"You two stay here and hold the ladder!" Jo commanded briskly. "I'm going up!"
"No, Jo! Let me go!" cried Nan.
But Jo Morley was already half way up the ladder, scaling it like a monkey.
Fortunately, a shed stretched beneath one window of the invalid's room. This shed had been added to the house after construction, and was used by the Harrisons as a pantry. The roof of the shed, Jo noticed swiftly, was almost level.
"There's luck, anyway!" she thought, as she hopped nimbly from the ladder to the shed roof and ran over toward the open window.
A cloud of smoke rolled from this aperture, suffocating smoke that caught in Jo's throat and choked her. She turned aside for a moment, drew in a long breath of clean, cool air, then plunged bravely through the window into the room beyond.
The smoke stung her eyes. Blinded, Jo groped with feverish hands.
"Miss Emma!" she cried. "Where are you? Help me to find you!"
"Here I am—right here!"
The voice, though faint, was close to her. Jo turned sharply and stumbled over a chair. Her tortured eyes saw dimly a figure straining toward her.