"I smells a smell!" exclaimed Mrs Rampy, sniffing.

"Wery likely," remarked Mrs Blathers; "your 'ouse ain't over-clean."

But the insinuation was lost on Mrs Rampy, who was naturally keen of scent. She rose, ran to the window, opened it, thrust out her dishevelled head, and exclaimed "_Fire_!"

"No, it ain't," said her friend; "it's on'y smoke."

Unfortunately the two women wondered for a few precious minutes and ran out to the court, into which, from a back window of the public-house, smoke was slowly streaming. Just then a slight glimmer was seen in the same window.

"Fire! fire!" yelled Mrs Rampy, now thoroughly alarmed.

"Smoke! smo-o-o-oke!" shrieked Mrs Blathers. The two women were gifted with eminently persuasive lungs. All the surrounding courts and streets were roused in a few minutes, and poured into the lanes and alleys which led to Cherub Court.

That extremely vigilant body, the London Fire Brigade, had their nearest engines out in two minutes. Many of the more distant men were roused by telegraph. Though in bed, partially clad and asleep, at one moment, the next moment they were leaping into boots and pantaloons which stood agape for them. Bra.s.s-helmeted, and like comets with a stream of fire behind them, they were flying to the rescue five minutes after the yell and shriek of "Fi-i-ire!" and "Smo-o-o-oke!"

Owing to the great elevation of the garden, and its being surrounded by stacks of chimneys, it was some minutes before the sleepers there were aroused. Then, like giants refreshed, David and Sam leapt from their bunks, and, like Jack-in-the-box, Tommy Splint shot from his kennel.

There was no occasion to dress. In the circ.u.mstances the three had turned in, as Sam expressed it, "all standing."

They rushed at the door of the garret, but it was bolted on the inside.

Susy, who had been awake, had heard the alarm and drawn the bolt so as to give time for hastily throwing on a few garments. The men thundered violently and tried to force the door, but the door was strong, and an instinctive feeling of delicacy restrained them for a few seconds from bursting it open.

"Susy! Susy!" roared the father; "open! Quick! Fire!"

"One moment, father. I'm dressing granny, and--"

A loud shriek terminated the sentence, for the flames, gathering headway with wild rapidity, had burst-up some part of the liquor den at the bas.e.m.e.nt and went roaring up the staircase, sending dense clouds of smoke in advance.

This was enough. Laidlaw threw his heavy bulk against the door, burst lock and hinge, and sent it flat on the garret floor. Blinding smoke met and almost choked him as he fell, and Sam, tumbling over him, caught up the first person his hands touched and bore her out. It was old Liz--half dressed, and wrapped in a blanket! Susy, also half dressed, and with a shawl wrapped round her shoulders, was carried out by Laidlaw. Both were unhurt, though half stifled by smoke, and greatly alarmed.

"Ye ken the hoose, Tammy; hoo shall we gang?"

"There's _no_ way to escape!" cried the poor boy, with a distracted look.

One glance at the staircase convinced Laidlaw that escape in that direction was impossible. Plunging into the garret again he seized the door and jammed it into its place, thus stopping the gush of black smoke, and giving them a few minutes breathing s.p.a.ce.

"Is there a rope in the garret?" asked Sam eagerly.

"No--nothink o' the kind," gasped Tommy.

"No sheets,--blankets?" asked the Scot.

"Only two or three," replied Susan, who supported Liz in the rustic chair. "They're much worn, and not enough to reach _near_ the ground."

It was no time for useless talk. The two men said no more, but sprang on the parapet outside the garden, to find, if possible, a way of escape by the roofs of the neighbouring houses. The sight they beheld was sufficiently appalling. The fire which raged below them cast a noonday glare over the wilderness of chimney-stacks around, revealing the awful nature of their position, and, in one direction, thousands of upturned faces. The men were observed as they ran along the parapet, and a deep hoa.r.s.e cry from the sympathetic mult.i.tude rose for a few moments above the roaring of the flames.

On two sides the walls of the building went sheer down, sixty feet or more, without a break, into a yard which bristled with broken wood and old lumber. Evidently death faced them in that direction. The third side was the gable-end of the garret. On the fourth side there was a descent of twelve feet or so on to the roof of the next block, which happened to be lower--but that block was already in flames.

"There is our chief hope," said the sailor, pointing to it.

"Nay," responded Laidlaw in a low voice, pointing upwards--"oor main hope is _there_! I thocht they had fire-escapes here," he added, turning to Tommy, who had joined them.

"So they 'ave, but no escape can be got down the yards 'ere. The halleys is too narrer."

