"Here! Wait a minute! I don't want to go so fast!" cried the little fellow. "I want to wait for Laddie!"
No one paid any attention to him, and he was swept along, half carried off his feet by the rush, until at last he found himself standing alone, almost in front of the burning store.
"Oh, I can see fine here!" thought Freddie. "I wish Laddie and his aunt would hurry and come here. Wow! This is great!"
Freddie was so excited watching the puffing engines, seeing the big black clouds of smoke, and the leaping, darting tongues of lire from the windows of the burning building, also watching the firemen squirt big streams of Water on the blaze, that he did not think of himself, and the first he realized was when some one shouted at him:
"Stand back there, youngster!"
Freddie did not know he was the "youngster" meant, and stood where he was.
"Get back there!" cried the voice again. "You may be hurt!"
But Freddie was busy watching the fire. He wished he had brought his own little engine with him.
"I could squirt water on some of the little sparks, anyhow," he said to himself. "I guess I'll go back and get it, and find Laddie and his aunt."
Freddie was about to turn when suddenly he saw a fireman in a white rubber coat, which showed he was one of the chiefs, or head men, rushing toward him.