’Have you a garden hose?  Set it on to the tap, and bring it in here.’

The hose was brought into play, and in no great time the last flame had flickered out amid a deluge.  When all danger was at an end, one of the servants, the nurse-girl, uttered a sudden shriek; it merely signified that she had now thought for the first time of the little child asleep upstairs.  Aided by the housemaid, she rushed to the nursery, snatched her charge from bed, and carried the unhappy youngster into the breezes of the night, where he screamed at the top of his gamut.

Cobb, when he no longer feared that the house would be burnt down, hurried to inquire after Louise.  She lay on a couch, wrapped in a dressing-gown; for the side and one sleeve of her dress had been burnt away.  Her moaning never ceased; there was a fire-mark on the lower part of her face, and she stared with eyes of terror and anguish at whoever approached her.  Already a doctor had been sent for, and Cobb, reporting that all was safe at ‘Runnymede,’ wished to remove her at once to her own bed room, and the strangers were eager to assist.

‘What will the Mumfords say?’ Louise asked of a sudden, trying to raise herself.

‘Leave all that to me,’ Cobb replied reassuringly.  ’I’ll make it all right; don’t trouble yourself.’

The nervous shock had made her powerless; they carried her in a chair back to ‘Runnymede,’ and upstairs to her bedroom.  Scarcely was this done when Mr. and Mrs. Mumford, after a leisurely walk from the station, approached their garden gate.  The sight of a little crowd of people in the quiet road, the smell of burning, loud voices of excited servants, caused them to run forward in alarm.  Emmeline, frenzied by the certainty that her own house was on fire, began to cry aloud for her child, and Mumford rushed like a madman through the garden.

‘It’s all right,’ said a man who stood in the doorway.  ’You Mr. Mumford?  It’s all right.  There’s been a fire, but we’ve got it out.’

Emmeline learnt at the same moment that her child had suffered no harm, but she would not pause until she saw the little one and held him in her embrace.  Meanwhile, Cobb and Mumford talked in the devastated drawing-room, which was illumined with candles.

’It’s a bad job, Mr. Mumford.  My name is Cobb:  I daresay you’ve heard of me.  I came to see Miss Derrick, and I was clumsy enough to knock the lamp over.’

‘Knock the lamp over!  How could you do that?  Were you drunk?’

’No, but you may well ask the question.  I stumbled over something—­a little chair, I think—­and fell against the table with the lamp on it.’

‘Where’s Miss Derrick?’

’Upstairs.  She got rather badly burnt, I’m afraid.  We’ve sent for a doctor.’

‘And here I am,’ spoke a voice behind them.  ’Sorry to see this, Mr. Mumford.’

The two went upstairs together, and on the first landing encountered Emmeline, sobbing and wailing hysterically with the child in her arms.  Her husband spoke soothingly.