out of danger. Then,
seeing that he did not recover consciousness, although he breathed, they
carried him at once to the hospital. The flames of the burning house
sprang up, just then, as if they leaped in triumph over a fallen foe;
but the polished surface of poor Joe's helmet seemed to flash back
defiance at the flames as they bore him away.

After the partition wall fell, the fire sank, and in the course of a few
hours it was extinguished altogether. But nothing whatever was saved,
and the firemen had only the satisfaction of knowing that they had done
their best, and had preserved the adjoining houses, which would
certainly have gone, but for their untiring energy.

By this time, David Boone, besides being mad, was in a raging fever.
The tenant of the house to which he had been taken was a friend, as well
as a neighbour of his own--a greengrocer, named Mrs Craw, and she
turned out to be a good Samaritan, for she insisted on keeping Boone in
her house, and nursing him; asserting stoutly, and with a very red face
(she almost always asserted things stoutly, and with a red face), that
Mister Boone was one of 'er best an' holdest friends, as she wouldn't
see 'im go to a hospital on charity--which she despised, so she did--as
long as there was a spare bed in her 'ouse, so there was--which it
wasn't as long as could be wished, considerin' Mister Boone's height;
but that could be put right by knocking out the foot-board, and two
cheers, so it could--and as long she had one copper to rub on another;
no, though she was to be flayed alive for her hospitality. By which
round statement, Mrs Craw was understood to imply a severe rebuke to
Mrs Grab--another greengrocer over the way (and a widow)--who had been
heard to say, during the progress of the fire, that it served Boone
right, and that she wouldn't give him a helping hand in his distress on
any account whatever.

Why Mrs Grab was so bitter and Mrs Craw so humane is a matter of
uncertainty; but it was generally believed that the former having had a
matrimonial eye on Boone, and that Boone having expressed general
objections to matrimony--besides having gone of late to Mrs Craw for
his vegetables--had something to do with it.

Next day, D. Gorman happened, quite in a casual way of course, to
saunter into Poorthing Lane; and it was positively interesting to note--
as many people did note--the surprise and consternation with which he
received the news of the fire from th