But then he screamed out, ‘Violette!’ He edged toward the doorway, knees bent, ducking down low and keeping one arm raised up in front of his face. Even so, the heat was too fierce for him to approach within less than four feet of it, and he could still feel his cheeks scorching. Besides, there didn’t seem to be much point in trying to rescue Mrs LaFarge from the flames. Her skin was already blackened all over, and in several places it had split wide apart to expose her glistening red flesh, like the black crust of a lava flow splits apart to reveal the molten magma underneath. Deep in several of these crimson crevasses he could see her blood actually bubbling. But it was the look on her face that gave Jim the greatest feeling of dread. It was blackened, too, like a minstrel moneybox, and all of her hair was burned into crispy clumps. It was difficult to tell if she could still see, but she appeared to be staring at him, unblinkingly because her eyelids had shriveled up into little knots.
