But the next moment from behind the barn in the opposite direction something attracted them.

It was a glare of light, and the guards noticed it at the same time.

A last year's straw stack next to the barn was afire.
Jane Mason was standing in the back door of the house, and in the hurried blur of moving events John divined that she had slipped out and fired the stack.

In an instant there was confusion.

The men were on their feet.