“Yes; a woman and her children. Also Reade and Hazelton!”
“It's all right, then,” nodded Furniss, looking relieved. “Tom Reade and Harry Hazelton have gone to the aid of the woman.”
“If I could only believe that!” gasped Proprietor Carter. “We've tried the ladders, and we've tried the corridors of the house. It's a raging furnace in there.”
Dr. Furniss looked on rather calmly.
“I'm merely wondering on which side of the house those two engineers will appear with the woman and her children,” he declared.
For the fourth time a ladder was being vainly raised at the rear. Suddenly a shout rang out. In the basement a window was unexpectedly knocked out from the inside.
Through the way thus cleared leaped a young man so blackened with smoke as to be unrecognizable, though it was Hazelton.
Before those who first espied the young man recovered from their surprise, a pair of arms from the inside handed out the body of a child to Hazelton.
Then came another child. Next the senseless body of a woman was handed out.
Dr. Furniss was the first to recover, from delighted amazement. In a bound he was on the spot, taking care of one of the children himself and bawling to others to bring the rest of the family.