A few days later, during the quiet of the night, the horrible word "fire" was heard in the Goodnow's house, and the next instant the flames were coming through some of the windows. It seemed evident that everybody in the house was doomed to destruction, and when a great crash was heard, Goodnow leaped from a second-story window, where he expected his wife to follow; but the poor woman, thinking of the danger of her daughter, walked to the other part of the house, reaching the girl's room in time to see her escaping through the window. Then, already suffocating, she only had strength to reach the same window, but not enough to raise herself and leap over it, and the next instant the flames had enveloped her and she died a victim of her motherly love. Grace, crazed by her anxiety for her parents, was running around and calling her mother and father, and when she found her father alone she knew that her mother was dead, because the part of the house where she slept was already nothing but a burning mass. Until then, no one had thought of Edward, as it seemed useless to think of saving anybody who might still be in the burning house, and when Grace cried out: "Edward! Edward! where is he?" As his room was on the ground floor she went near his window, and smashing it, called him by name, and God knows it was not too soon, as the fire, which had apparently neglected that part of the house, seemed to come to it with renewed energy, and a moment later the whole house was wrapped by the cruel flames. When some of the neighbors, attracted by the glare, came to offer assistance they saw the most pitiful spectacle possible. Grace was crying and running around calling for her mother, while Goodnow stood by, sobbing like a child. At a little distance from the house, sitting near a large tree, was Edward, looking strangely at the burning house, as if fascinated by the sight; and now and then clapping his hands, he would say, "Good play, is it not, Ben? But why don't she come back and sing again?" A most horrible crash was heard, and Goodnow's home was no more. It was now nothing but a burning pile of cinders and it was with great difficulty that friends could induce Goodnow and his daughter to come away from the terrible scene, while Edward himself seemed to want to linger. At last they all went to the nearest neighbor, two miles from Goodnow's place. Later, they tried to find something of the remains of Mrs. Goodnow, but so well bad the fire done its work, that not a trace of the unfortunate woman could be found, nor anything of the old actor, who had failed to save himself from the fire. Goodnow, with the energy which is characteristic of the western ranchman, decided to rebuild at once, and while doing it, he sent his daughter to Flatville, the nearest city, where one of his brothers was living, and Edward to St. Mary's Hospital in the same city.