In the King's Name Part 25

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 pa.s.sage 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 rus.h.i.+ng in, just as the straw caught fire, blazed up furiously, and the place rapidly filled with rolling clouds of smoke.

He could not notice it, however, for the flames that fluttered about his garments where they were soaked with the spirit, and for some few minutes he thought of nothing but extinguis.h.i.+ng the purply blaze.

They burned him but slightly, and in several places went out as the spirit became exhausted; but here and there the woollen material of his garments began to burn with a peculiar odour before he had extinguished the last spark.

Meanwhile, although the straw blazed furiously, and the smoke filled the place so that respiration would have been impossible, no help came. The spirit fluttered and danced as it burned, and save here and there where it lay in inequalities of the floor, it was nearly consumed, the danger now being from the straw, which still blazed.

Fortunately for Hilary, although he could feel the glow, his foresight in sweeping it to one corner saved him from being incommoded, and the heat caused a current of cool night-air to set in through the window and keep back the blinding and stifling fumes.

He listened, and could hear shouts in the distance; but no one came to his help, and he could not avoid feeling that if he had been dependent upon aid from without he must have lost his life. Fortunately for him, just at a time when his fate seemed sealed, the flames from the burning straw reached their height, and though they blackened the ceiling they did no worse harm, but exhausted from the want of supply they sank lower and lower. There was not a sc.r.a.p of furniture in the place, or salient piece of wood to catch fire, and so as the spirit burned out, and the blazing straw settled down into some blackened sparkling ash, Hilary's spirits rose, and with the reaction as he clung there by the window came a feeling of indignation.

"If I don't be even with some of them for this!" he muttered. "They half starve me, and then try to burn me to death."

"Yes, that's right," he cried. "Bravo, heroes! Come, now the danger's over."

For as he sat there he could hear hurrying feet, the rattle of a key in the chapel door, and shouts to him to come out.

The smoke was so dense that the fresh comers could not possibly see him where he sat in the window, and they cried to him again to come out.

"I sha'n't come," said Hilary to himself; "you'll only lock me up somewhere else, and now I have found out as much as I have, perhaps I shall be better off where I am."

"There'll be a pretty noise about this when Sir Henry comes back," cried a voice, which Hilary recognised as that of the ill-looking fellow Allstone. "You clumsy fool, dropping that keg!"

"It was as much you as me," cried another. "I sha'n't take all the blame."

"The lad's burned to death through your clumsiness," continued Allstone.

"And a whole keg of the strongest brandy wasted," said another dolefully.

"The place nearly burned down too," said another.

"Here, go in somebody," cried Allstone. "Perhaps he isn't quite dead, and I suppose we must save him if we can. Do you hear? Go in some of you."

"Who's going in?" said another voice. "There's smoke enough to choke you. Why don't you go in yourself?"

"Because I tell you to go," cried Allstone savagely. "I'm master here when the skipper's away, and I'll be obeyed. Go in, two of you, and fetch the boy out."

"He don't want no fetching out," said one of the men, as the current of air that set from the window drove the smoke aside and revealed the dimly-seen figure of Hilary seated in the embrasure holding on to the iron bars. "He don't want no help; there he sits."

Allstone, who had been seized with a fit of coughing and choking from the effects of the blinding, pungent smoke, did not speak for a few moments, during which the smoke went on getting thinner and thinner, though, as the men had no lights, everything was still very obscure.

"Oh, you're up there, are you?" cried Allstone at last. "Come down, sir; do you hear?" And he spoke as if he were addressing a disobedient dog; but Hilary remained perfectly silent, truth to say, almost speechless from indignation.

"What do you mean by pretending to be smothered and burned to death, hey?" cried the fellow again, roughly. "Why don't you answer? Get down."

"Out, bully!" cried Hilary angrily. "Why, you insolent dog, how dare you speak to a king's officer like that? Why, you ugly, indecent-looking outrage upon humanity, you set fire to the place through your clumsiness, and then come and insult me for not being burned to death."

"Haw! haw! haw!" laughed one of the men. "Well crowed, young gamec.o.c.k."

"You cowardly lubbers, why didn't you come sooner to help me, instead of leaving me to frizzle here? I might have burned to death a dozen times for aught you cared."

"Haw! haw! haw!" laughed a couple of the men now, to Allstone's great annoyance.

"Hold your tongue, and come down, boy," he cried. "You can't stop there."

"Be off and lock the door again, bully," cried Hilary. "You great ugly, cowardly hound, if I had you on board the _Kestrel_, you should be triced up and have five dozen on your bare back."

"Haw! haw! haw!" came in a regular chorus this time, for the danger was over.

"I'd like to look on while the crew of you were being talked to by the boatswain," cried Hilary, angrily--"a set of cowardly loons."

"That'll do!" cried Allstone, who was hoa.r.s.e with pa.s.sion. "Go in and fetch him out."

No one stirred, and Allstone went in himself, but only to be seized with a furious fit of coughing which lasted a couple of minutes or so, and to his companions' intense delight.

The fit over, the fellow went in again and stood beneath the window.

"Come down!" he cried; but as Hilary did not condescend to notice him Allstone seized the young man by one of his legs, with the result that he clung with both hands to the iron bars, and raising up his knees for a moment, kicked out with as much cleverness as his friend the jacka.s.s, catching Allstone full in the chest and sending him staggering back for a few steps, where, unable to recover his balance, he went down heavily in a sitting position.

There was a roar of laughter from his companions, who stamped about, slapped their legs, and literally danced with delight; while, in spite of his anger and indignation at this scoundrel of a smuggler daring to touch a king's officer, Hilary could not help feeling amused.

But matters looked tragic directly after instead of comic, for, uttering a fierce oath, the man sprang up, pulled out his cutla.s.s and made at the prisoner.

Active as a leopard, Hilary sprang down to avoid him, when the pieces of the broken plate--the remains of that which had thrown the young officer down into the burning spirit--this time befriended him, for Allstone stepped upon a large fragment, slipped, fell sprawling, and the cutla.s.s flew from his hand with a loud jangling noise in the far corner upon the stone floor.

Quick as lightning, and while the other men were roaring with laughter, Hilary dashed at the cutla.s.s, picked it up, and, a.s.suming now the part of aggressor, he turned upon Allstone, presenting the point of his weapon, and drove the ruffian before him out of the place, turning the next moment upon his companions, who offered not the slightest resistance, but retreated before him laughing with all their might.

Hilary was about to seize the opportunity to chase them onward through the pa.s.sage and try to escape, but Allstone was too quick for him.

On being driven out the man had taken refuge behind the door, and as the last man of his companions pa.s.sed he dashed it to, striking Hilary full and driving him backwards into the chapel, as it slammed against the post with a heavy echo, and was locked and bolted.

"Stop there, and starve and rot," the ruffian cried through the keyhole furiously, as Hilary stood panting and shaking first one hand and then the other, against which the door, to the saving of his face, had come with tremendous force.