It had
just flashed upon her that Mrs. Barker had told her only a few hours
before that Sta had been removed with the nurse to the UPPER FLOOR! It
was not the forgotten child that Mrs. Barker was returning for, but her
diamonds! Mrs. Horncastle called her; she did not reply. The smoke was
already pouring down the staircase. Mrs. Horncastle hesitated for a
moment only, and then, drawing a long breath, dashed up the stairs. On
the first landing she stumbled over something--the prostrate figure of
the nurse. But this saved her, for she found that near the floor she
could breathe more freely. Before her appeared to be an open door. She
crept along towards it on her hands and knees. The frightened cry of
a child, awakened from its sleep in the dark, gave her nerve to rise,
enter the room, and dash open the window. By the flashing light she
could see a little figure rising from a bed. It was Sta. There was not
a moment to be lost, for the open window was beginning to draw the smoke
from the passage. Luckily, the boy, by some childish instinct, threw
his arms round her neck and left her hands free. Whispering him to
hold tight, she clambered out of the window. A narrow ledge of cornice
scarcely wide enough for her feet ran along the house to a distant
balcony. With her back to the house she zigzagged her feet along the
cornice to get away from the smoke, which now poured directly from the
window.
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