevented the flame from
obtaining the upper hand as quickly as it would otherwise have done.
The area taken possession of by the fire up to the present time was
small. The frost in the boarding had stubbornly beat back the leaping,
ever-returning flames and it would take time before they could
permanently strike root and from their vantage point do further
destruction. If they had united in one big flame and overstepped the
space below the hole protected by the frost, the fire would soon have
grown to gigantic proportions and the church, perhaps the town, have
succumbed to the combined force of fire and storm. He saw that there
was still time to save, and he needed the strength that this thought
gave. The ladder not only swung backward and forward, it moved up and
down. What could be the cause of that? If the beams of