CHAPTER IV JERRY TO THE RESCUE
"That," exclaimed the Chief, turning to Johnny, "is one of yours. It'sthe old Garrity School."
"That's right," Johnny answered. "It's not a school now; sort of a socialcenter for downtown folks. The fire starts in the office as usual."
"Sure enough it does. You're a wizard."
"No need to be a wizard to tell that. This is the fourth fire on cityproperty and every one started near the office. Time we were learningsomething from that one fact, something about how the fires are set. Idug up a bit of evidence in that last fire; couple of wires in----"
"You won't learn much about this fire until it's burned out," broke inthe Chief. "Look at her shooting toward the sky. That dirty trick theyplayed us lost us time." He leaped from the car and was at once in themidst of it, quietly issuing orders.
"Going to be bad," he said to Marshal Neil. "If we save the SimonsBuilding we'll be in luck. Wind's strong from the lake. It's fireproof,but has no shutters. Full of furniture, new furniture. Burn like stovewood. Get all the lines you can spare playing on that side. Beat it backif you can."
"Corigon," he turned suddenly to the driver, "go send in another alarm.Call up the fire boat. She's got twelve lines. It's pretty far to theriver, but she'll do in an emergency.
"Neil, tell the boys to get up the fire tower. Clear the Simons Building.Not many people in there, I guess. Some cleaners, though. Better be safe.She'll go fast if she goes."
There _were_ people in the Simons Building; three at least--Johnny, Mazieand the pink-eyed man whom Johnny suspected of being the firebug. Johnnyand Mazie had left the car and had been skirting the engines for a betterlook at the fire when Johnny had suddenly brought Mazie up with a shrillwhisper:
"There he is!"
"Who?"
"The fire--the--the pink-eyed man."
"Where?"
"There. He's just crossing the street. I believe--yes, yes. C'mon."
In imminent danger of being run down by a fire engine, they darted acrossthe street and into the Simons Building.
"You wait here in the corridor," whispered Johnny. "He went in. I sawhim. Want to shadow him."
"No. I might lose you. I--I'll go along."
"C'mon, then."
On tiptoes they explored the corridors. Then, having found no sign of theman, and having come upon an unlocked stairway door, they started up.
There were no open doors at the second, third or fourth floors, nor atthe fifth, nor sixth. Johnny had about decided to turn back when hediscovered the seventh floor door stood ajar.
Tip-toeing silently forward, they entered the corridor, a longtunnel-like affair extending as far as they could see, both to the rightand left, and lighted only by some small red lamps.
"Down this way. I heard him," Mazie whispered.
At that identical instant Johnny actually caught sight of a movement inthe opposite direction. Without thinking that his companion would doother than follow, he tip-toed down the corridor.
The person, whoever he was, moved silently down the hall to at lastsuddenly disappear through a door or a side hall to the left. StealthilyJohnny followed on. As for Mazie, being actually confident of herdiscovery of the person and supposing as a matter of course that Johnnywould follow her, she had gone tip-toeing in the opposite direction.
She had not gone a dozen paces when, on hearing a sound at her left, shefound herself looking down a corridor darker than the first and which ranoff at right angles to the one she was following.
By this time she had discovered that Johnny had vanished; but lured on byslight sounds and spurred forward by the tang of adventure, she followedon down this corridor, then turned into another one to the right, andafter that a great way to the left again. When at last she came up squareagainst a door at the end of this last corridor and found that there wasno right nor left for her now, she began dimly to sense the fact that shewas lost.
She did not realize this in all its fullness until she had started toretrace her steps. Then, to her consternation, she discovered threecorridors running to the right.
"Three," she whispered as her heart skipped a beat, "and which one was itthat I came down?"
At that precise moment a fresh suggestion of horror set her kneestrembling. Her delicate nostrils had detected smoke! There could be nodoubt about it!
"The fire's just across the street," she thought, "and the wind is rightthis way. This building may be on fire at this very moment."
Her only thought now was of escape. But what was the way out?
She thought of the door at the end of the hall.
"Probably opens on a stair," she told herself.
It did, but the stair went up, not down. By this time, quite thoroughlyfrightened, she took the up-going stairs. She had climbed three flightsbefore she realized her folly. At that time she found herself at a doorleading down the corridor.
"Follow it to a stairway that is open all the way down," she toldherself.
She had gone a hundred feet or more when light from a room attracted herattention.
There was, she found, no lamps lit in the room. The light entered throughthe window--the glow of the fire.
Impulsively she rushed to the window and threw up the sash. The sightthat struck her eye staggered her like a blow upon the head. Dizzy depthsbelow was the street where the struggling firemen toiled, and half way upto where she stood, and off a hundred or more feet to the right, her ownbuilding was belching forth flames.
"How--how am I ever to escape!" she breathed as she dropped limply by thewindow sill.
All this time Johnny Thompson had not been idle. The clue he followed hadled him at last to a room that was open, and in that room he had found,not the man of the pink eyes, but an Italian cleaner waxing the floor. Heat once warned the man to leave the building.
Chagrined at his failure to locate his man, he turned about to look forMazie. Then, for the first time, he knew they were separated.
Realizing the danger of remaining in this building too long, he hastenedback over his trail. Having come to the place where they had beenseparated, he made his way first to the right, then to the left. Callingher name, but receiving no reply, he wandered back and forth for sometime. Then, catching the first faint sign of smoke, he hurried back tothe head of the stairway and fairly flew down it. He was going for aid. Anumber of searchers might find her where one would fail.
