fter cheer; myriads of sparks
shot rocket-like high into the air, dying in the snow as they fell.
Streams of water poured into the flaming windows. Jordan was coming up
again.

"Come out, Shorts," he heard Dan say, and he clambered over the sill.

"Slip into my arms, old man," the deep voice persuaded. "Come, now; let
go.... There, hang limper.... You're heavier than the others."

He felt Dan take a downward step, and his head whirled around and
around. They passed window after window, Shorts being carefully held
under Dan's arm. Flames licked at them greedily, touching and shriveling
their flesh. Smoke choked their nostrils cruelly. Shorts could feel the
trembling of Dan's body, as his burned fingers grasped each rung of the
ladder. To his mind the figures below looked like goblins dancing in the
light.

Suddenly, midway to the ground, the ladder creaked and groaned
hideously. Jordan halted.

"The ladder is bending, Shorts," he breathed hoarsely. He did not
finish his sentence, but shouted,

"Catch him!"

Little Brown shot into the air like a rubber ball.... A crashing sound
broke over the silent, gaping throng below. Then a giant form turned
twice in the air, shooting downward like a stone from a sling.... The
crowd parted, and Dan Jordan struck the frozen ground. His fraternity
brothers lifted up the unconscious boy, and the great roof above, with a
sickening din, sank into the fire.

The bitter frost hardened the streams of water pouring from holes in the
burning house into ropes of ice. Toward morning, the fire died, leaving
the huge frame, like an ice-covered palace, looming darkly against the
college hill.

* * * * *

In another fraternity house, Shorts was in bed, face and hands swathed
in bandages. Swipes and Spuddy, tear-stained and pale, stood by the
door, waiting.

"If only they would come and tell us something!" moaned Spuddy. "Boys,
if the Captain goes, I'm done for."

"We'll make it all right with him," came hopefully from Shorts. "He
can't die, fellows! He's as strong as a horse. If he hadn't thrown me
out into that snow pile, I would have been crushed under him. I'll never
forget that in all my life," he finished, with a shudder.

"Gad, but he looked dead when they picked him up," said Swipes in
despair. "I'm done for, too, if--if.... Here comes some one! It's
Teddy!"

He stepped aside, and Manchester, entering deliberately, closed the
door. Then he sat