A blinding smoke rushed thick about her, and made her gasp for breath. Up through the belt holes in the floor, toward the farther end of the long room, sprang little tongues of flame that leaped higher and higher, even while she strove for sight, that single, horrified, suffocating instant, and gleamed, mockingly, upon the burnished shafts of silent looms. In at the windows on the left, came the vengeful shine of those other windows, at right angles, in the adjacent building. The carding rooms, and the whole front of the mill, below, were all in flames! In frantic affright, in choking agony, Faith dashed herself back through the heavy doors, that swung on springs, and closed tightly once more after her. Here, at the open window, she took breath. Must she wait here, helpless, for the fiery death? Down below her, the narrow brink--the rushing river. No foothold--no chance for a descent. Behind her, only those two doors, barring out flame and smoke! And the little footbridge, lying in the light across the water, and the green fields stretching away, cool and safe beyond. A little farther--her home! "Fire!" She cried the fearful word out upon the night, uselessly. There was no one near. The village slumbered on, away there to the left. The strong, deep shout of a man might reach it, but no tone of hers. There were no completed or occupied dwelling houses, as yet, about the new mills. Mr. Rushleigh was putting up some blocks; but, for the present, there was nothing nearer than the village proper of Kinnicutt on the one hand, and as far, or farther, on the other the houses at Lakeside. The flames themselves, alone, could signal her danger, and summon help. How long would it be first? Thoughts of father, mother, and little brother--thoughts of the kind friends at Lakeside, parted from but a few hours before--thoughts of the young lover to whom the answer he waited for should be given, perhaps, so awfully; through all, lighting, as it were, suddenly and searchingly, the deep places of her own soul, the thought--the feeling, rather, of that presence in her dream; of him who had led her, taught her, lifted her so, to high things; brought her nearer, by his ministry, to God! Of all human influence or love, his was nearest and strongest, spiritually, to her, now! All at once, across these surging, crowding, agonizing feelings, rushed an inspiration for the present moment. The water gate! The force pump! The apparatus for working these lay at this end of the building. She had been shown the method of its operation; they had explained to her its purpose. It was perfectly simple. Only the drawing of a rope over a pulley--the turning of a faucet. She could do it, if she could only reach the spot.