a minute more he was gone, and in the next second Keith's mother was at
the window looking out, though she had only her night-linen on and it
was late autumn. Unobserved and unrebuked, Keith joined her, and when he
looked up at the sky, his heart almost stopped beating.

A ghastly stillness reigned outside--except when it was merely
accentuated by the occasional sound of hurried steps along the street at
the top of the lane. Finally some one was heard passing through the
lane itself.

"Please," Keith's mother cried at the top of her voice. "What is it?"

"It's the German Church," a voice responded from below. "The whole spire
is flaming like a torch."

"Are we in danger down here?"

"Hard to tell. It depends on which way the spire falls. If it falls
outward, I fear the whole city will go."

Then he walked off.

By that time the servant girl had come in weeping as if she had just
heard her death-doom announced, and from the Granny was calling to them:

"You'll freeze to death, all of you, if you don't put on some clothes."

So they dressed, though difficulty, and then there was nothing to do but
to wait. The mother was at the window all the time, every few minutes
she said to the boy: