like an image carved from stone, when a fearful light illumined the whole
scene. It was followed almost instantaneously by a clap of thunder so
deafening that the girls involuntarily quailed before it.

A fiery ball darted from the chimney and sped across the room, exploding
in fragments with a terrific noise on the opposite side, just above the
heads of Jimsy and Lieut. Bradbury.

Stunned by the shock, they both collapsed in heaps on the floor, while the
farm woman's shrieks filled the air. At the same instant, a pungent,
sinister odor filled the atmosphere.

"The house is on fire!" shrieked the woman in a frenzied voice.

Smoke rolled down into the room, and the acrid fumes grew sharper.

"The house is on fire, and my baby is up-stairs!"

"Where?" demanded Peggy.

"In the room above this!" groaned the woman, taking a few steps and then
fainting.

"Jess," cried Peggy in a tense voice, "take that bucket and get water from
that pump in the corner and then follow me."

"But the boys!" gasped Jess.

"They are only stunned. I saw Jimsy's arm move just now, and the
lieutenant is breathing."