were many voices, no head was offered for his blow.

The flames burned fiercely behind us. With a crack of my chair leg I broke
both windows, and the smoke poured out and relieved us somewhat, and the
fire blazed up more fiercely still. The flooring was all on fire and the
dry old walls behind the bed, and we stood waiting for the next man to
appear.

"Better give in, boys," cried someone in the outer room. "You'll only make
things worse for yourselves." But we answered never a word, and stood the
more cautiously on our guard.

Then they began throwing buckets of water in at the door, and we heard it
splashing also on the outer walls, but none came near the fire, since the
bed was not opposite the door.

We were scorched and half smothered, but the draught through the door and
out at the window still gave us chance to breathe.

The bedstead fell in a blazing heap, the flames crept round the walls. We
could not stand it much longer. We would have to lay down our chair legs
and surrender.

Then a very strange thing happened.

Le Marchant saw it first and grabbed my arm.

The portion of the blazing bedstead nearest the wall sank down through the
floor and disappeared, and at a glance we saw our way, though how far it
might lead us we could not tell.