"Come, I'll git a blankit to lower Susan and auld Liz," said Laidlaw, hastening back to the garden, where the trembling women awaited the result of their inspection.

While the Scotsman removed the door and dashed once again into the smoke-filled garret, the sailor hurriedly explained to the women what they were going to attempt, and impressed upon them the necessity of submitting entirely to whatever was required of them, "which will be,"

he said, "chiefly to shut your eyes an' keep quiet."

Laidlaw quickly returned with a couple of sheets and a blanket. Sam knotted the sheets together in sailor-like fashion, while his friend made a secure bundle of old Liz with the blanket. Sam was lowered first to the roof of the tenement which we have said was already on fire, and stood ready to receive Liz. She was safely let down and the sheet-rope was detached.

"We'll no mak' a bundle o' _you_," said David, turning to Susy; "jist putt it roond yer waist."

When she was safely lowered, Tommy was grasped by an arm and let down till his feet rested on Sam's head, whence he easily leaped to the roof, and then David let himself drop. To reach a place of temporary safety they had now to walk on the top of a part.i.tion of old brick, about eight inches wide, a fall from which, on one side, meant death, on the other side, broken bones at the least. They knew that a loose brick or a false step might be fatal, but there was no alternative.

Sam turned to his daughter: "Ye could never cross that, Susy?" he said.

Although no coward, the poor girl shrank from the giddy ledge, which was rendered more dangerous and terrible by being now surrounded by occasional puffs of smoke and clouds of steam from the water of a dozen hydrants which by that time were playing into the raging flames. To add to the horrors of the situation, beams and ma.s.ses of masonry were heard occasionally crashing in the interior of the building.

Sam advanced to take Susy in his arms, but Laidlaw stepped between them.

"Leave her t' me," he said; "the auld woman's lichter, an' ye're no sae strong as me."

Saying which, he lifted the girl in his left arm as if she had been but a little child, and mounted the parapet keeping his right arm free to balance himself or cling to anything if need be. Sam, who was quite equal to the emergency, took old Liz into his arms and followed, but cast one glance back at Tommy.

"Never mind me, Sam," cried the boy, who, having got over his first panic, rose heroically to the occasion.

The crowd below saw what they were attempting, and gave them a cheer of encouragement, yet with bated breath, as if they dreaded the issue.

A few seconds and they were past that danger, but still stood on the burning house at another part of the roof. Here, being suddenly drenched by spray from one of the engines, Sam and Tommy made for the shelter of a chimney-stack. As there was not room behind it for more, Laidlaw carried his light burden to another stack, and looked hastily round to see what next could be done. Just at that moment there was a wild cheer below, in the midst of which a stentorian voice came to them, as it were, on the wings of fire and smoke--"Stay where you are a minute--the escape is coming!"

"Thank G.o.d!" exclaimed Laidlaw, looking down at the fair head which rested on his shoulder. The cheeks were deadly white and the eyes closed, but the pressure of her arms showed that the girl clung to him for very life. A bright shower of sparks at the moment flew around them. "Heeven an' pandemonium brought thegither!" he thought as he bent over to protect her. His face was very near to hers!

"My puir wee doo!" he muttered, and placed a timid kiss upon the pale cheek, which instantly coloured as if the fires around had suddenly kindled them.

"O la.s.sie, forgi'e me! I didna mean to do _tha_--I railly--did--not,-- but I couldna help it! I wad hae waited till ye gie'd me leave. But after a'--what for no? I thought t' ask ye t' gie me the right this very day. And O la.s.sie! if I might only hope that--"

He stopped, and _something_ induced him to do _that_ again. At the same moment another mighty roar ascended from the crowd, and the head of the great fire-escape rose like a solemn spectre through smoke, fire, and steam, not ten yards from where he stood.

"Hooray!" shouted Tommy, for he felt that they were saved. Laidlaw said nothing, but sprang to the head of the ladder, got carefully upon it, and began steadily to descend with Susy. Sam was about to follow with old Liz, but glanced at Tommy.

"Go first, lad."

"Arter you, mate," said the boy, stepping politely back; "you see, tigers, like captings, are always last to leave a sinkin' ship."

It was neither the time nor place for ceremony. With something approaching almost to a laugh, the seaman got on the ladder as smartly as he would have taken to the shrouds of a ship, and Tommy followed.

Half-way down they met a swirl of smoke, with an occasional tongue of flame shooting through it from a shattered window. At the same moment they encountered a bra.s.s-helmeted fellow springing boldly up through the same to the rescue.