thousand tongues of flame streamed upward through the crannies of the
gaping deck, and between the wide orifices of the planks and timbers the
dazzling flames gleamed; a thousand resistless arms seemed extended
forward to grasp the fabric now completely at its mercy, and the hot
breath of the fire shriveled up all in its path before yet its hands
were laid upon it.

And fast and furious, with eager advance, the flames rushed on devouring
everything. Through the hatchway, around which the fiercest fires
gathered, the stream of flame rose impetuously on high, in a straight
upward torrent, hurling up a vast pyramid of fire to the ebon skies, a
[Greek: phlogos migan pogona] which, like that which once illumed the
Slavonic strait with the signal-fire first caught from burning Troy,
here threw its radiance far over the deep.

While the lighter wood lasted the flame was in the ascendant, and nobly
it did its work. Whatever could be done by bright radiance and far-
penetrating lustre was done here. If that ship which had passed held any
men on board capable of feeling a human interest in the visible signs of
calamity at sea, they would be able to read in this flame that there was
disaster somewhere upon these waters, and if they had human hearts they
would turn to see if there was not some suffering which they might
relieve.

But the lighter and the dryer wood was at last consumed, and now there
remained that which Brandon had never touched, the dense masses which
still lay piled where they had been placed eighteen years before. Upon
these the fire now marched. But already the long days and weeks of
scorching sun and fierce wind had not been without their effects, and
the dampness had been subdued. Besides, the fire that advanced upon them