The fact chiefly observed by Nick, however, was that the sill of the
door was wide enough to offer him a safe footing. Though it was fully
eight feet above his head, Nick resolved to attempt to reach it by means
of the notched iron on the side wall.
Gripping the rough notches with his muscular fingers, and using those
lower down for a foothold, as best he could, Nick hurriedly began the
difficult ascent.
By the light from a fragment of burning paper, Cervera perceived his
design, and greeted it with a scream of derision.
"I'll soon stop that, my fine fellow," she shouted, with vicious
asperity. "Look out for yourself!"
White speaking, she touched a match to one of her dresses, which hung
from a near peg on the closet wall, and dropped it blazing down the
well.
Nick saw it coming, and was forced to drop back to the cellar floor.
"You vicious demon!" he cried, angrily. "Let up! You'll have the house
on fire!"
"That's just what I intend doing--and you with it!" screamed Cervera,
with a laugh. "I'll not leave you alive to get the best of me at some
later day."
Then she set fire to a silk skirt, and dropped it after the other.
Nick had not yet been able to extinguish the first, and the situation
was momentarily becoming more desperate.
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