It was about two o'clock in the morning of the day when Anglin, or Ardelle, was expected to read his fate in the eyes of those assembled as a military tribunal. The identity of the prisoner was, no doubt, fully established, for the boys had noted the presence in the assembly hall earlier in the night of the sandy-topped man who had started the hue and cry in the Bremen hotel, where the French sleuth was posing as a public singer. Billy and Henri were tossing in uneasy slumber. The only sounds inside the castle were occasional snores from adjoining apartments and from the outside the whinnying and stamping of the cavalry horses. Suddenly the quiet was shattered as if by a thunderbolt. The boys literally tumbled out of bed, gasping from the shock. A blinding flash at the windows and another crash. Soul-shaking cries of "fire!" resounded throughout the building, and through the halls swept volumes of smoke. The celebrated ancient furniture in the castle, it having been the summer residence of French nobility, was fine food for flames, and the red destroyer soon raged in conflagration. Crash after crash, and with each concussion myriad sparks shot through great holes in the castle roof. Bombs were being dropped from aloft. The boys hastened with other occupants of the upper floors to the broad staircase in front of the structure. There they paused, elbowed against the wall by those pressing from the rear. There was no wild confusion or panic behind them, however, such as might have ensued under the same terrifying circumstances with other than trained soldiers involved. When Billy and Henri took to the wall at the head of the staircase it was a voluntary act on their part. The same thought with both had impelled the pause: Had Anglin been released from the fiery vortex or still restrained by iron bolts and bars? The room in which the captive was held faced a gallery running at right angles from the main stairway. Pulling their jackets up and over their heads, the boys plunged through the wall of smoke on mission of rescue--a mission without result, for the door of the place of confinement was wide open, and no one was there. The rescuing party of two then turned their intent upon themselves, and none too quickly, for they had hardly won safety when the castle enclosure was wholly enveloped by consuming flame. Farm buildings adjoining were also ablaze, and the wide highway stretching away to the east showed whitely in the glare. In the red canopy overhead winged shadows whirred and whirled, dipped and leaped. Billy and Henri proceeded down the road to escape the growing heat and rolling smoke. When the roaring of the fire had somewhat lessened in their hearing, they detected a familiar hum, just ahead and closing down beyond the border of the rising mist of the morning.