The gasoline-tank, he understood, had burst with the shock, and, taking fire, had wrapped the car in an Inferno of unquenchable flame.

Now, the woodwork was entirely gone; and of the wheels, as the long machine lay there on its back, only a few blazing spokes were left.

The steel chassis and the engine were red-hot, twisted and broken as though a giant hammer had smitten them on some Vulcanic anvil.
"There's a few thousand dollars gone to the devil!" thought he.

But his mind did not dwell on this phase of the disaster.

Still he was hoping, against hope, that human life had not been dashed and roasted out, in the wreck.