Into the street, thronged now with firemen, laced and interlaced by linesof hose, soaked and slippery with water, for some time he found no onewhom he could feel sure was in charge of men. At last he came uponMarshal Neil. The Marshal was kindly, but inflexible.
"Men have been sent to warn workers out of the building," he said."Doubtless they will come upon the girl and bring her down. No others canbe spared."
Sick at heart, Johnny was about to retrace his steps and again enter thebuilding when an exclamation from the man nearest him attracted hisattention. The man was not a fireman. Johnny recognized him instantly asthe cause of all his present trouble. It was the pink-eyed man. But,having followed the man's upward glance, he saw that which drove allother thoughts out of his mind. There, in the tenth story window, wavingher arms frantically, was Mazie.
What had happened? Simply this: As calmly as her wildly throbbing brainwould permit her, Mazie had made her way down every corridor thatsuggested a possible exit. She had found only two. These two were blockedby smoke and fire. Her only hope of escape lay through that window; awindow that was far above the reach of the tallest ladder.
Johnny was struck dumb. How was she to be saved?
"Why not send the monkey up?" calmly suggested the pink-eyed man.
Johnny stared at him blankly. What could the man mean? He must be amadman.
As Johnny thought of this the man began dragging a large ball of stronghempen twine from his pocket.
"Send him up with the end of this," he said, as calmly as if he had b
eensuggesting tying a parcel with it. At the same time he gave a sidewisenod toward Jerry, the monkey mascot of the hook and ladder company.
Instantly Johnny was at the side of the truck. Here was a chance, thougha slim one.
"Did Jerry ever scale a wall?" he asked of the driver.
"Many's the time. Guess he must'a belonged to an organ grinder."
"Would he take the end of this to her?" asked Johnny, looking up at thewindow.
"Mebby. Then what?"
"We'd attach the lower end to a rope from the emergency wagon."
"And then what?"
"She'd draw up the rope, attach it to something inside the room, and comeon down."
"Hand over hand?"
Johnny nodded.
"A girl?"
"Yes, a girl!" Johnny shouted fiercely. "She's a girl, but not the softkind. She's got nerve, Mazie has. And when she was a kid she could climba rope. I know. She was my pal. She's not forgotten how. Question is, areyou going to send Jerry up?"
"Sure I am."
The driver climbed down from his wagon with alacrity, then working hisway through the scorching heat to a place beneath the window, he lookedup to the window where the girl was plainly visible, patted Jerry on thehead, and said:
"See her up there? It's roasted chestnuts and a box of chocolates fer youif you get up to her."
With almost human intelligence the little creature took the cord firmlyin his teeth and with a leap was away, scurrying up from window ledge towindow ledge, making progress where even a squirrel would not haveattempted to go.
Mazie, on her part, could not so much as guess what was going on below.She was trapped. They knew that. They would save her if it was humanlypossible. She knew that, too. She had caught the bright gleam of themonkey's cap as he was carried to the wall, but what could the monkeyhave to do with her rescue?
Strangely enough, in this moment of excitement and great danger, she felta desire to sing. It often happens that way. And the songs that came toher mind were songs of peace.
"I have a sweet peace that is calm as a river," she sang softly.
And then:
"I tell Him all that troubles me, I tell Him what amays; And so we walk together, My----"
Her song broke short off. Had she seen a vision? No, there it was again,Jerry's jaunty red cap bobbing down there above a window, half waybetween her own window and the ground.
It was strange what a comfort she found in the company of such a smallcreature, for he truly was company. Was he not much closer to her thanany other living thing? Even as she watched, the monkey drew nearer,leaping from ledge to ledge, climbing higher and higher.
Without in the least understanding what it all meant, Mazie found herheart in her mouth as the dauntless little creature, leaping from awindow sill, caught a stone ledge with but one hand, balanced there for asecond as if about to fall, and then threw himself with a fine show ofskill to another and wider ledge where he might pause an instant forbreath.
An instant only, then he was at it again, climbing, climbing. Clawinghere, leaping there, swinging to a window, up--up--up, until at last,with a sigh of relief, the girl seized him and dragged him in.
The instant she saw the end of the string she understood and hope cameebbing back.
Not a second was to be lost. The fire, which was working toward thecenter of the building and up, was now only four windows to the right andfive down. Had the building not been fireproof it would have burned likea torch. As it was, the fire, fed by the contents of offices andstore-rooms, worked its way from room to room.
Rapidly she drew in the cord, and with it the rope attached to the end.When at last she held the end of the rope in her hand she carried it to aheavy table and wrapped it about the top. Then she dragged the table tothe window.
At once the monkey, as if to show her the way, went scampering down therope.
All this had taken time. When at last the girl, with a little prayer forprotection on her lips, gripped the rope firmly and glanced down, she sawthat fire had burst forth from the window two rows to her right and sixstories down. Would the window directly beneath her soon be belchingflames? Would it burn off the rope before she had reached the ground?
Panic seized her for an instant. Then, calmly, she finished the song shehad begun a moment before:
"And so we walk together My Lord and I."
Then, calm as a May morning, she wrapped her feet about the rope andbegan the descent, hand over hand, right, left, right, left. It waspainfully slow, but there was no other way. To slip was to come to aterrible death.