Boone sprang towards him, and, seizing his arms, grasped the light and crushed it out.

"What would you do, madman?" he cried. "You can only ruin me, but do you not know that I will have the power to denounce you as a fire-raiser?"

Gorman laughed, and returned to the fireplace, while Boone sat down on a chair almost overcome with terror.

"What! you dare to defy me?" said Gorman, with an air of a.s.sumed pity.

"A pretty case you would have to make out of it. You fill your shop with combustibles, you warn your tenant upstairs to get out of the premises for a time in a way that must be quite unaccountable to her (until the fire accounts for it), and your own clerk sees you spilling turpentine about the place the day before the fire occurs, and yet you have the stupidity to suppose that people will believe you when you denounce _me_!"

Poor David Boone's wits seemed to be sharpened by his despair, for he said suddenly, after a short pause--

"If the case is so bad it will tell against yourself, Gorman, for I shall be certainly convicted, and the insurance will not be paid to you."

"Ay, but the case is not so bad as it looks," said Gorman, "if you only have the sense to hold your tongue and do what you are told; for n.o.body knows all these things but you and me, and n.o.body can put them together except ourselves--d'ye see?"

"It matters not," said Boone firmly; "I _won't_ do it--there!"

Both men leaped up. At the same moment there was a sound as of something falling in the shop. They looked at each other.

"Go see what it is," said Gorman.

The other stepped to the door.

"It's only two of my wax-dolls tumbled off the shelf," he said on returning.

An exclamation of horror escaped him, for he saw that the heap of shavings had been set on fire during his momentary absence, and Gorman stood watching them with a demoniacal grin.

Boone was struck dumb. He could not move or speak. He made a feeble effort to stretch out his hands as if to extinguish the fire, but Gorman seized him in his powerful grasp and held him fast. In a few seconds the flames were leaping up the walls, and the room was so full of smoke that they were driven into the front shop.

"Now, then," said Gorman in a fierce whisper, "your _only_ chance is to act out your part as wisely as you can. Shout _fire_! now till you're black in the face--fire! _Fire_!! FIRE!!!"

David Boone obeyed with all his might, and, when Gorman released him, ran back into the parlour to try to extinguish the flames, but he was driven back again, scorched and half-choked, while Gorman ran off at full speed to the nearest station, gave the alarm, received the shilling reward for being first to give the call, and then went leisurely home to bed.

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.

AT THE POST OF DUTY.

Fire! There is something appalling in the cry to most ears; something deadly in the sound; something that tells of imminent danger and urgent haste. After David Boone's first alarm was given, other voices took it up; pa.s.sers-by became suddenly wild, darted about spasmodically and shouted it; late sitters-up flung open their windows and proclaimed it; sleepers awoke crying, "What! where?" and, huddling on their clothes, rushed out to look at it; little boys yelled it; frantic females screamed it, and in a few minutes the hubbub in Poorthing Lane swelled into a steady roar.

Among the sound sleepers in that region was Miss Deemas. The fair head of that lady reposed on its soft pillow all unconscious of the fact that she was even then being gently smoked before being roasted alive.

Miss Tippet, on the very first note of alarm, bounced out of bed with an emphatic "There!" which was meant to announce the triumphant fulfilment of an old prophecy which she had been in the habit of making for some time past; namely, that Matty Merryon would certainly set the house on fire if she did not take care!

The energy with which Miss Tippet sprang to the floor and exclaimed "There!" caused Emma Ward to open her eyes to the utmost possible extent, and exclaim, "Where?"

Without waiting for a reply she too bounded out of bed like an indiarubber ball, and seeing (for there was always a night-light in the room) that Miss Tippet's face was as white as her night-dress, she attempted to shriek, but failed, owing to a lump of some kind that had got somehow into her throat, and which refused to be swallowed on any terms.

The repet.i.tion of the cry, "Fire! fire!" outside, induced both ladies at once to become insane. Miss Tippet, with a touch of method even in her madness, seized the counterpane, wrapped it round her, and rushed out of the room and downstairs. Emma followed her example with a blanket, and also fled, just as Matty Merryon, who slept in an attic room above, tumbled down her wooden staircase and burst into the room by another door, uttering a wild exclamation that was choked in the bud partly by terror, partly by smoke. Attempting in vain to wrap herself in a bolster, Matty followed her mistress. All three had utterly forgotten the existence of Miss Deemas. That strong-minded lady being, as we have hinted, a sound sleeper, was not awakened by the commotion in the street. In fact, she was above such weaknesses. Becoming aware of a crackling sound and a sensation of smoke, she smiled sweetly in her slumbers, and, turning gently on her other side, with a sigh, dreamed ardently of fried ham and eggs--her usual breakfast.

While these events were occurring the cry of fire had reached the ears of one of London's guardians; our friend Samuel Forest. That stout-hearted man was seated at the time rapping the sides of his sentry-box with his head, in a useless struggle with sleep. He had just succ.u.mbed, and was snoring out his allegiance to the great conqueror, when the policeman on the beat dashed open his door and shouted "Fire!"

Sam was a calm, self-possessed man. He was no more flurried by this sudden, unexpected, and fierce shout of "Fire," than he would have been if the policeman had in a mild voice made a statement of water. But, although self-possessed and cool, Sam was not slow. With one energetic effort he tripped up and floored the conqueror with one hand, as it were, while he put on his black helmet with the other, and in three minutes more the fire-escape was seen coming up the lane like a rampant monster of the antediluvian period.

It was received by the crowd with frantic cheers, because they had just become aware that a lady was asleep in one of the upper rooms, which were by that time unapproachable, owing to the lower part of the staircase having caught fire.

