"Let's sit on the top step of these stairs," said Phillis to Rose and Alice, "and we can see through the balustrades. There's Mrs. Campron! She's got a lovely dress on, and diamonds." Rose remained with the two Armatage girls for a little while and Russ saw to it that the little folks went to bed. Then he came out into the hall again to see what the girls were doing. Before he could ask them he chanced to look out of the back window at the end of the long hall. "Oh!" cried Russ Bunker. "What is that?" "What's what?" demanded Phillis. "What do you see?" "Is it a shooting star?" went on Russ. "See that light! I believe it must be a fire." The girls came running to join him then, more interested in what Russ saw than they were in what was going on at the party below. CHAPTER XVII MAMMY JUNE IN PERIL From the big house on the Meiggs Plantation, standing on a knoll--which means a small hill,--one could see for a long distance all about, in spite of the shade trees, and especially when looking from the third floor windows. Russ Bunker was looking right out over the quarters where the hands lived, and could see far down the slope of the land and to the forest beyond the cultivated fields. It was a lovely starlit night, but of course the stars did not reveal everything. The strong red light that sprang up beyond the cabins where the colored people lived, revealed a great deal, however. "It's a house afire!" declared Phillis Armatage. "Where can there be a house in that direction?" Rose Bunker asked. "Isn't that fire beyond the cabins, Russ?" Russ suddenly sprang to action. He wheeled from the window and ran along the hall to the stairway. "Russ! Russ! Where are you going?" demanded his sister. "Tell Daddy and Mr. Armatage. I know what house is afire. It's Mammy June's cabin!" shouted Russ. He had previously located the direction of the old woman's cabin by the stream, and Russ was sure that he was right now. He left the girls screaming after him; he had no time to tell them how he was so sure of his statement. Down the two flights of stairs he plunged until he landed with a bang on the hall rug at the foot of the lower flight. He almost fell against Mr. Armatage himself when he landed. And Daddy Bunker was not far away. "Well, well, young man, what's this?" demanded Mr. Armatage, for a moment quite as stern with Russ as he was with his own children. Daddy, too, looked upon Russ with amazement. "Why, Russ," he said, "what does this mean? What are you doing down here?" "There's a fire!" gasped out Russ, his breath almost gone. "There's a fire!" "Upstairs?" demanded Mr. Armatage, whirling toward the stairway. "Oh, no, sir! No, sir!" cried Russ, stopping him. "It's down the hill. I saw it from the window." "The quarters?" demanded the planter. "No, sir. It looks like Mammy June's. It's a great red flame shooting right up about where her cabin is."