r just an instant he gave that vision its individual due.

"Take us as near the fire as you can get," he directed the chauffeur.

From Boylston Street up Tremont to its intersection with Beacon is a
ride of barely two minutes. It seemed as though almost no time had
elapsed before the taxi came to a stop beside the Palmer House. The
two occupants descended; Smith paid the man; the vehicle slid off into
space beyond their ken. And at that very moment their eyes sprang to
where, barely a block away, great tongues of red fire licked above a
wide building's roof--and all else but that thing faded into nothing.

"This way," said the New Yorker, tersely. They crossed School Street,
continuing up Tremont until they were opposite the old King's Chapel
Burial Ground. From this point, over the top of the City Hall, they
could see the flames riding high in air above a big five- and
seven-story building.

"My God! That must be Black's Hotel!" said a voice in the crowd behind
them.

"Sure, that's what it is," volunteered a policeman who was keeping the
fire lines.

"Were any lives lost?" Smith asked.

"No. Every one got out all right. It didn't start in the hotel.
They're very careful, and they have a fine fire drill, anyway. There
was plenty of time to warn every one."

Out of the north came a crisp wind. Not content with blowing, as it
had done before, Helen's hair about her ears, it also whipped her
skirts urgently about her. Smith calculated this wind, and shook his
head dubiously.

"Twenty-five miles an hour, I should think," he said. "Rather bad
night for a big fire. I wonder if we can get a little closer."

From where they stood it seemed that the fire was in the heart of the
block bounded by Court Square, Court, School, and Washington Streets.
The north half of this block was occupied chiefly by Black's Hotel, one
of the best-known hostelries in New England, and the south half by the
newspaper plant of the Boston _News_ and by several smaller buildings.
Between the two sections of the block ran a narrow lane known as
Williams Court; and at the time when Smith and Helen became spectators,
the fire was pouring from every window of the big hotel and proving
triumphant over all efforts to keep it from leaping the almost
imperceptible southern barrier.

"How long has this been going?" Smith asked the policeman.

"About an hour and a half, I guess. I've been here since quarter to
ten."

"Do you suppos