Then she grew dizzy; the weight of the child on her bosom seemed
to be toppling her forward towards the abyss below. She closed her eyes,
frantically grasping the child with crossed arms on her breast as she
stood on the ledge, until, as seen from below through the twisting
smoke, they might have seemed a figure of the Madonna and Child niched
in the wall. Then a voice from above called to her, "Courage!" and she
felt the flap of a twisted sheet lowered from an upper window against
her face. She grasped it eagerly; it held firmly. Then she heard a cry
from below, saw them carrying a ladder, and at last was lifted with her
burden from the ledge by powerful hands. Then only did she raise her
eyes to the upper window whence had come her help. Smoke and flame were
pouring from it. The unknown hero who had sacrificed his only chance of
escape to her remained forever unknown.
*****
Only four miles away that night a group of men were waiting for the dawn
in the shadow of a pine near Heavy Tree Bar. As the sky glowed redly
over the crest between them and Hymettus, Hamlin said:--
"Another one of those forest fires. It's this side of Black Spur, and a
big one, I reckon."
"Do you know," said Barker thoughtfully, "I was thinking of the time
the old cabin burnt up on Heavy Tree. It looks to be about in the same
place."
"Hush!" said Stacy sharply.
CHAPTER IX.
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