g here," said Moxey, speaking with difficulty, owing to
the dense smoke.

Owing to the same cause, it was impossible to see what was wrong.

"I'll go in an' see," said Mason, dropping on his hands and knees, and
creeping into the room with his mouth as close to the ground as
possible. This he did, because in a room on fire there is always a
current of comparatively fresh air at the floor.

Presently the sound of Mason's small hatchet was heard cutting up
woodwork, and in a few seconds he rushed out almost choking.

"There," said he, "stick the branch through that hole. You've bin
playin' all this time up agin' a board partition!"

Moxey and Williams advanced, put the branch through the partition, and
the result was at once obvious in the diminution of smoke and increase
of steam.

While these incidents were occurring outside and inside the building,
the crowd was still waiting in breathless expectation for the
re-appearance of Conductor Forest of the fire-escape; for the events
just narrated, although taking a long time to tell, were enacted in a
few minutes.

Presently Forest appeared at the window of the second floor with two
infants in his arms. Instead of sending these down the canvas trough of
the escape in the usual way--at the risk of their necks, for they were
very young--he clasped them to his breast, and plunging into it himself
head-foremost, descended in that position, checking his speed by
spreading out his knees against the sides of the canvas. Once again he
sprang up the escape amid the cheers of the people, and re-entered the
window.

At that moment the attention of the crowd was diverted by the sudden
appearance of a man at one of the windows of the first floor.

He was all on fire, and had evidently been aroused to his awful position
unexpectedly, for he was in such confusion that he did not observe the
fire-escape at the other window. After shouting wildly for a few
seconds, and tossing his arms in the air, he leaped out and came to the
ground with stunning violence. Two policemen extinguished the fire that
was about him, and then, procuring a horse-cloth lifted him up tenderly
and carried him away.

It may perhaps surprise the reader that this man was not roused sooner
by the turmoil and noise that was going on around him, but it is a fact
that heavy sleepers are sometimes found by the firemen sound asleep, and
in utter ignorance of what has been going on, long after a large portion