"This is a fright!" he cried, on seeing Judd. "Ned is suffocated and
I'm almost done for!"
At this moment, Reynolds, having disposed of his room-mate, dashed across the hall.
"Here, I'll help you!" he called. "We'll go to every room and clear the fellows out!"
"That's the way to do it!" shouted Judd, encouragingly. "I'll stay here an' fight this fire!"
Dragging the hose down the hall, wetting everything before him as he went, Judd soon neared the source of the fire. It seemed to be centered about the head of the stairs. The first room on the right at the top of the stairs had been used as a store-room. Its door was almost burnt away and inside it was a mass of flames.
A voice called up from the second floor.
"Thank God, somebody had brains enough to use the hose at last! We're keeping the fire from breaking through but the building is full of smoke. Where is the blaze, in the store-room?"
"Yep!" replied Judd, his eyes smarting from the films of smoke and flying cinders.
"Everybody out up there?"
"Gettin' 'em out!" Judd did not feel like talking much.