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stentorian voice came to them, as it were, on the wings of fire and smoke--"Stay where you are a minute--the escape is coming!" "Thank God!" exclaimed Laidlaw, looking down at the fair head which rested on his shoulder. The cheeks were deadly white and the eyes closed, but the pressure of her arms showed that the girl clung to him for very life. A bright shower of sparks at the moment flew around them. "Heeven an' pandemonium brought thegither!" he thought as he bent over to protect her. His face was very near to hers! "My puir wee doo!" he muttered, and placed a timid kiss upon the pale cheek, which instantly coloured as if the fires around had suddenly kindled them. "O lassie, forgi'e me! I didna mean to do _tha_--I railly--did--not,-- but I couldna help it! I wad hae waited till ye gie'd me leave. But after a'--what for no? I thought t' ask ye t' gie me the right this very day. And O lassie! if I might only hope that--" He stopped, and _something_ induced him to do _that_ again. At the same moment another mighty roar ascended from the crowd, and the head of the great fire-escape rose like a solemn spectre through smoke, fire, and steam, not ten yards from where he stood. "Hooray!" shouted Tommy, for he felt that they were saved. Laidlaw said nothing, but sprang to the head of the ladder, got carefully upon it, and began steadily to descend with Susy. Sam was about to follow with old Liz, but glanced at Tommy. "Go first, lad." "Arter you, mate," said the boy, stepping politely back; "you see, tigers, like captings, are always last to leave a sinkin' ship." It was neither the time nor place for ceremony. With something approaching almost to a laugh, the seaman got on the ladder as smartly as he would have taken to the shrouds of a ship, and Tommy followed. Half-way down they met a swirl of smoke, with an occasional tongue of flame shooting through it from a shattered window. At the same moment they encountered a brass-helmeted fellow springing boldly up through the same to the rescue. "Gang doon again, freen'," shouted Laidlaw, when his heel came in contact with the helmet. "We're a' safe here." He paused just a moment to draw the shawl completely over Susy's head and arms, and to pull her dress well round her feet. Then, burying his face in the same shawl and shutting his eyes, he descended steadily but swiftly. For a moment or two the rounds of the ladder felt like heated ir
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