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Page 57
"If I could only believe that!" gasped Proprietor Carter. "We've tried
the ladders, and we've tried the corridors of the house. It's a raging
furnace in there."
Dr. Furniss looked on rather calmly.
"I'm merely wondering on which side of the house those two engineers
will appear with the woman and her children," he declared.
For the fourth time a ladder was being vainly raised at the rear.
Suddenly a shout rang out. In the basement a window was unexpectedly
knocked out from the inside.
Through the way thus cleared leaped a young man so blackened with smoke
as to be unrecognizable, though it was Hazelton.
Before those who first espied the young man recovered from their
surprise, a pair of arms from the inside handed out the body of a child
to Hazelton.
Then came another child. Next the senseless body of a woman was handed
out.
Dr. Furniss was the first to recover, from delighted amazement. In a
bound he was on the spot, taking care of one of the children himself and
bawling to others to bring the rest of the family.
Tom Reade, looking more like a burnt-cork minstrel in hard luck than
like his usual self, sprang through the window way and followed.
"Here, you people--stand back!" roared Tom, elbowing his way along.
"Dr. Furniss and his patients want room and air. Stand back!"
"It's Reade!" yelled a dozen men in delight.
"Well, what of it?" asked Tom coolly, as he followed Furniss. "Was
there anyone here who expected that I'd be lost?"
"Hurrah! Where's Hazelton?"
"Who wants me?" demanded the other unrecognizable, smoke-blackened
figure.
"They're both safe!"
"Oh--cut it out," begged Tom good-humoredly. "You can't lose an
engineer or even kill him. Doc, what's the report?"
"All three are alive," replied Dr. Furniss, "but they'll need care and
nursing. Here, help me place them in my car. Someone get in and ride
with me--I'll need help. You, Reade!"
"No," responded Tom with emphasis, as he looked down at his discolored
self. "If the lady saw me when she opened her eyes, she'd faint again.
I'd scare the kiddies into convulsions. A bath for me!"
A man from the crowd quickly stepped into the tonneau of the car, ready
to care for the woman and her children while the physician drove his car
home.
"Hello, Reade! My congratulations on your getting out. 'Twas a brave
deed, too, to save that poor woman and her children."
Frank Danes pressed through the crowd about the car, reaching out to
seize Reade's hand.
Into Tom's face flashed a sudden look that few had ever seen there.
It was a look full of contempt that the young chief engineer bent on the
man who had greeted him.
"Your hand!" cried Danes, in a voice ringing with admiration.
"Don't you touch me!" warned Reade, his voice vibrating with anger.
"Why--what--" began Danes, then reached his own right hand for Tom's.
"Make way for this 'gentleman' to fall!" roared Reade, then swung a
crushing blow that landed squarely in Danes's face.
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