A roar came from Nick as he sighted the flames under her gown.
"Release me! Release me!" he thundered, furiously, with a voice that
drowned her frightful screams. "Cut me loose--loose! It's your only
hope--your only hope!"
She heard him like one in a nightmare of agony and terror, and her
instinct rather than her reason responded to his thundering commands.
Still with the poniard in her jeweled hand, still shrieking wildly, she
leaped to his side, and with a single sweep of the keen weapon severed
the rope binding his arms.
Then Nick snatched the poniard from her hand. With several swift cuts
and slashes he released his limbs, and sprang quickly to his feet.
He had already shaped his course. He had observed on the sulphur
barrels, near the wall, a strip of matting, used as a cover for them.
Nick snatched it from the barrels, and rushed to wrap it around the
skirts and limbs of the terror-stricken woman.
For several moments the result seemed doubtful, so doubtful that Nick
finally threw Cervera heavily to the floor, the better to press the
matting closely around her and so smother the flames. In this he
presently succeeded, but not before she was so severely burned as to be
rendered utterly helpless.
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