Carefully He Began To Descend
“He’s ‘all in’; lying up there on the floor unconscious. Charlie is ready to keel over, too,” he replied.
“I’ll bring Shorty down,” cried Dick, a fireman who heard the chief’s question.
As he sprang up the ladder the chief shouted up after him, “Tell Charlie to come down, Dick!”
Meanwhile, the smoke began to pour out of the rescue window at the top of the ladder, and the fire was creeping slowly up through the wooden floors, in spite of the heroic efforts of the fire-fighters. Charlie had disappeared from the window. There was not a second to lose.
As Shorty’s rescuer reached the top of the ladder, the watchers saw him jump through the smoke into the window. In a moment, he was seen pushing Charlie toward the ladder and urging him to go down; but Charlie wouldn’t budge.
“He won’t come down without Shorty,” muttered a fireman.
“Come down, Charlie! Come down!” shouted up the chief, using his hands as a trumpet.