d lapsed into debris, and he could find no safe foothold.
Worse still, the block on which he relied proved loose, and only by a
dangerous traverse did he avert disaster.

There he hung for a minute or two, with a cold void in his stomach. He
had always distrusted the handiwork of man as a place to scramble on,
and now he was planted in the dark on a decomposing wall, with an
excellent chance of breaking his neck, and with the most urgent need
for haste. He could see the windows of the House, and, since he was
sheltered from the gale, he could hear the faint sound of blows on
woodwork. There was clearly the devil to pay there, and yet here he
was helplessly stuck.... Setting his teeth, he started to ascend again.
Better the fire than this cold breakneck emptiness.

It took him the better part of half an hour to get back, and he passed
through many moments of acute fear. Footholds which had seemed secure
enough in the descent now proved impossible, and more than once he had
his heart in his mouth when a rotten ivy stump or a wedge of stone gave
in his hands, and dropped dully into the pit of night, leaving him
crazily spread-eagled. When at last he reached the top he rolled on
his back and felt very sick. Then, as he realized his safety, his
impatience revived. At all costs he would force his way out though he
should be grilled like a herring.

The smoke was less thick in the attic, and with his handkerchief wet
with the rain and bound across his mouth he made a dash for the ground
room. It was as hot as a furnace, for everything inflammable in it
seemed to have caught fire, and the lumber glowed in piles of hot
ashes. But the floor and walls were stone, and only the blazing jambs
of the door stood between him and the outer air. He had burned himself
considerably as he stumbled downwards, and the pain drove him to a wild
leap through the broken arch, where he miscalculated the distance,
charred his shins, and brought down a red-hot fragment of the lintel on
his head. But the thing was done, and a minute later he was rolling
like a dog in the wet bracken to cool his burns and put out various
smouldering patches on his raiment.

Then he started running for the House, but, confused by the darkness,
he bore too much to the north, and came out in the side avenue from
which he and Dickson had reconnoitred on the first evening. He saw on
the right a glow in the verandah, which, as we know, was the reflection
of the