ncy, was that some
of the houses at the northern end should be demolished by means of
gunpowder, and the ruins soaked in water, so that the passage of
the flames might be stayed there.

But at this suggestion the faces of those who lived in these same
houses grew long and grave, as indeed the speaker had anticipated.
The owners were not prepared for so great a sacrifice. They argued
that with the wind where it was, the fire might in all probability
not extend southward at all, in which case their loss would he
useless. They talked and argued the matter out for about twenty
anxious minutes, and in fine flatly refused to have their houses
touched, preferring to take their chance of escaping the fire to
this wholesale demolition.

This was no more than the Master Builder had foreseen, and without
attempting further argument he turned to his neighbour and said:

"Then it must be your workshops and storerooms that must go. You
can better spare them than the house itself; and on the opposite
side there is the empty house where poor David Norris lived and
died. There is none living there now to hinder us. We must take the
law into our own hands and make the gap there. If the fire comes
not this way, I will bear the blame with the Mayor, if we be called
to account; but methinks a little promptitude now may save half the
bridge, and perchance all the southern part of London likewise!"

"Do as you will, good friend, your knowledge is greater than mine,"
answered James Harmer with cheerful alacrity; "Heaven forbid that I
should value my goods beyond the life and property and salvation of
the many in this time of threatened peril."

"We shall save the goods first. It is only the sheds and workshops
that must go," answered the Master Builder cheerily, and forthwith
he and his men, who had come hurrying up, together with all the men
and boys in the double Harmer household, commenced carrying within
shop and houses all the valuables stored in the smaller buildings
hard by. It was a work quickly accomplished, and whilst it was
being carried out, the Master Builder himself was carefully making
preparations for the demolition of the empty house opposite, which
indeed was already in some danger of falling into decay, and was
empty and desolate.

It had been the abode of the unfortunate man who brought his family
back too soon to the city, and lost them all of the plague within a
short time. He himself had lingered on for some mont