"I told you it was no use," said Hal. "Let me go, and save yourself!"
Chester did not reply, but laid his chum gently on the floor. Then he dashed into the next room, returning in a moment with several sheets.
Quickly he tore these into strips and tied them together. Then he approached Hal and tied one end under his arms.
"We will get out yet," he said quietly, and assisted Hal to the window.
"Put no more strain upon your wound than necessary," he instructed Hal. "Hold to the sheets with your hands, and it will relieve some of the strain."
So saying, Chester lifted Hal to the window sill, and gently lowered him over the edge. With his feet braced against the wall, he paid out the improvised rope slowly.
Now the flames burst into the room in which Chester stood, but it did not hasten the lad in his desperate work. Slowly he let the sheets slip through his hands, that Hal's wound might not be opened afresh by any sudden jerks; and presently the slack of the rope told him that his chum had reached the ground. At the same moment he heard Hal's voice:
"All right! Pull up the rope!"
Rapidly now Chester set about saving himself. The room was a seething mass of flames, which burned him terribly. Tying one end of his improvised rope to a bedpost, Chester leaped to the window sill, and began his descent.
So fierce were the flames that the sheets lasted but a second; but, in that time Chester had slid halfway to the ground. Then the rope broke and he fell with a crash. He picked himself up immediately, however, and, turning to Hal, said swiftly: