“Which window, Perk?” cried the startled Jack, staring upward.
“That one—third from the further end—gee whiz! like I might be in a cutout—brain all in a mixup—what c’n we do, Boss—knock that cop over an’ skoot upstairs?”
“Not any of that stuff, buddy,” Jack told the impulsive one in his impressive fashion. “He represents the Law, and so do we. Besides, look at the smoke rolling out of that rear door, it would be the last of us if we started that fool racket.”
“But—somethin’s got to be done, Jack—we jest can’t stand here and let a poor woman be burned to death. Do somethin’ partner, ’cause I’m flyin’ blind in a messy fog and can’t see where I ought to head.”
His voice and manner were both imploring, and Jack could not but be impressed by the gravity of the occasion.
“Sure you saw some one are you, Perk?” he demanded.
“Jack, I got good eyesight, an’—looky there, right now, she’s back at the same window an’ will you b’lieve me if she ain’t got a kid alongside her? Wouldn’t that jar you, ol’ hoss?”
Jack no longer entertained any doubt regarding the truth of what his comrade had seen for he too could dimly make out moving figures at the third window from the end of the burning tenement.
“They’re makin’ motions to us right now!” sang out the greatly distressed Perk in new agony of mind. “I swan if I don’t think they’re meanin’ to make the jump an’ it’d be a crack-up dead sure!”
Startled by his own works Perk began to make violent gestures, as though endeavoring to warn the frightened woman not to dream of jumping.