She cast an anxious glance behind her, but did not heed him. In the haze of smoke he vaguely made out her slender shape as she darted across the clearing. She reached the edge of the forest and vanished among the spruces, leaving him with the tingling remembrance of a warm and vivid presence that had touched and eluded him, like an ephemeral fragrance. For the present he did not attempt to hinder her flight.

The fire had broken through the roof, and was swirling up from the interior walls with hot, roaring sounds. With his arm doubled across his face, he turned again towards the bunks where he had left Mudgett and his comrade lying. Either in life or death he always felt a responsibility for the prisoners he arrested. He tried to reach the bunks, but with his first step a gust of flame swept across the room and drove him back.

For a few seconds he lingered, his head bowed under the falling embers, hoping for a momentary lull in the rush of the fire. But as he stood irresolute, trying not to breathe, one of the roof beams cracked overhead and swung crashing to the floor. At the same instant a wreath of flame circled the doorway behind him. It was time to go.

Shielding his face, he turned and plunged for the opening. A searing wind eddied about him, and the next instant he stumbled across the threshold, and found himself choking and panting as his almost bursting lungs took in great draughts of the heated air outside the cabin. He beat out the sparks that smoldered upon his jacket, briskly rubbed his aching eyes, and then drew back farther across the clearing, beyond the scorching waves of heat.

The cabin was enveloped in high leaping flames that threw a blood-red glare above the snowy treetops. Overhead he could hear the affrighted cries of birds that had awakened in the night to fly in darting confusion among the spruces. As he watched he saw a corner of the cabin roof curl upward like paper, and cave in the middle. The structure was doomed. There was nothing he could accomplish by waiting.

He remained a couple of minutes longer, observing the falling sparks. The flaming embers were snuffed out, he observed, almost as soon as they struck the soft snow. There was no actual danger of fire communicating through the forest. He cast a last regretful glance towards the cabin, but accepted the inevitable with fatalistic calm. What must be had already happened. He listened momentarily to the direful crackling of flames, and then with grimly set lips he turned to seek the departing footprints of the mysterious girl.

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