The wickerwork caught like tinder, and the gauzy screws threw off streams
of sparks like so many Fourth of July pinwheels. The gush of heat from
the conflagration was terrible, and I turned my eyes in horror from the
stricken multitude which seemed to have been shocked back into sanity by
the sudden universal danger only to find itself a helpless prey to the
flames.
"It's all over with them!" cried Jack.
His words awoke me to our own danger. We must get away instantly. Knowing
the proper button to touch to throw the mechanism into action, I pushed
it forcibly and pulled out a knob which I had often seen Edmund
manipulate in starting the car. It responded immediately, and in a second
we were afloat, and clear of the tower. Seeing that the direction which
the car was taking would remove us from the reach of the flames, and that
there was nothing ahead to obstruct its progress, and knowing that Edmund
often left it to run of itself when the speed was slow, and there was no
occasion to change its course, I now hurried with Jack to Edmund's side.
Henry all this time had been lying on a bench like one in a trance.
Jack and I stripped off Edmund's coat, and at once saw the nature of his
wound.
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