Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 129.djvu/344

336  from Mrs. Peevor about the children, and general banging of doors and whisperings in the corridors, that the butler was trying to explain that it was not "The Beeches" which was on fire, but some place in the neighbourhood. Johnson the engineer, who slept outside, getting up to tend the furnaces, had seen the glare, and had awakened the butler to know if the engine should be sent; and the word "fire" having been caught up by somebody who heard the noise of Johnson's knocking at the door, the alarm had been spread over the whole house.

"Is there an engine on the place?" called out Yorke to Mr. Peevor; "of course you will send it, sir; I will go with it; I will be ready in a minute."

"And I too," cried Mr. Hanckes from his room; "I'll just get 'old of a few warm things first;" and in a few seconds the two gentlemen were hurrying downstairs, the shutting of doors as they passed along the corridor indicating that the fair inmates of the different chambers had all been aroused by the alarm, and were peering out in dishabille, to know what all the noise was about.

Issuing from the house, Mr. Peevor calling to them, as the butler opened the hall-door to let them out, to be sure and wrap up well or they would take cold, the gentlemen found that by Johnson's exertions the engine had already been brought out into the stable-yard, while harness was being put on a couple of horses. "It was I got Peevor to have an engine on the place," said Mr. Hanckes to Yorke as they stood waiting in the yard; "I can't abide fires. We had a fire in our warehouse once, with fifty thousand gallon of hoil all round — balsam to the tune of fifty thousand gallon all round, ready to blaze up. A nice little bonfire it would have made, I expect. That was a anxious moment, I do assure you; it was touch and go, and no mistake; and we just got it under in time. But we live and learn. I've took precaution enough since, and now we could flood the 'ole place — the whole place could be flooded in five minutes. And then I gave Peevor no peace till he bought an engine too. 'Peevor,' I says, 'you've got a sight of valuables, and everything a man of taste can want, except an engine to keep 'em safe; do you want to be burnt out of 'ouse and 'ome — do you want to be burnt out of house and home some fine night? You must just get a first-class hengine, that's what you must do, and lose no time about it.' And so he got me to choose a engine for him, and a real beauty it is, made to order with all the latest improvements, and it may be of use to the neighbours as well as to him. Not that we shall do much in the salvage line to-night, I expect; the fire seems too much gone for that;" and indeed from where they stood the glare could be seen in the sky, high above the yard-wall and the garden-trees beyond.

"Here comes the horses at last," continued Mr. Hanckes; "if our lads at the shop weren't a trifle smarter than Peevor's own people, it ain't much balsam we should turn out in the course of a twelve-month, nor yet much clarifying neither. Now then, which of you boys are coming? there's room for six besides Johnson and me. Colonel, you'll drive, I hope; it's a case of pace this is." And Yorke taking the reins jumped on the box; and the others, gardeners and stablemen, clambering up on the side seats, the engine rattled out of the yard, and along the avenue, faster than the horses had ever gone before.

As they entered the highroad at the end of the avenue the glare was so bright it seemed as if the fire must be close at hand; but the men said that there was no house near to "The Beeches" in that direction, and Yorke drove furiously along the road, waiting for the first opening to turn towards the fire.

A very few minutes' driving brought them to the point where the road turned down towards the river, the same down which he had made his eventful walk with Lucy, and there an opening in the line of hedge showed them the fire itself, the glare of which had been seen so high in the sky, blazing at the bottom of the hill, evidently on the bank of the river.

"'Tis the inn by the river," said one of the men; "'tis the River Belle; how it do blaze, to be sure!" and in another moment they lost sight of the actual flame, as Yorke turned the horses at a gallop down the steep hill.

The party were silent now, busy in holding on to their narrow seats, as the engine swayed to and fro with the furious driving, the glare becoming brighter every moment.

The bottom of the hill was soon reached, and, rattling round the corner, Yorke pulled up the horses short at the river-bank, as the truth of which he had an uneasy foreboding during the drive was now made clear. On the right, where the inn