Page 69 - An Amateur Fireman

which was coming directly toward them.

"Yes, Amateur, it's her or Ninety-four; Fifty-three is distanced, and I'll hold that you're bringing good luck to
us if we do no more than beat one of 'em out."

Every man of that company, however eager he had previously been to be first at the scene of conflict, seemed
now to outdo himself in activity.

A cloud of black smoke issuing from the second floor of a dwelling located the fire, and Ninety-four's tender
was making a run for the nearest hydrant, passing the engine just as 'Lish Davis slackened speed.

Joe Black had gained the desired spot in advance of his rival, and as Ninety-four's tender dashed by, fifteen or
twenty feet of the hose had been run off of the reel.

Then it was that Jerry Walters and 'Lish Davis gave vent to a loud cry of triumph, for Joe Black had made the
connection.

Ninety-four's tender was stretching in just as the other company reached the hydrant, beaten by no more than
ten seconds.

"We've got first water, Amateur, we've got first water!" Jerry Walters shouted as if having taken leave of his
senses. "It ain't that we've never done such a thing; but this time it didn't belong to us, and we took it on your
first run! If that ain't being a mascot for Ninety-four I don't know what you will call it."

Then there was no time for congratulations or further discussion regarding the matter, for the men had work to
do which could not be delayed, and Seth was about to follow Joe Black when 'Lish Davis shouted:

"Come back here, Amateur! Come back! This is no time for you to be gettin' points when you're wearing the
first decent suit of clothes you ever owned. Get alongside and behave yourself. I didn't allow you was to do
any work when the captain let you in on this trick."

Under other circumstances Seth would have been grievously disappointed at being thus commanded to remain
where he could see little or nothing of what was being done; but now he was so elated at the victory won that
all else seemed but slight by comparison.

"I s'pose you'd have gone in there if you was wearing the finest coat ever made, eh?" the driver asked gravely,
and Seth replied with another question:

"Wouldn't you, sir?"

"What I'd do don't cut any figger, Amateur. It's my business to go in there, but not yours yet a while. When
the time comes that you're bound to step up with the foremost, I'm expecting to see you there, and wouldn't
say a word that might hold you back. Now you're playing the gentleman, and you'll stay with me; besides, it
ain't going to turn out anything after all. A curtain or some such flummery is blazing. It can't be much more."

In this surmise 'Lish Davis was correct.

Within ten minutes after Ninety-four was ready for work word came to "shut off," and the men set about
disconnecting the hose.

So slight had been the fire that only two members of the company were detailed to do the overhauling--that, is
to thoroughly go through the building from top to bottom to make certain no spark had been left which might