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Five minutes later another puff of wind carried a similar piece to a distance of five-and-twenty yards, where it also was dropped softly on the ground

Still the wind did not blow in the direction of the houses, and even now to a casual observer they would have appeared safe But Nature does few things directly Athatched heap or 'grave' of les to the house, and doard the hedge There the fragment faded to darkness

A short time subsequent to this, after ly baffled atterave, and continued to glow; the gloas increased by the wind; the straw caught fire and burst into flae of the thatch towards a piggery at the end Yet had the piggery been tiled, the time-honoured hostel would even now at this last eries are mostly constructed, of wood and thatch The hurdles and straw roof of the frail erection beca as the shed did on the back of the inn, flamed up to the eaves of the main roof in less than thirty seconds

3 HALF-PAST ELEVEN TO TWELVE PM

A hazardous length of time elapsed before the inth the discovery was made, the rush was a rush for bare life

Aand shouts were heard

Mr Springrove ran out first Two minutes later appeared the ostler and chambermaid, ere man and wife The inn, as has been stated, was a quaint old building, and as infla the base at the level of the first floor, and again overhung at the eaves, which were finished with heavy oak barge-boards; every atom in its substance, every feature in its construction, favoured the fire

The forked fla forth again with a bound and loud crackle, increased tenfold in power and brightness The crackling grew sharper Long quivering shadows began to be flung from the stately trees at the end of the house; the square outline of the church tower, on the other side of the hich had hitherto been a dark an to appear as a light object against a sky of darkness; and even the narrow surface of the flag-staff at the top could be seen in its dark surrounding, brought out froht