te to the
river, and each one bearing a bucket. The energetic major
mounted a ladder, received the water as it came, and poured
it into the flaming building. The heat was intense, the
smoke suffocating; so near were the flames that a pair of
thick mittens were quickly burned from his hands. Calling
for another pair, he dipped them into the water and
continued his work.

"Come down!" cried Colonel Haviland. "It is too dangerous
there. We must try other means."

"There are no means but to fight the enemy inch by inch,"
replied Putnam. "A moment's yielding on our part may prove
fatal."

His cool trepidity gave new courage to the colonel, who
exclaimed, as he urged the others to renewed exertions,--

"If we must be blown up, we will all go together."

Despite Putnam's heroic efforts, the flames spread. Soon the
whole barracks were enveloped, and lurid tongues of fire
began to shoot out alarmingly towards the magazine. Putnam
now descended, took his station between the two buildings,
and continued his active service, his energy and audacity
giving new life and activity to officers and men. The
outside planks of the magazine caught. They were consumed.
Only a thin timber partition remained between the flames and
fifteen tons of powder. This, too, was charred and smoking.
Destruction seemed inevitable. The consternation was
extreme.

But there, in the scorching heat of the flames, covered with
falling cinders, threatened with instant death, stood the
undaunted Putnam, still pouring water on the smoking
timbers, still calling to the men to keep steadily to their
work. And thus he continued till the rafters of the barracks
fell in, the heat decreased, and the safety of the magazine
was insured.

For an hour and a half he had fought the flames. His hands,
face, almost his whole body, were scorched and blistered.
When he pulled off his second pair of mittens the skin came
with them. Several weeks passed before he recovered from the
effects of his hard battle with fire. But he had the reward
of success, and the earnest thanks and kind attentions of
officers and men alike, who felt that to him alone they owed
the safety of the fort, and the escape of many, if not all,
of the garrison from destruction.

Among Putnam's many adventures, there are two others which
have often been told, but are worthy of repetition. On one
occasion he was surprised by a large party of Indians, when
with a few men in a boat at the head of