hers
screamed "Too late!" "He's gone!" and then there arose a wild cry, for
the man rowed straight into the centre of the burning mass and was
enveloped in the flames. For one moment he was seen to rise and swing
his arms in the air--then he fell backwards over the gunwale of his boat
and disappeared in the blazing flood.

Fiercer and fiercer raged the fire. The night passed--the day came and
went, and night again set in--yet still the flames leaped and roared in
resistless fury, and still the firemen fought them valiantly. And thus
they fought, day and night, hand to hand, for more than a fortnight,
before the battle was thoroughly ended and the victory gained.

How the firemen continued to do their desperate work, day and night,
almost without rest, it is impossible to tell. Frank Willders said
that, after the first night, he went about his work like a man in a
dream. He scarcely knew when, or how, or where he rested or ate. He
had an indistinct remembrance of one or two brief intervals of oblivion
when he supposed he must have been asleep, but the only memory that
remained strong and clear within him was that of constant, determined
fighting with the flames. And Willie Willders followed him like his
shadow! clad in a coat and helmet borrowed from a friend in the Salvage
Corps. Willie fought in that great fight as if he had been a trained
fireman.

On the fourth day, towards evening, Frank was ordered down into a cellar
where some tar-barrels were burning. He seized the branch, and was
about to leap down the stair when Dale stopped him.

"Fasten the rope to your belt," he said.

Frank obeyed without speaking and then sprang forward, while Dale
himself followed, ordering Corney, Baxmore, and one or two others, to
hold on to the ropes. Willie Willders also ran in, but was met by such
a dense cloud of smoke that he was almost choked. Rushing back, he
shouted, "Haul on the ropes!"

The men were already hauling them in, and in a few seconds Dale and
Frank were dragged by their waist-belts into the open air, the former
nearly, and the latter quite, insensible.

In a few minutes they both recovered, and another attempt was made to
reach the fire in the cellar, but without success.

The public did not witness this incident. The firemen were almost
surrounded by burning ruins, and none but comrades were there.

Indeed, the public seldom see the greatest dangers to which the fireman
is exposed. It is no