The Colonel's Wife — page 52: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THROUGH FLAME AND SMOKE. = 45 have witnessed these strange scenes on the previous night. Attheir head rode Colonel John and near him the sergeant. “The house is on fire, kurnel : ;’? cried the latter, as they rounded a bend in the wood. Flames burst from many windows, and his ances- tral home was doomed. Perhaps Crockett Ridgeway, determined to ruin if he could not rule, had applied the match. A headlong rush was made. Colonel John threw © himself from his horse, determined to risk much in order to save the papers. One sweeping glance he took and then dashed into the hall-way. At this very moment a cry, was heard—a cry that might have ‘been of distress and came in a woman’s voice, reaching John’s ears _ while he was_ battling with stifling smoke. There was no time for John Ridgeway to consider the matter, for he found himself compelled to buffet billows of smoke on his way to the well-remembered dining-room, where the great hearth and chimney- place * were to be found. Some woman had seen him enter, and in her weak- © ness screamed—that was the conclusion he reached, his mind being. bent upon securing the precious papets. Reaching the ‘hearth he found fire i in the room. _. The yawning chimney served as a suction valve, and there was a roaring sound not unlike the throb- bing of a fire engine, as smoke and flames rushed toward the opening. Down on his knees went the soldier, and for the second time his eager hands touched the hearth-stone under which he expected to find the realization of his _ hopes or else despair. . Fortune was kind. ty When he had snatched the Lae of yeror papers — ‘comicbooks.com