Part 31 (2/2)
”It's co round both sides It's all over the run,” another shouted
”The station-house?” Tony cried
”The fires are all round it,” was the answer ”Nothing can save it”
For a moment Tony sat still--for a moment Then over hi froht would have suggested that she would have been warned, that she would have fled froht Only could he realize the peril she was in; only could he realize the need there was of helping her Forgetful of what had occurred when last he was at the station; forgetful of the anger he had felt at her apparent preference of another to hier Without heeding whether he was not hier from whence there was no escape, he spurred his horse forward, and galloped off in the direction of the station
As he rode theand his lungs choking His horse shi+ed and tried to turn back, but Tony kept hireat and widespread the fire was, only served to stimulate his anxiety to reach the station
Suddenly the bush gave way before hi along it in heavy volust the tiallop The crackle and roar of the conflagration sounded on both sides, and he wasthat it had not yet burst out on to the road, when the sound of a horse co towards him at break-neck speed arrested his attention Scarcely had he heard the sound than through the haze of the sht Instinctively he reined up, and the thought flashed through his brain that it ht be Ailleen
The horse and its rider dashed out of the s fro out and blood-flecked foam on its nostrils The rider was hatless, her clothes torn in shreds, and her hair strea her horse un wildly around her head The pace of the gallop carried her past Tony in a nized her--Nellie Murray
With her eyes staring in a frenzy of hastly, and her voice raised in an endless hter, she dashed past him There was no tihter, there was no time to learn whether she saw hih for his intuitions to work and teach hiinator of the fire and the reason of its existence Nellie was avenging her defeat by Ailleen
Straight down the road she raced, travelling with the sreat clouds of density, appealed to her as so that called for the long shouts of laughter hich she greeted it Soon her horse, staggering in its stride, but still flogged to a gallop, eh yet within the haze The track which led to the Three-mile showed before her, and she turned her horse on to it fro course she fled until the hut opened out The horse lurched and stumbled in its stride, but mercilessly she used the switch, until, ten yards from the door, it ca from the saddle, rolled over, ridden to death
She scarcely glanced at it as she rushed forward to the hut and flung the door open On the stretcher Tap lay, his face terribly bruised and cut,bunched up in a heap with his head on his hands, was dickson As she caught sight of hih
”I said I'd come for you, willy--and I've come,” she shouted--”coet away anyas they co, nearer and nearer Don't you hear them? Listen! Can't you smell the smoke in the air? _She's_ part of it by this tirass and the bush all round the house She can't get away More can you,” she added quickly, as dickson rose to his feet, and, turning a haggard face towards her, shrank away to the corner of the hut
”You devil!” he exclaimed ”You've fired the bush!+”
”All over the place,” she answered, with her head thrown back and her h the place ”I told you--I told you, if you didn't come for me I'd come for you--and I've corass, and the fences, and the trees, and the house Oh, it burned so well!”
”It's coht of the rolling clouds of s this way,” she answered, with a sudden cal this way for you--for you andboo up? Look on the top of it
Don't you see hi--just as he's been on all the big shs atfor the Poor little man, they took him away, but I've found him, and he's found me”
Her voice died down to a mournful monotone as she spoke--colourless, unimpassioned,as when she shouted and laughed He looked as she directed towards the big colu up, as it were, froues of flame
”It's on us!” he shrieked in a sudden access of panic, and made a dash for the door
She turned and faced hi her aro,” he shouted, as he struggled; but she only raised her face to his--a calhastly from the dishevelled o,”
he repeated; and, as she still held, he raised his fist and brought it down on the upturned face, and tried to wrest hiainst his shi+rt, seizing part of it in her teeth to aid her to keep her hold of him He struck at her head, at her ar as he hit her, in his efforts to throw her off But she held hier out of the hut, dragging her with him
The man on the stretcher made an effort to raise himself as the noise of the scuffle roused hiline of flaet me out of this Help me to move willy! willy! My God! I'm your father, boy; don't leaveNellie with hiained the door