A Canoe In the Mist by Elsie Locke

Author:Elsie Locke [Elsie Locke]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780730444770
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

12

No Longer a Haven

How long d’you think this place will hold, Joe?’ asked Charlie Humphreys as they started up the stairs, each with a lantern.

‘Longer than your place at least. I can see what you’re after, Charlie. We’ll take a look from the far end.’

They ran and slid down the corridor to the end room whose windows faced away from the mountain, and looked out into nothing but blackness as thick as the pit of a coal-mine. And then came a shower of fireballs that lit up the scene in flash after flash like rapid lightning. The Temperance Hotel stood out, lonely, abandoned, leaning drunkenly into a mess of mud with the volcanic load weighing down its roof and chimneys.

‘It’s a goner, Joe,’ said Charlie heavily. ‘And all our plans with it. The wife will break her heart.’

‘Be thankful you didn’t stay inside it,’ said Joe. ‘We’ll all be ruined before the night’s out. Look at Falloona’s store! Willie Bird hasn’t got a hope, it’s too ramshackle. And I daren’t look at the stables. What those poor creatures are suffering I can’t imagine, but what can we do? We can’t bring them inside like Lollop. How deep would you say that muck is?’

‘It’s up to my windows, but the roof must have shed some of that. Say, eighteen inches on the road? It’s hard to tell.’

‘Easily that. And these fireballs mean business. I can see three whares on fire. No, four.’

‘There’s a light at Sophia’s. A lantern hanging on the porch.’

‘Aye, so there is! How far that little candle shows its beams! So shines a good deed in this naughty world.’

‘What’s that you say, Joe?’

‘Shakespeare. Never mind that. I trust Willie’s wife will be there. It ought to stand, it’s a sturdy place with a good pitch to the roof. Willie’s put on a brave face, but it’s a hard thing to be parted from her now. Come on, this is no time for sentiment. We’ve work to do. This place could be afire while we’re talking.’

‘We wouldn’t even smell the smoke with all the sulphur in the air,’ said Charlie.

They filled two buckets from the upstairs tank and went back along the corridor. The first four rooms, without guests, were a shambles. The beds were askew and washing basins, lamps, books and pictures were scattered and broken all over the floors. It didn’t seem to matter. But in Mrs Hensley’s room, usually so neat, the mess was like an insult and Joe couldn’t resist picking something up.

‘Hey! Look out!’ yelled Charlie.

A red-hot boulder as big as a saucepan came straight through the window. Joe leapt to one side, Charlie to the other as the hideous thing landed fair on the bed, and both buckets spilled on the floor. ‘The devil!’ yelled Charlie and ‘God preserve us!’ yelled Joe as they rushed for more water, holding desperately to their lanterns. The damask counterpane was aflame by the time they got back, and glass was still flying across the room, driven before a sudden and furious gale.

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