“Won’t need any help,” grinned Flash. “I’m doing pretty well.”
He hoped that his words would not prove to be an idle boast. The test must come when he developed his films. If he had misjudged the amount of light, he would be faced with a second failure. But Flash refused to think of such a possibility.
He stood gazing up at the flaming walls, listening to the loud, sucking draft which roared through the building. Then his gaze wandered to the adjoining Marilyn Apartment which had been vacated as a precautionary measure. Firemen had carried hose into the dwelling and were shooting a steady stream of water through the windows, across a narrow areaway.
“I might get some unusual shots from up there,” thought Flash. “Anyway, it’s worth trying.”
Unchallenged, he entered the smoke-filled building, and climbed to the fifth floor. Letting himself into a deserted apartment suite opposite the flaming building, he set up his tripod, and focused his camera upon an engine man who was feeding a stream of water across the areaway.
Flash was so close to the fire that the heat nearly choked him. Black, rolling smoke hit him in waves, cutting off the view below, and blinding his eyes for long minutes at a time.
In a near-by window, the engine man motioned to Flash and shouted something which he did not understand. But as he watched, the man shut off the flow to the nozzle and moved to a new location farther away. A blanket of smoke hid him entirely from view.
Flash soon shifted his own position to another window at the corner of the building. As a billow of smoke cleared away, he stared across to the opposite window ledge, scarcely believing what he saw.
An elderly man, groggy from heat and smoke, stood behind the open window, perceptibly weaving back and forth as if about to fall. With horror, Flash realized that in some way the fellow had been overlooked when firemen searched the building. Unless help reached him, and quickly, he would perish, for the halls and stairs leading to safety already were a blazing inferno.
A cloud of smoke rose up from a lower window, blotting the figure from view. Flash gazed downward. He could not see the street. He shouted several times, but his cries went unanswered.