صفحة 44 من 416

By this time they had received news from half a dozen neighbors

that Bill Boughton's general store had been only half destroyed

and that the contents had all been saved. The wharfs and

fish-houses were at last burning and property on the leeward side

of the flames was declared to be safe.

A general exodus began along the King's Road.

Men who had galloped up from Great Harbor, with an ax in one hand

and a bucket in the other, mounted their horses and rode away.

Others from Hayward's Cove and Castalia, who had driven in

buggies and buckboards, collected their families and departed.

The King's Road was the scene of a long procession, as though the

people of Freekirk Head were evacuating the town.

A detachment of men under Squire Hardy's orders remained about

the danger zone ready to check any further advance of the flames

or to rouse the town to further resistance should this become

necessary. But for the most part the people of the village

returned to their homes.