OUT OF A FIRE TRAP.
“Where am I?”
Such was the question which Larry asked himself upon regaining his
senses after being struck down by Check Sluggers.
For the moment he could not think. But then, like a flash of lightning,
the terrible truth burst upon him—the tenement fire, his going to the
top floor to look for the woman, and the attack by Sluggers and Lank
Possy.
With his head aching as if to split open, he staggered to his feet. His
hands touched the walls of the closet, and in a trice he realized the
full extent of his direful situation. He was a prisoner in the burning
building.
Already the flames were crackling merrily in the room beyond, for the
straw had done its work only too well. The thin columns of smoke were
coming in through the cracks of the door, and made him cough.
“If I want to save myself, I’ve got to do it quickly,” he thought,
dismally. “Another few minutes and it will be too late!”
Yet what should he do? The door was heavy and refused to budge,
although he put all his force against it.
He felt around the closet. The walls were of plaster, and as hard as
plaster walls usually are. But even here there might have been hope,
had not one side wall and the back rested against the side and back of
the house, and the other side rested against a brick chimney. To push
through a wall was, therefore, out of the question.
Next he felt of the floor, hoping to find a loose board which might
enable him to drop into the room or closet below.
But the floor was perfect, much more so than floors in tenement houses
usually are.
There was now but one thing more to try—the ceiling. But how should he
get to it?
There was a good-sized door-knob to the door, and by bracing his
hand against the back of the closet he succeeded in mounting so that
he could put his foot on the door-knob. Then he raised his hands up
eagerly.
Joy! there was a trap there, communicating with a blind garret used to
store away odds and ends of old junk. In a jiffy he had the trap raised
and was crawling up into the blind garret, which was but three feet
from beams to roof. Flooring there was none.
The smoke was coming up fast now, but he did not falter, for he
realized how precious every instant was. In his pocket he carried what
nearly every New York fireman carries, a candle and some matches.
With haste he lit the candle and gazed around the roof, and at last
found what he was looking for, a scuttle. It was hooked from the inside
and the hooks were rusty and hard to budge.
By this time our hero was all but overcome, and with his hands on the
hooks he swayed back and forth like a drunken man.
“I—I won’t—get out!” he panted.
But then he thought of home, of his sister Kate, and of beautiful Mary
Vern, and fresh courage came to him.
With a yank he brought loose one of the hooks, and another followed.
Then, with all of his remaining strength, he shoved upon the scuttle.
It flew upward and fell back on another part of the roof.
He was free!
Oh, how good the night air tasted as he shoved his head through the
opening. The smoke was all around him, and the fire glared upward as if
ready to devour him, but here at least was some fresh air, and he drank
it in as if it were nectar.
As soon as he felt able he stood up on the roof and gazed around him.
The fire was coming up on all sides, so that escape by going below was
out of the question.
On one side of the tenement was the heavy brick wall of a factory
towering thirty feet above the roof.
The firemen were just coming up there, but there was no telling how
long it would be before he could call to them for a ladder or a rope.
He looked to the other side, and saw the other tenement. There was
an alleyway five feet wide here, but nothing daunted, he leaped the
distance and came down on the next roof in safety.
To get into one of the windows was equally easy, and soon he was making
his way to the ground floor. The people in the tenement thinking
nothing of this, as he was in his uniform.
[Illustration: “He Leaped the Distance and Came Down on the Next Roof
in Safety”]
“Did you find the woman?” was the first question asked of him.
“No woman there,” answered Larry, and just then he said no more.
But he was too exhausted to work, and begged to be excused from further
duty.
The permission to retire was readily given and he drew out of the crowd.
He felt like going home, but wondered if Check Sluggers and Lank Possy
were still around.
“They meant to get rid of me for good,” he reasoned. “I wish I could
hand them both over to the police.”
But though he remained in the vicinity of the fire until it was out, he
saw nothing of his enemies.
This was not to be wondered at, for as we already know, as soon as
they had left the burning building, Sluggers and Possy had quitted the
vicinity.
“He’s done for!” said Sluggers, when they were several blocks away.
He had glanced back to see that the tenement was blazing fiercely in
several places.
“A good job done!” returned Lank Possy, but even as he spoke the
bully’s teeth chattered so that he could scarcely frame the words.
“You’re losing your nerve,” laughed Check Sluggers. “Come in and have a
drink.”
Possy was willing, and they entered a resort where Sluggers was well
known.
Here Sluggers had several drinks, while Possy drank so much that he was
soon so intoxicated he could not stand.
He tried to forget Larry and the awful deed he had committed, but it
was all in vain; and even when they took him upstairs and placed him on
a couch he groaned and tossed dismally for hours.
“He ain’t got no backbone at all!” said Check Sluggers. “I wish I had
him out of my way.”
Sluggers watched eagerly for the first of the morning papers, to see
what might be said about Larry’s disappearance.
When he did get the paper, he found only a small notice was accorded
the tenement house fire, and nothing at all was said about the
disappearance of any of the firemen.
“They must have missed it,” he thought and then bought the other papers
as they appeared, but could, of course, find nothing of what he hoped
to see. He grew very pale. Had Larry escaped, after all?
“If he did, I’ll have to quit New York,” was what he told himself. “If
I don’t, he’ll have me arrested on sight.”