If he had been surprised by the fire in his sleep, it must needs be all over with him.

The man urged his mistress to get out of the house at once; the fire was gaining ground rapidly, and it was not likely that anything he or the other men could do would stop its progress.
The women left the kitchen immediately upon this warning, by a door leading into the yard.

It was broad daylight by this time; a chilly sunless morning, and a high wind sweeping across the fields and fanning the flames, which now licked the front wall of Wyncomb Farmhouse.

The total destruction of the place seemed inevitable, unless help from Malsham came very quickly.

The farm servants were running to and fro with buckets of water from the yard, and flinging their contents in at the shattered windows of the front rooms; but this was a small means of checking the destruction.