'All right, Wilmet.'
'Oh! come in,' the sisters called. 'Where did you find him, Fee? Is he safe?'
'O Cherry, you never saw such a lark!' cried Lance in a gusty whisper. 'Wouldn't Fulbert have given his ears to have seen it? To see the engines pouring down, and the great hose twining about like jolly old sea-serpents spouting.'
'Hush, Lance; how can you? How could you! Does Mr. Audley know he is safe?'
'Yes,' said Felix, 'he opened the door, and said he might have known Lance was too much of a gamin to come to grief.'
'What's a gamin?' said Lance.
'A street ragamuffin at Paris,' said Wilmet. 'But really, Lance, it was a terrible thing to do.'
'And where do you think I found him?' said Felix. 'In between little Jacky Brown and that big old coal-heaver who was so impudent about the blanket-club, hanging like a monkey upon the rails of the terrace, and hallooing as loud as they.'
''Twas the coal-heaver that helped me up,' said Lance. 'He's a jolly good fellow, I can tell you. He said, "You be one of Parson Underwood's little chaps, baint you? A rare honest gentleman of the right sort war he—he war!" and he pulled down another boy and put me up instead, and told me all about the great fire at Stubbs's factory. You can't think what fun it was. Roar, roar, up went the flame. Swish, wish, went the water—such a bellowing—such great clouds of smoke!'
'Was everybody saved?' whispered Cherry's tremulous murmur.