I had a last thought, as I fell. It was that my life had reached its
termination--that in a few seconds my body would be embraced by the
flames, and I should horribly perish. The thought drew from me a feeble
scream; and with that scream my consciousness forsook me. I was as
senseless as if dead--indeed, so far as sensibility went, I _was_ dead;
and, had the flames at that moment swept over me, I should not have felt
them. In all probability, I might have been burned to a cinder without
further pain.
During the interval of my unconsciousness, I had neither dream nor
apparition. By this, I knew that my soul must have forsaken its earthly
tenement. It may have been hovering above or around, but it was no
longer within me. It had separated from my senses, that were all dead.
Dead, but capable of being restored to life, and haply a restorative was
at hand, with one capable to administer it.
When my soul returned, the first perception I had was that I was up to
my neck in water. I was in the pond, and in a recumbent position--my
limbs and body under the water, with only my head above the surface,
resting against the bank. A man was kneeling over me, himself half
immersed.
My returning senses soon enabled me to tell who the man was--my faithful
Jake. He had my pulse in his hand, and was gazing into my features with
silent earnestness. As my open eyes replied to his gaze, he uttered an
exclamation of joy, and the words: "Golly, Massa George! you lib--thank
be to Gorramighty, you lib. Keep up ya heart, young massa--you's a
gwine to git ober it--sartin, your a gwine to git ober it."
"I hope so, Jake," was my reply, in a weak voice; but, feeble though it
was, it roused the faithful fellow into a transport of delight, and he
continued to utter his cheering ejaculations.
I was able to raise my head and look around. It was a dread spectacle
that on all sides greeted my eyes, and there was plenty of light
wherewith to view it. The forest was still on fire, burning with a
continued roar, as of thunder or a mighty wind--varied with hissing
noises, and loud crackling that resembled the platoon firing of
musketry. One might have fancied it a fusilade from the Indians, but
that was impossible. They must have long since retreated before the
spreading circle of that all-consuming conflagration. There was less
flame than when I had last looked upon it; and less smoke in the
atmosphere. The dry foliage had been suddenly reduced to a cinder, and
the twiggy fragments had fallen to the earth, where they lay in a dense
bed of glowing embers.
Out of this rose the tall trunks, half stripped of their branches, and
all on fire. The crisp scaling bark had caught freely, and the resinous
sapwood was readily yielding to the flames. Many had burned far
inwards, and looked like huge columns of iron heated to redness. The
spectacle presented an aspect of the infernal world.
The sense of feeling, too, might have suggested fancies of the same
region. The heat was intense to an extreme degree. The atmosphere
quivered with the drifting caloric. The hair had crisped upon our
heads--our skins had the feel of blistering, and the air we inhaled
resembled steam from the 'scape pipe of an engine.
Instinctively I looked for my companions. A group of a dozen or more
were upon the open ground near the edge of the pond, but these were not
all. There should have been nearer fifty. Where were the others? Had
they perished in the flames? Where were they?
Mechanically, I put the question to Jake.
"Thar, massa," he replied, pointing downwards, "Tha dey be safe yet--
ebbery one ob un, I blieve."
I looked across the surface of the pond. Three dozen roundish objects
met my glance. They were the heads of my companions. Like myself,
their bodies were submerged, most of them to the neck. They had thus
placed themselves to shun the smoke, as well as the broiling heat.
But the others--they on the bank--why had they not also availed
themselves of this cunning precaution? Why were they still standing
exposed to the fierce heat, and amid the drifting clouds of smoke?
The latter had grown thin and gauze-like. The forms of the men were
seen distinctly through it, magnified as in a mist. Like giants they
were striding over the ground, and the guns in their hands appeared of
colossal proportions. Their gestures were abrupt, and their whole
bearing showed they were in a state of half frenzied excitement.
It was natural enough amidst the circumstances that surrounded them. I
saw they were the principal men of our party. I saw Hickman and
Weatherford both gesticulating freely among them. No doubt they were
counselling how we should act.
This was the conjecture I derived from my first glance; but a further
survey of the group convinced me I was in error. It was no deliberation
about our future plans. In the lull between the volleys of the
crackling pines, I could hear their voices. They were those of men
engaged in angry dispute. The voices of Hickman and Weatherford
especially reached my ear, and I perceived they were talking in a tone
that betokened a high state of indignation.
At this moment, the smoke drifting aside, discovered a group still
further from the edge of the pond. There were six men standing in
threes, and I perceived that the middle man of each three was tightly
grasped by the two others. Two of them were prisoners! Were they
Indians? two of our enemies, who, amid the confusion of the fire, had
strayed into the glade, and been captured?
It was my first thought; but at that instant, a jet of flame, shooting
upwards, filled the glade with a flood of brilliant light. The little
group thus illuminated could be seen as distinctly as by the light of
day.
I was no longer in doubt about the captives. Their faces were before
me, white and ghastly as if with fear. Even the red light failed to
tinge them with its colour; but wan as they were, I had no difficulty in
recognising them. They were Spence and Williams.