Bing! They're off! The horses tear down
the street like mad. Bing! Bing! Bing! goes the gong!

"Get out of the track! The engines are coming! For God's sake,
snatch that child from the road!"

On, on, wildly, resolutely, madly fly the steeds. Bing! Bing!
the gong. Away dash the horses on the wings of fevered fury. On
whirls the machine, down streets, around corners, up this avenue
and across that one, out into the very bowels of darkness,
whiffing, wheezing, shooting a million sparks from the stack,
paving the path of startled night with a galaxy of stars. Over
the house-tops to the north, a volcanic burst of flame shoots
out, belching with blinding effect. The sky is ablaze. A
tenement house is burning. Five hundred souls are in peril.
Merciful Heaven! Spare the victims! Are the engines coming? Yes,
here they are, dashing down the street. Look! the horses ride
upon the wind; eyes bulging like balls of fire; nostrils wide
open. A palpitating billow of fire, rolling, plunging, bounding
rising, falling, swelling, heaving, and with mad passion
bursting its red-hot sides asunder, reaching out its arms,
encircling, squeezing, grabbing up, swallowing everything before
it with the hot, greedy mouth of an appalling monster.

How the horses dash around the corner! Animal instinct say you?
Aye, more. Brute reason.

"Up the ladders, men!"

The towering building is buried in bloated banks of savage,
biting elements. Forked tongues dart out and in, dodge here and
there, up and down, and wind their cutting edges around every
object. A crash, a dull, explosive sound, and a puff of smoke
leaps out. At the highest point upon the roof stands a dark
figure in a desperate strait, the hands making frantic gestures,
the arms swinging wildly--and then the body shoots off into
frightful space, plunging upon the pavement with a revolting
thud. The man's arm strikes a bystander as he darts down. The
crowd shudders, sways, and utters a low murmur of pity and
horror. The faint-hearted lookers-on hide their faces. One woman
swoons away.

"Poor fellow! Dead!" exclaims a laborer, as he looks upon the
man's body.

"Aye, Joe, and I knew him well, too! He lived next door to me,
five flights back. He leaves a widowed mother and two wee bits
of orphans. I helped him bury his wife a fortni