It was not long, however, before this avenue of escape was almost cut off.  With white faces, and fast-beating hearts they saw the fire sweeping along the shore of the mainland straight for the small boat.  Intuitively they both uttered a cry of despair, and stared with wide, straining eyes as the flames rolled onward, every minute drawing nearer to the landing.  The fire now raged behind them, as it was raging on the mainland.  But still they looked shoreward.  Even at the eleventh hour John might arrive.  What he would do if he did come they had not reasoned out.  Neither did they realise that nowhere on that lake could anything live, ringed in by such a fiery furnace.  They imagined that out upon the water they would find refuge from the flames, so John with the boat was their only means of salvation.

Soon, however, all hope of escape was abandoned.  The fire was almost to the landing, and great sheets of flame were leaping high over the very spot where the boat was lying.  As yet it was untouched, but in a few minutes it, too, would be swept away.

And as they looked, they beheld the form of a man leaping, so it appeared to them, right out of that wall of fire.  Jess started and leaned impetuously forward, and stretched out her arms as if to save him.

“It is John!” she cried.  “Oh, he’ll be burned!  He’ll be burned!” She buried her face in her hands to hide the terrible scene from view.

The next instant she lifted her head at Mrs. Hampton’s startled exclamation.  As she looked, she saw that the man on the shore had reached the boat as the flames were licking around it, and had sent it reeling into the water.  Seizing an oar, he drove the craft out into the lake, just as the fire swept over the very spot where a minute before it had been lying.  Then he seated himself and began to row straight for the island.

“He doesn’t see us!” Jess exclaimed.  “He is heading for the landing.”

Acting upon the impulse of excitement, she rose to her feet, and balancing herself with difficulty upon the rock, she called aloud three times.  As the third call sounded forth, the rower paused, and glanced around to his right.  At once the boat swerved to the left until its bow pointed straight for the pile of rocks.

“He sees us!  He sees us!” Jess cried.  “It must be John, and he will save us!”

“While watching the approaching boat, Mrs. Hampton was listening most anxiously to the fire sweeping down upon them from the rear.  The air overhead was black with dense volumes of smoke, and already she could feel the hot breath of the on-coming monster.  A more ominous roar than ever caused her to turn partly around.  There stood the trees, gaily dressed in their robes of green, unaware that in a few minutes their beauty would be gone, and they would be left mere gaunt and shrivelled spectres.  From their low position, and protected by the trees, the vast clouds of smoke did not greatly affect them,