ed from the outside as if the entire second floor of the building
was in a blaze.

The men had battered in the doors only to be met by a mass of flames
which seemed to roll in huge columns down the staircase to the new
outlet which had thus been made, and just as the boys arrived the brave
fellows were momentarily beaten back by the scorching element until
they stood on the first landing in plain sight of Seth and Dan.

Jerry Walters and Joe Black were at the nozzle, with Ben Dunton close in
the rear, and at the moment Seth called his partner's attention to the
scene the captain of Ninety-four shouted encouragingly:

"Now, hit it up, boys! Get in there! Get in! Get in!"

Then it was the flames retreated momentarily, and those who were doing
such gallant battle advanced step by step up the stairs seemingly into
the very midst of the fiery cloud, until they were entirely hidden by
the downpour of black smoke which came from the open doorway in volume
sufficient to drive back even those on the sidewalk.

While this desperate fight was in progress other men had raised a ladder
and were prying open one of the iron shutters on the second floor in
order to use more hose, and, yet trembling with apprehension for the
safety of those friends who had last been seen in the very midst of the
fiery element, Seth involuntarily glanced toward the remainder of the
company on the outside, while Dan looked back to make certain 'Lish
Davis was not preparing to drive them from their place of vantage.

That which he saw reassured him so far as any immediate danger of such
kind was to be feared, for the driver of Ninety-four was unhitching his
horses, knowing from the general appearance of the blazing building that
the company had a long task before them.

At that instant a crashing, rending noise as of an explosion sounded
high above the din, and one of the iron shutters which the men had been
trying to force open was hurled from its fastenings and thrown outward
into the street, falling within half a dozen feet of where Davis was
busy with his horses.

Following it was a mighty rush of flame as if the interior was a
seething mass of fire; loud shouts of command rang out, and then came
even above all the din the clatter of a horse's iron-shod hoofs as he
dashed madly away in affright. Involuntarily Seth had followed with his
eyes the flight of the shutter, and, unconscious of even having made a
movement, he sprang toward Ninety-four