Its fierce, ruddy light revealed the faces of two men leaping to the
attack of the wounded defender. They were within a yard of their goal.
But even as they were closing upon him they reeled back before the new
terror whose dread was overwhelming even in face of their murderous
lust.
The flame shot up toward the roof. Jeff staggered to his feet bearing
in his arms the blazing bundle. Higher he raised it. Higher and
higher, till the devouring flame licked at the parched thatch of grass
roof above. It caught in a second. The flames swept up along the
rough rafters till they reached the pitch of the roof. In a moment
great billows of smoke were rolling out of the dry crevices.
Just for one instant, before the fog closed down upon the whole
interior, Jeff beheld the result of his work. The men had fled toward
the closed door, and, on the ground, against the far wall, he had a
glimpse of five bodies lying crumpled up where his guns had laid them.
Suddenly a great shout reached him from without.
"Ho, Jeff! Ho, boy!"
It was a deep-throated roar which drowned the hiss and crackle of the
blazing straw.
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