Pagina 22 de 416

Below, a line of men extended from the foot of the ladder to the

great circular horse-trough. Another line extended from the

opposite side of the store also to the horse-trough, where three

men worked the great pump.

Back twenty yards, along the King's Road, a white-faced row of

women and children stood, ready to rush home and move their

furniture into the fields.

Code, looking down, made out his mother and returned her friendly

wave. Their house was across the road not a hundred feet away.

With a muffled roar another drum on the pier exploded. A great

wave of molten fire shot out in the breeze, and the shingles on

Bill Boughton's store, parched with the drought of a month, burst

into quick flame.

The squire ran back to the water-trough.

"Dip!" he yelled. Big Pete Ellinwood, with the piles of buckets

beside him, seized one and twitched it full.