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BELLE IS DISTURBED BY JANES ANNOUNCEMENT
didn't love Pedro. He was so wonderful when he told me. His voice just shook, and he kept pushing back
his curls You know the funny
little way he does it, Belle "
"I beg your pardon, Jaile dear, but I'm afraid I didn't hear all you said." She jumped to her feet briskly. ' ' I was thinking I 'd have to warn Craven not to smoke so much around the stables. He'll do harm some day. You were saying something about Pedro, weren't you?"
"Oh, nothing much, except that I am going to marry him." Jane was plainly offended.
' ' Does he know it yet ? ' ' Sugary malice undertoned the words. "Of course, if you care for that foreign type, dear — tho a charity waif isn't just my idea of a husband. ' '
She went out of the door and into the stable yard, hardly conscious of what she was doing. Instinctively, she was running away from her thoughts, as tho by outdistancing them they would become less true. And here distraction of a spectacular kind awaited her. Thru the windows of the stable long, graceful, treacherous smoke-serpents coiled and wound. The door was a frame to a bright pic
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ture of flames. The stable hands were huddled in a knot by the door, while within dark figures, silhouetted on the red glow, led the frantic, plunging horses into safety. It was as sudden and unexpected and withal as silent as a dream. Belle stood paralyzed. She did not hear her sister's sobbing cries at her elbow, nor the urging calls of the men. Thru the flare and flicker she had caught a glimpse of a tall figure. With a sudden, passionate cry, she sprang past a dozen extended hands and into the maelstrom of crackling timbers.
"Pedro! Pedro!" moaned Jane. She clutched her lover's arm, halffainting. His woolen shirt was scorched and pungent under her cheek. "Belle — she went into the stable — oh, my God ! ' '
"It wont hold another five minutes," said Craven, the overseer, sullenly. "The horses that are left are plunging and biting like so many devils gone stark crazy. You're a fool, man, if you try to go back. ' '
Pedro was very pale. He bent Jane 's head back, almost roughly, and kist her solemnly on her forehead.
"Your father fed me and clothed me, and I'd be a cowardly sneak to