Betty thought of hell, the hell of man's inhumanity to man, as she stood by her window in Newark, looking down a street of fire. From a hundred roofs red flames were bursting. Blue-coated men rushed out of smoke-shrouded doors with their arms full of plunder. Outside in the deep snow and bitter cold, a crowd of women and children moved about aimlessly, or stood still as if stupefied by the sight of the ruin round them. [Illustration: "Outside in the bitter cold a crowd of women and children moved about aimlessly."] The Americans had feared to stay in bitterly hostile Niagara after navigation had stopped, and they could not be helped by their fleet. Sooner than risk a winter siege there, they had blown up Forts George and Erie and were then burning Newark by way of retaliation. Betty waited to see what their fate was to be. Sentries at her door kept the women from going out or the plunderers from coming in. At last Eli, who had almost recovered, came back--"This house will be spared," he told her formally, "I have represented it as the home of my sister, an American, and I came to tell you, you can take in whom you like. There are one hundred and fifty families homeless, but you may have room for the sick. I will see the house is guarded." "You will find this burning of Newark is worse than a crime, it is a blunder," exclaimed Betty, and in his heart Eli agreed with her, though he said nothing. The black, far-rolling smoke of Newark, gave the alarm at Twenty Mile Creek, and over nine hundred men--the old Irish regiment of the "Lightfoot", with a goodly number of Canadians added to its ranks--marched hot-foot to rescue, or avenge, if wrong had been done. The Americans had all crossed the river, and the sight of the burnt and plundered homes roused even Ferguson to militancy. The men were set to work; they roughly roofed the cellars to make shelters for the women and children, and threw up hasty ramparts on the ruins of Fort George for themselves. Then the Niagara militia, a thousand raging men, came in, with their Indian allies after them. Murray, the colonel, had no artillery, and very little food, and if large supplies of food, blankets and other supplies were not procured soon, the victims of Newark must starve and freeze in their cellars. "And the only place we can get supplies is from the enemy--across there." Ned was standing by the Niagara River as he spoke, to Tim. "And a sweet little stream it certainly is," answered the Irishman. It was night, and huge fires of logs blazed all along the American side, throwing a lurid glow across the dark rapid water, and the ghostly cakes of ice that whirled by. By the snow-covered banks the ice was continually forming, and being broken off as constantly by the swift flowing river. "It sure will be lovely navigating to cross it," continued Tim, "and do you know what we shall be up against on the other side?"