d Hal. "Let me go, and save yourself!"

Chester did not reply, but laid his chum gently on the floor. Then he
dashed into the next room, returning in a moment with several sheets.

Quickly he tore these into strips and tied them together. Then he
approached Hal and tied one end under his arms.

"We will get out yet," he said quietly, and assisted Hal to the window.

"Put no more strain upon your wound than necessary," he instructed
Hal. "Hold to the sheets with your hands, and it will relieve some of
the strain."

So saying, Chester lifted Hal to the window sill, and gently lowered him
over the edge. With his feet braced against the wall, he paid out the
improvised rope slowly.

Now the flames burst into the room in which Chester stood, but it did not
hasten the lad in his desperate work. Slowly he let the sheets slip
through his hands, that Hal's wound might not be opened afresh by any
sudden jerks; and presently the slack of the rope told him that his chum
had reached the ground. At the same moment he heard Hal's voice:

"All right! Pull up the rope!"

Rapidly now Chester set about saving himself. The room was a seething
mass of flames, which burned him terribly. Tying one end of his
improvised rope to a bedpost, Chester leaped to the window sill, and
began his descent.

So fierce were the flames that the sheets lasted but a second; but, in
that time Chester had slid halfway to the ground. Then the rope broke and
he fell with a crash. He picked himself up immediately, however, and,
turning to Hal, said swiftly:

"Quick! We must get away from here at once. The building is likely to
fall at any moment and we shall be buried beneath it."

He stooped down.

"Put your arms around my neck again!" he commanded.

Hal obeyed, this time without question.

Raising up with Hal in his arms, Chester staggered forward at a run, and
it was well that he did so.

For at the moment he had reached a place of safety, the great building
caved in with a deafening crash. There was a roar like the roar of a
thousand guns, and, a moment later, on the spot where the hospital had
stood there was only a mass of smoking and blazing debris.

More slowly, now, Chester continued on his way. Before him he could still
hear the thundering of many cannons as the battle progressed, but he kept
his face turned in that direction.

In spite of the heavy burden in his arms, he made good progress; nor did
the bursting of an occasional shel