four in the morning
I know the wretch would never think of them . '' It was still later when , exhausted by the heat and some reaction from the excitement of the day , they at last deserted the veranda for their rooms , and for a while the shadowy bulk of the whole building was picked out with regularly spaced lights from its open windows , until now these finally faded and went out one by one . An hour later the whole building had sunk to rest . It was said that it was only four in the morning when a yawning porter , having put out the light in a dark , upper corridor , was amazed by a dull glow from the top of the wall , and awoke to the fact that a red fire , as yet smokeless and flameless , was creeping along the cornice . He ran to the office and gave the alarm ; but on returning with assistance was stopped in the corridor by an impenetrable wall of smoke veined with murky flashes . The alarm was given in all the lower floors , and the occupants rushed from their beds half dressed to the courtyard , only to see , as they afterwards averred , the flames burst like cannon discharges from the upper windows and unite above the crackling roof . So sudden and complete was the catastrophe , although slowly prepared by a leak in the overheated chimney between the floors , that even the excitement of fear and exertion was spared the survivors .