her father's property which was imperilled attested to the
justification of Miss Betty in running to a fire; and, as she followed
the crowd into Main Street, she felt a not unpleasant proprietary
interest in the spectacle. Very opposite sensations animated the breast
of the man with the trumpet, who was more acutely conscious than any
other that these were Robert Carewe's possessions which were burning
so handsomely. Nor was he the only one among the firemen who ground his
teeth over the folly of the uniforms; for now they could plainly see the
ruin being wrought, the devastation threatened. The two upper stories
of the southernmost warehouse had swathed themselves in one great flame;
the building next on the north, also of frame, was smoking heavily; and
there was a wind from the southwest, which, continuing with the fire
unchecked, threatened the town itself. There was work for the Volunteer
Brigade that night.

They came down Main Street with a rush, the figure of their chief
swaying over them on his high perch, while their shouting was drowned in
the louder roar of greeting from the crowd, into which they plunged as
a diver into the water, swirls and eddies of people marking the wake.
A moment later a section of the roof of the burning warehouse fell in,
with a sonorous and reverberating crash.

The "Engine Company" ran the force-pump out to the end of one of the
lower wharves; two lines of pipe were attached; two rows of men mounted
the planks for the pumpers, and, at the word of command, began the
up-and-down of the hand-machine with admirable vim. Nothing happened;
the water did not come; something appeared to be wrong with the
mechanism. As everyone felt the crucial need of haste, nothing could
have been more natural than that all the members of the "Engine Company"
should simultaneously endeavor to repair the defect; therefore ensued
upon the spot a species of riot which put the engine out of its sphere
of usefulness.

In the meantime, fifty or sixty men and boys who ran with the machines,
but who had no place in their operation, being the Bucket Brigade, had
formed a line and were throwing large pails of water in the general
direction of the southernmost warehouse, which it was now impossible to
save; while the gentlemen of the "Hook-and-Ladder Company," abandoning
their wagons, and armed with axes, heroically assaulted the big door
of the granary, the second building, whence they were driven by the
exasper