They might better have attempted to hold a wild horse with their naked hands.

He slipped and broke through their grips, and a second later had leaped into the inferno of smoke, running bent close to the ground where the pure air, if there were any, was sure to be.
"The gal's sick!" said Haw-Haw Langley.

"Look, Mac!" And he began to laugh in that braying voice which had given him his nickname.

Yet even in his laughter his eyes were brightly observant; not a single detail of misery or grief was lost upon him; he drank it in; he fed his famine-stricken soul upon it.

Kate Cumberland had buried her face in her arms; Buck Daniels, attempting to rush in after Dan Barry, had been caught beneath the arms by Doctor Byrne and another and was now borne struggling back.
From the very heart of the burning barn the sharp single whistle burst and over the rolling smoke and spring fire rose the answering neigh.