Then he trotted on at the same pace as the others; rushed again; and so on at intervals, getting well ahead of the rest.

But never, in the many times he had been to and fro, had he so thoroughly realised how rough and awkward was the track, and how long it took to get to Grimsey farm.
As he ran on, it was with the fire glowing more brightly in his face, and the various objects growing more distinct, while there was something awful in the terrible silence that seemed to prevail, in the midst of which a great body of fire steadily rose, in company with a cloud of smoke, which was spangled with tiny flakes that seemed to be of gold.
Tree, shed, barn, and chimney-stack, too, seemed to have been turned to the brilliant metal; but to the lad's great relief he saw that the wheelwright was wrong, the "thack" had not caught, and so far the house was safe, though the burning stacks were so near that at any moment the roof of the reed-thatched house might begin to blaze.
At last there was a sound--one that might have been going on before, but kept by the distance from reaching Dick's ear--a cock crowed loudly, and there was a loud cackling from the barn where the fowls roosted.
Then came the lowing of a cow; but all was perfectly still at the house, and it seemed astounding that no one should have been alarmed.
Only another hundred yards or so and the farm would be reached.

Dick had settled down to a much slower speed.

There was a sensation as if the fire that shone in his face had made his breath scorching, so that it burned his chest, while his feet were being weighted with lead.
"Tom!" he tried to shout as he drew near; but his voice was a hoarse whisper, and it seemed to be drowned by the steady beat of the feet behind upon the road.
"Tom!" he cried again, but with no better result, as he staggered on by the wide drain which ran right up to the farm buildings from the big pool in the fen where the reeds were cut.
And now that full drain and the pool gleamed golden, as if they too were turned to fire, as Dick pushed by, realising that the hay-stack, the great seed-stack, and the little stack of oats were blazing together, not furiously, but with the flame rising up in a steady silent manner which was awful.
There was a rough piece of stone in the way, against which Dick caught his foot and nearly fell; but he saved himself, stooped, and picked up the stone; and as he panted up to the long low red-brick farm, he hurled it through a window on his left, and then fell up against, more than stopped at, the door, against which he beat and kicked with all his might.
The crashing in of the leaded pane casement had, however, acted like the key which had unlocked the silent farmstead.
Tom Tallington rushed to the window.
"Who's--" He would probably have said "that," but he turned his sentence into the cry of "Fire! fire!" The alarm spread in an instant.

Farmer Tallington's window was thrown open; and as he realised all, he dashed back, and then the rest of the party came panting up, and Hickathrift cried, "Stand clear, Mester Dick!" He threw himself against the door, to burst it open, just as the farmer came down, half carrying his wife wrapped in a blanket, and Tom ran out, to dart down to the end of the long low building where a second tenement formed the sleeping-place of the two men and a big lad who worked upon the farm.
They were already aroused, and came out hurrying on their clothes, while the squire and Hickathrift got out the women, who, with Mrs Tallington, were hurried into a cart-shed.
"Why, neighbour, you'd have been burned in your bed!" cried the squire.
"Now, lads, all of you form line." "She's caught now!" shouted Hickathrift, who had been round to the back.
"Then we must put it out," said the squire, as he busily ranged his men, and those of Farmer Tallington, so that they reached from the nearest point of the big drain to the corner of the farm, and in a double line, so that full buckets of water could be passed along one and returned empty along the other.
"Hickathrift, you go and dip." "Ay, ay, squire!" roared the great fellow, and he rushed down to the water's edge like a bull, while the squire went to the other end.
"Neighbour," cried Farmer Tallington excitedly, "you'll go on, wean't you?
I must get in and bring out a few writings and things I'd like to save." "Here, Tom, let's you and me get out the clothes and things." "Yes, and the small bits of furniture, boys," cried the squire.