He forced her to drop on her knees in one of the shallow pools close at hand and with his hands saturated her dress. Then taking off his coat, he wet that and placed it about her head and shoulders. "Oh, Howard, don't! You will suffer yourself!" she cried, in sweet protest, but he would not listen. Having wet her garments, he proceeded to drench himself, and hastily raised her up again. By this time the fire was so close that the roaring and crackling rang loudly in their ears, occasionally augmented by sounds similar to the firing of a musket as an air-tight stalk would become heated and explode. The ashes fairly covered them, and had their garments not been wet, they would have been burned. Looking about to discover the direction in which the flames appeared to be the thinnest, Howard ran with his fair burden to the south, opposite to the direction from which the wind was coming. He chose a hollow in the sugar-cane field, in which the recent rain had left several inches of water, and this brought them to within fifty feet of the outskirts of the burning territory. But now the hollow came to an end, and before them the fire burned almost as fiercely as anywhere. Estella gave one look at the horrible scene and buried her pale face in his bosom. "Howard, we cannot, cannot go through that!" she moaned. "We must! It means life to us, for there is naught but death awaiting us here," he responded. "Take a deep breath, and hold it as long as you can, my darling." She did as he commanded, and he did the same. Then, with a silent prayer to Heaven, he made a dash straight into the fire. The flames roared all about him and his precious burden; they licked his lower limbs and caused the soles of his boots to burn; they came even higher and scarred his neck and burned his mustache and eyelashes. Yet he stumbled on, turning and twisting to avoid the larger masses of fire, knocking the live embers from Estella's dress, and catching his breath as best he could. He was about to sink down, utterly exhausted, when he saw a clear opening at last and sprang through it, and they were saved. "Caramba!" shouted a voice close beside them, but Howard did not hear it. He staggered to a grassy knoll, dropped his fair burden and sank down insensible. When Estella managed to stand up and uncover her head she found herself surrounded by a dozen or more Cuban rebels, each with a lighted torch in his hand. The men were armed with nothing but machetes, and they looked at her and Howard in wonder. "What do you in the sugar cane?" finally asked a big fellow, who appeared to be the leader of the crowd. Estella did not immediately answer. She turned her attention to Howard, who lay on his back, panting for breath. He was not seriously hurt, and soon managed to sit up and open his eyes. "Estella--you are safe?" he murmured. "Thank Heaven for that!" "You brave, brave man!" she whispered. "You are more than a hero, my king!"