noon
With a wild , hopeless cry he fell forward into the water , and floundered towards the middle of the fence which Slaughter had built across it . As he reached the middle , breathless and exhausted with fear and the strain of Nellie 's weight , a line of flame darted through the grass at the side of the track , and sprang , like a snake , up the wall of the hut , writhing out over the dried sheets of bark of the roof as , with a roar , the whole burst into flame . Other flames leaped out along the line of the fence ; the heat came upon him with such fierceness that he felt his skin blister and crack ; the smoke entered his lungs and made him choke as though a cord were tied tight round his throat , and with a glimpse of Nellie 's face , upturned as her arms relaxed and she slipped down under the water , Dickson fell senseless across the rail of the fence . At noon Ailleen , sitting on the verandah of Barellan , caught the scent of bush-fire smoke floating on the faint breeze . She rose and walked to the end of the verandah , where she could obtain a view in the direction whence the wind was blowing . Over the tops of the trees she saw smoke rising rapidly . Even as she stood she saw fresh columns spring up as though fires were being set alight at intervals all along the sky-line to windward .