“We’ll have to get a ladder up there!” cried a fire chief. “Up with her, boys! The third house is on fire now. We must get this fellow out somehow. There’s a better chance with the ladder at this house than either of the others.”
It was Bonesy Billings’ house in which the young man called “Howard” by the girl had just disappeared from the attic window. It was not burning so fiercely as the other two.
Whether the firemen succeeded in getting the ladder to the window where the young man was believed to be, neither Chick nor Patsy could see for the smoke. Besides, their attention was distracted from it in their anxiety for their beloved chief.
Meanwhile, Nick was bounding, head down, up the flaming stairs. As he reached—barely reached—the landing of the second floor, the whole staircase collapsed behind him. As it did so, it sent a great gush of flame and burning embers far upward and out of the front door. Several firemen, who had been trying to follow him, tumbled out, half suffocated, into the arms of their comrades outside!
Nick glanced over his shoulder as he heard the crash. He saw the well of fire where the stairs had been, and he knew that death in its most appalling form had missed him by only a few inches!
He pressed on still upward, with smoke and sparks around him, and death—almost certain, as it seemed—ahead!
CHAPTER XX.
FIVE SECONDS FROM DEATH.
Somehow—he never knew how—Nick found his way to the top of the house. Here he was obliged to pause for a moment. His heart was pounding and his breath came short. Some little rest he must have!
“Hello! There’s something thudding overhead!” he gasped. “By Heaven! It is somebody trying to break through that trapdoor in the roof! It may be some of the firemen!” he added hopefully. “That means that we shall get the girl and the others yet. Hurrah for the firemen of New York!”