“Oh, thank you so much.” Joan gave him a beaming smile, and followed Joe Kinney as he came out of the burning building and went back to the fire engine. She hoped he wouldn’t talk very fast because she had no pad or pencil and would have to keep all the facts in her mind.
“Mr. Kinney!” Surely it was all right to call a fireman “Mister.” “I’m from the Journal. Can you tell me about the fire?”
The man merely looked at her, blinked his eyes, and then fell back against the fire engine, his rubber helmet falling off and revealing wavy, red hair.
Joan had expected him to be impressed with the fact that he was about to be interviewed by a young girl reporter, but she did not expect him to fall completely over.
“Gosh, Kinney’s gone out like a light,” yelled another fireman. “Overcome by smoke, that’s all.” He slipped his arm under the other’s shoulder and drew him up to a sitting position against the step of the fire engine at the curb. “Stand back, folks. Give him air. Somebody get the first aid kit.”
Joan clung to the edge of the crowd that the officer was shoving back again. One fireman rushed up with a wet cloth and splashed Kinney’s face. Another one held a small bottle up to his nose. After a bit, Kinney opened his eyes. He got up to his feet. “There’s something moaning up there on a bed on the second floor,” Joan heard him whisper. “I’m going back.”
“Poor Joe thinks he’s going to be a hero right off the bat,” laughed the fireman with the bottle. He pulled at Kinney’s arm. “There ain’t a soul up there, Joe. ’Twas Mrs. Flattery, herself, that sent in the alarm and she told us everybody was out of the building. She said her kid was monkeying with the electric wiring.”
But Fireman Kinney was not to be dissuaded.
He stumbled on toward the smoking building and went inside, while the other firemen shook their heads. “Plum craziness,” one said. “But I’ll go along,” and he followed.
Joan was almost hurled off her feet by the mob that was eagerly watching for Kinney’s return. They could see him as he passed at a window, his hair a brilliant spot through the blackness of the smoke. Then, a little later, he appeared at the window for another moment, and he was carrying something in his arms. The crowd gave a gasp.