At the order, the dingy gray suits formed in the same old serpent, and the line moved rapidly through the door at the end of the room and down the outside stairs.
There, in front of the building, they were halted, and a guard dispatched to find the warden. He was discovered in the foundry. "Fire in the broom-shop!" whispered the guard.
The warden's face paled. He dashed through the doorway, and one minute later came around the corner of the building, just in time to see the first signs of flames against the windows of the rear room up-stairs.
Within five seconds, a troop of fifteen guards had drawn the little hand-engine from its house and hitched the hose to the hydrant nearest the shop. From all the other buildings the men were being marched to their cells.
"These men!" hurriedly whispered the foreman to the warden. "What shall I do with them?"
"Get 'em inside as soon as you can! This won't last long, the front of the building is cut off. It'll all be over in ten minutes."
The foreman gave an order. At that instant a woman came running down the prison yard. Reaching the warden's side, she fell against him heavily.
"Why, Harriet," he exclaimed, "what is the matter?"
"Oh," she gasped, "Tommy! Tommy! Where is Tommy?"
A guard at the end of the engine rail turned ashy white. He raised a hand to his head, and with the other grasped the wheel to keep from falling. Then he cried, "Mr. Jeffries, I—I believe Tommy is up there in the stock-room. He went to look—"