“You’ll find that I can.”

“Better men than you have tried—­and failed.”

“Yet I shall succeed.”

“Do you feel quite sure of it?”

“Absolutely.”

“Then I think I’d better see your finish this very night, since I now have you cornered!” cried Cervera, in taunting tones, “It may not be wise to defer it.”

Then Nick beheld a second burning newspaper coming his way.

“Let up, you demon!” he shouted, angrily.  “You’ll set the house afire.”

“Wouldn’t it be a shame!  And what would become of you?”

“Don’t try it again, young woman, or worse may be your fate.”

“Oh! is that so?” sneered Cervera, maliciously.  “We’ll see.”

Down came another burning paper, and by the light of it Nick now discovered a closed door in one of the walls.  It was directly under the closet door in Cervera’s chamber, both of which evidently had once been used for entering the elevator.

The fact chiefly observed by Nick, however, was that the sill of the door was wide enough to offer him a safe footing.  Though it was fully eight feet above his head, Nick resolved to attempt to reach it by means of the notched iron on the side wall.

Gripping the rough notches with his muscular fingers, and using those lower down for a foothold, as best he could, Nick hurriedly began the difficult ascent.

By the light from a fragment of burning paper, Cervera perceived his design, and greeted it with a scream of derision.

“I’ll soon stop that, my fine fellow,” she shouted, with vicious asperity.  “Look out for yourself!”

White speaking, she touched a match to one of her dresses, which hung from a near peg on the closet wall, and dropped it blazing down the well.

Nick saw it coming, and was forced to drop back to the cellar floor.

“You vicious demon!” he cried, angrily.  “Let up!  You’ll have the house on fire!”

“That’s just what I intend doing—­and you with it!” screamed Cervera, with a laugh.  “I’ll not leave you alive to get the best of me at some later day.”

Then she set fire to a silk skirt, and dropped it after the other.

Nick had not yet been able to extinguish the first, and the situation was momentarily becoming more desperate.  A cloud of smoke was filling the well, with no draft to carry it away, and the heat was already very oppressive.

Crouching on the curb of the lighted passage three floors above him, Cervera was laughing wildly, with her handsome face reflecting the bitter hatred by which she was inspired, as she hurriedly set fire to a third garment and dropped it down the well.

The smoke at the bottom had become so dense that Nick no longer could see her, but he felt quite sure that he could put an end to her present murderous game.

He drew his revolver and fired two quick shots in her direction.  One bullet crashed through the ceiling above her.  The second clipped a lock of hair from over the vixen’s ear.