“They’re not ordinary lodgers, at any rate,” the boy thought.
He decided it was useless to listen any more, so he got into bed. He wished he had a hole or opening from his room to the one below, that he might see what was going on, and he fell into a doze with half a determination to make an aperture.
Larry’s duties at the office the next day kept him very busy. There was a big fire uptown and several murders and suicides. In fact it was a “great day for news,” as Mr. Emberg put it. Everyone was busy, from the reporters to the managing editor. There was much copy to carry, scores of extra proofs to bring from the composing room, and enough to keep Larry running so often that by the time afternoon came he was very tired.
He did not feel very much like going to night school when evening came, but he thought that if he did not he might fall behind in his studies, and this he did not want to do. So he made up his mind he would go to his class.
Coming home, as Larry was passing through the almost deserted streets in the neighborhood of the school, he heard loud shouts. He thought someone might be chasing a thief, but a few seconds later he heard the cry:
“Fire! Fire! Fire!”
Larry looked around. He saw a man running toward him. Back of him there was a lurid glow in the sky and a cloud of black smoke was rising.
“Pull the box!” the man cried to Larry, at the same time pointing to a red one halfway down the block.
“All right!” shouted Larry. “I will!”
He saw that the man, who was quite fat, was hardly able to run any further. The boy speeded off to the box. The key was in the door, and the next instant Larry had yanked it open and pulled down the hook. This was sufficient to set the mechanism inside the box at work, and send the signal to fire headquarters. Thence it was repeated to every engine and hook-and-ladder apparatus that was to answer, and, almost before Larry could run back to where he had seen the blaze, he heard the rattle of the steamers as they dashed up, the clanging of bells, the tooting of whistles, the ringing of the horses’ iron-shod feet on the stones, and the hoarse shouts of men.