"Get back! Get back!" cried this fireman. "Don't you know you're inside the fire lines!"
Then for the first time Freddie noticed that back of him was stretched a rope, behind which stood the crowd of men and boys. Freddie was so small that he had slipped under the rope, not knowing it. He had either slipped under himself or been pushed by the throng.
"Get back! Get back!" cried the fireman.
The next instant there was a loud noise, as if a gun had been fired, and Freddie felt himself being lifted up and carried along quickly.
CHAPTER XIV
THE STORE CAMP
The noise like a gun which Freddie heard was made when something exploded, or blew up, in the burning store, and at first Freddie thought he had been blown up with it and was flying through the air.
Then, as he opened his eyes (for he had closed them when the strange thing began to happen) he saw that he was in the arms of the fireman with the white rubber coat, and the fireman was smiling down at him.
"Am I—am I hurted?" Freddie asked.