There was no use in trying to extinguish it, for gasoline defies water, and no sand was to be had along that rocky river shore.
"Let her burn herself out," judged Gabriel.

"She can't do any harm, now.
The road for mine!" He found the upward path infinitely more difficult than the downward, and was forced to make a long detour and do some hard climbing that left him spent and sweating, before he again approached the gap in the wall.
Pausing here to breathe, a minute or two, he once more peered down at the still-smoking ruin far below.

And, as he stood there all at once he thought he heard a sound not very far away to his right.
A sound--a groan, a half-inchoate murmur--a cry! Instantly his every sense grew keen.

Holding his breath he listened intently.

Was it a cry?
Or had the breeze but swayed one tree limb against another; or did some boatman's hail, from far across the river, but drift upward to him on the cliff?
"Hello! _Hello_!" he shouted again.