“Well?” she said, as Bruce joined her.
“I was just too late,” said the boy with something like a sob in his voice, “Mr. Dexter sailed for Europe yesterday, and there’s nobody there but an old couple who are taking care of the house. They don’t know when he will be back or anything about it. There goes my last and only chance.”
Chapter XV.
One afternoon Bruce Decker was seated in front of the quarters reading a newspaper, and waiting for the men to return from a fire to which they had been summoned half an hour before. So engrossed was he that he did not hear the footsteps of three gentlemen who were crossing the street directly in front of him, and he was startled to hear his name suddenly pronounced in a quick, imperious way.
Leaping to his feet he found himself face to face with his kind old friend, Mr. Dewsnap, known to all the members of the company as the “fire crank.” Mr. Dewsnap’s companions were two gentlemen, both of them well dressed and of prepossessing appearance, and both unquestionably foreigners. One was a tall man, attired in a suit of very large checks, and the other was short, rotund and long haired. The former was evidently an Englishman, and the latter a German.
“Where’s the chief?” inquired Mr. Dewsnap.
“Out with the company,” replied the boy, taking off his cap, for Bruce had sense enough to know that politeness to his elders was always a strong point in favor of any boy.
“That’s too bad,” replied Mr. Dewsnap, taking out his watch, “because I have brought down these two gentlemen to show them the way we have in this country of putting out fires, and I wanted to have them make Chief Trask’s acquaintance. However,” he continued, “I’ll just take them inside here and explain what I can myself; then when the chief comes back he can show them the rest.”
With these words the three visitors entered the building, and in a moment Mr. Dewsnap was in the midst of a voluble description of the workings of the service. Bruce noticed that both strangers seemed to display a more than ordinary degree of interest, and they both of them took notes of what they heard. Mr. Dewsnap, who knew as much of the department as a good many firemen, talked to them energetically and kept them interested until the company returned from the fire, and Chief Trask, alighting from his wagon, came forward to welcome his visitors. The two visitors were introduced respectively as Baron Bernstoff and the Honorable Rupert Doubter.
“These gentlemen,” said Mr. Dewsnap, “have come to this country for the purpose of studying its peculiar institutions, and they are particularly desirous of learning all they can about the Fire Department of New York, the fame of which has spread through every city in Europe. The fact is, that although they are too polite to say so, I am afraid that they do not believe what has been told them in regard to the rapidity with which our companies get out to a fire when the alarm sounds. I’ve shown them as much as I can about the building and explained to them the way the alarms are sent out, but I just wish you would tell them what you know, and give them a little illustration of how things are done.”