floor windows. Russ Bunker was looking right out over the quarters where
the hands lived, and could see far down the slope of the land and to the
forest beyond the cultivated fields.

It was a lovely starlit night, but of course the stars did not reveal
everything. The strong red light that sprang up beyond the cabins where
the colored people lived, revealed a great deal, however.

"It's a house afire!" declared Phillis Armatage.

"Where can there be a house in that direction?" Rose Bunker asked.
"Isn't that fire beyond the cabins, Russ?"

Russ suddenly sprang to action. He wheeled from the window and ran along
the hall to the stairway.

"Russ! Russ! Where are you going?" demanded his sister.

"Tell Daddy and Mr. Armatage. I know what house is afire. It's Mammy
June's cabin!" shouted Russ.

He had previously located the direction of the old woman's cabin by the
stream, and Russ was sure that he was right now. He left the girls
screaming after him; he had no time to tell them how he was so sure of
his statement.

Down the two flights of stairs he plunged until he landed with a bang on
the hall rug at the foot of the lower flight. He almost fell against Mr.
Armatage himself when he landed. And Daddy Bunker was not far away.