They raced through another dozen streets until the glare grew blinding and the smoke nearly choked him. Then they were stopped entirely by the crowd, and Colonel Kirby sat motionless; for he had a nearly perfect view of a holocaust. The house in which Ranjoor Singh was supposed to be was so far burned that little more than the walls was standing. The North Wind hails from the Northern snows, (His voice is loud--oh, listen ye!) He cried of death--the death he knows-- Of the mountain death. (Oh, listen ye!) Who looks to the North for love looks long! Who goes to the North for gain goes wrong! Men's hearts are hard, and the goods belong To the strong in the North! (Oh, listen ye!) Whose lot is fair--who loves his life-- Walks wide, stays wide of the Northern knife! (Ye men o' the world, oh, listen ye!) YASMINI'S SONG. CHAPTER VI There were police and to spare now, nor any doubt of it. Even the breath of war's beginning could not keep them elsewhere when a fire had charge in the densest quarters of the danger zone. The din of ancient Delhi roared skyward, and the Delhi crowd surged and fought to be nearer to the flame; but the police already had a cordon around the building, and another detachment was forcing the swarms of men and women into eddying movement in which something like a system developed presently, for there began to be a clear space in which the fire brigade could work. "Any bodies recovered?" asked Colonel Kirby, leaning from the seat of his high dogcart to speak to the English fireman who stood sentry over the water-plug. "No, sir. The fire had too much headway before the alarm went in. When we got here the whole lower part was red-hot." "Any means of escape from the building from the rear?" "As many as from a rat-run, sir. That house is as old as Delhi--about; and there are as any galleries up above connecting with houses at the rear as there are run-holes from cellar to cellar." "Any chance for anybody down in the cellar?" "Doubt it, sir. The fire started there; the water'll do what the fire left undone. Pretty bad trap, sir, I should say, if you asked me." "No reports of escape or rescue?" "None that I've heard tell of." "And the house seems doomed, eh? Be some days before they can sort the debris over?" "Lucky if we save the ten houses nearest it! Look, sir! There she goes!" The roof fell in, sending five separate volumes of red sparks up into the cloudy night as floor after floor collapsed beneath the weight. The thunder of it was almost drowned in a roar of delight, for the crowd, sensing the new spirit of its masters, was in a mood for the terrible. Then silence fell, as if that had been an overture.