Page 20 - An Amateur Fireman

Then a stifled cry of fear burst from his lips, for he had suddenly seen a bright tongue of flame leap up, and he
knew the crime had been committed in fact as well as spirit.

At this moment he remembered the words of his friends from Brooklyn as distinctly as if they had but just
been spoken, and like a flash came the realization that perhaps he had done that which would result in the loss
of human life.

The flames increased until they were reflected on the wall of brick in the rear, and it seemed to Jip as if the
shed must already be in a blaze.

"Why don't somebody send in an alarm?" he said, speaking aloud in his anxiety, although there was no one at
hand to hear him. "Seth an' Dan will be burned to death if the engines don't get here mighty soon!"

Then came the thought, for he believed the fire was already beyond control, that it would be impossible to
rescue the boys--that he was indeed a murderer, for it seemed to him as if an exceedingly long time had
elapsed since he first saw the tiny ray of light.

Now his one desire was that an alarm might be sent in, yet no one could be seen or heard in either direction.

Each moment of delay increased the peril, and when he had waited in most painful suspense for ten seconds it
was impossible to remain inactive any longer.

Far down the street a red light could be seen, denoting the location of a fire-alarm station, and he ran toward it
as he had never run before, so nervous when he would have opened the outer door of the box that for two or
three seconds it was impossible to turn the handle.

When he did so the sound of the warning gong, intended to notify the policeman on that beat that the box was
being opened, caused him to start back in alarm, for he fancied the officers of justice were already on his trail.

Jip had many times seen a call rung in, and in the merest fraction of time he recovered from his fears as he
understood the cause of this sudden noise.

Then he opened the outer door and pulled down the lever once; and from that instant until the first engine
appeared, which was Ninety-four, it seemed to him as if an hour had passed, although in fact the company of
which Seth considered himself in a certain degree a member, had responded to the call in less than three
minutes.

Jip was standing by the signal-box when a rumble and roar in the distance told of the coming of Ninety-four,
and he watched as if fascinated the fountain of sparks which went up from the smoke-stack; listened to the
sharp clicking of the horses' shoes on the pavement; to the din of the gongs, and the cries of startled
pedestrians in the rear--hearing everything, seeing everything, but yet all the while as if in a dream.

Nearer and nearer came the puffing engine drawn by three plunging horses as if it had been no more than a
toy, and then, his brain still in a whirl, Jip heard as if from afar off, the question:

"Where's the fire?"

"In Baxter's carpenter shop!"

The engine was some distance beyond him by the time he had answered the question, and from the opposite
direction he heard the rush of a second on-coming machine; then here and there the rumble of wheels and
hoof-beats of horses driven at their utmost speed, until it seemed as if by that one pull on the lever of the