The fact was made known with a sudden look of horror by Miss Tippet, who, with Emma Ward, had been rescued from the first-floor window by a gallant policeman. This man, having procured a ladder, entered the house at considerable personal risk, and carried the ladies out in safety, one after the other; an event, we may remark in pa.s.sing, which is not of rare occurrence at London fires, where the police are noted for their efficient services and for the daring of some of the members of the force, many of whom have received medals and other rewards for acts of personal daring in attempting to save life before the firemen had arrived on the ground.

Having put Miss Tippet and Emma in a place of security, the policeman was about to make a desperate attempt to reach the upper floor by rushing through the flames, when the escape came up and rendered it unnecessary.

Dozens of tongues and hundreds of voices directed Sam Forest to the right window. He pointed his escape towards it, but so vigorous was the uninvited a.s.sistance lent by the crowd that the head of the machine went crashing through it and dashed the frame into the middle of the room.

To say that Miss Deemas was horror-struck by such an awakening would be to use a mild expression. Her strong mind was not strong enough to prevent her strong body from trembling like an aspen leaf, as she lay for a few moments unable to cry or move. Suddenly she believed that she was dreaming, and that the instrument which had burst through her window was a nightmare or a guillotine, and she made dreadful efforts to pinch herself awake without success. Next moment a man's head, looking very grim in the light of a bull's-eye lamp, appeared at the top of the guillotine. So far this was in keeping with her idea; but when the head leapt into the room, followed by its relative body, and made a rush at her, Miss Deemas cast courage and philosophy to the dogs, gave herself over to abject fear, uttered a piercing shriek, dipped her head under the bedclothes, and, drawing her knees up to her mouth, clasped her hands over them in agony.

"Come, ma'am, don't take on so; no time to lose; floor's goin' down!"

said Sam. He coughed as he said it, for the smoke was getting thicker every moment.

Shriek upon shriek was the only answer vouchsafed by the terrified Eagle. A wild cheer from the mob outside seemed to be a reply of encouragement to her; but it was not so; it was called forth by the sudden appearance of a fire-engine dashing round the corner of the lane.

"Be quiet, my good lady," said Sam Forest in a voice of tenderness; but if his voice was tender his actions were the reverse, for it was now a matter of life or death; so he grasped the Eagle, bedclothes and all, in his arms, and bore her to the window.

It is probable that this act revived in Miss Deemas some reminiscences of her childhood, for she suddenly straightened herself out and struggled violently, after the manner of those sweet little ones who _won't_ be made to sit on nurse's knees. Being a tall, heavy woman, she struggled out of Sam's grasp and fell to the floor; but her victory was short-lived. Another moment and that bold man had her round the waist, in a grasp from which she could not free herself. Sam was considerate, however, and polite even in this extremity. He begged pardon as he wrapped the bedclothes round his victim, and lifting her into the head of the escape, let her go.

No swoop that the Eagle ever made (mentally) down upon base, unworthy, arrogant man, was at all comparable to the descent which she made (physically) on that occasion into the arms of an expectant fireman!

She held her breath, also the blankets, tightly, as she went down like a lightning-flash, and felt that she was about to be dashed to pieces, but to her surprise soft cushions received her, and she was immediately borne, by another of these desperate men in helmets, into an adjoining house, and left unhurt in the arms of her sympathetic friend Miss Tippet.

"Oh, my dear, _dear_ Julia!" exclaimed Miss Tippet, shutting the door of the room into which they had been ushered, and a.s.sisting her friend to disentangle herself from the bedclothes. "Oh! what a mercy we've not all been roasted alive like beef steaks--or--oh! _what_ a sight you are, my darling! You must have got it coming down that dreadful thing--the what's-'is-name, you know. Shall I ring for water?"

"Tut, nonsense!" exclaimed the Eagle, panting as well from nervous excitement as exhaustion; "you are always so fussy, Emelina. Please a.s.sist me to tie this string, Miss Ward."

"Yes, I know I'm fussy, dear Julia!" exclaimed Miss Tippet, bustling nervously about the room; "but I can't help it, and I'm so thankful for--; but it was so bold in these n.o.ble fellows to risk their lives to--"

"n.o.ble fellows!" shouted Miss Deemas, with flashing eyes, "d'you call it n.o.ble to pull me out of bed, and roll me in a blanket and shoot me down a--a--I don't know what, like a sack of coals? n.o.ble fellows, indeed!

Brutes!"

Here Miss Deemas clasped her hands above her head in a pa.s.sion of conflicting feelings, and, being unable to find words for utterance, burst into a flood of tears, dropped into a chair, and covered her face with both hands.

"Dear, dear, _darling_ Julia!" said Miss Tippet soothingly.

"Don't speak to me!" sobbed the Eagle pa.s.sionately, and stamping her foot; "I can't bear to think of it."

"But you know, dear," persevered her friend, "they could not help being--being--what d'you call it?--energetic, you know, for it was not rough. We should all have been roasted to death but for them, and I feel very, _very_ grateful to them. I shall respect that policeman as long as I live."

"Ah, sure an' he _is_ a dacent boy now," said Matty Merryon, who entered the room just then; "the way he lifted you an' Miss Emma up an' flung ye over his showlder, as aisy as if ye was two bolsters, was beautiful to look at; indade it was. Shure it remimbered me o' the purty pottery ye was readin' just the other night, as was writ by O'Dood or O'Hood--"

"Hood," suggested Miss Tippet.

"P'r'aps it was," said Matty; "he'd be none the worse of an O before his name anyhow. But the pottery begood with--`Take her up tinderly, lift her with care,' if I don't misremimber."