"Why did you make your ladder so short?" said he.
"It reaches to the ground," said I.
"No, it doesn't," said Phaeton; "I had hard work to get started on it. I expected to find Ned standing at the foot of it, but he was so impatient to see the fire, I suppose he couldn't wait for us."
We dropped from the shortened ladder to the ground, passed out at the gate and shut it noiselessly behind us, and then broke into a run toward that quarter of the town where both a pillar of flame and a pillar of cloud rose through the night and lured us on.
At the same time our mouths opened themselves by instinct, and that thrilling word "Fire!" was paid out continuously, like a sparkling ribbon, as we ran.
CHAPTER XV.
RUNNING WITH THE MACHINE.
Presently we heard a tremendous noise behind us,—a combination of rumble, rattle, and shout. It was Red Rover Three going to the fire. She was for some reason a little belated, and was trying to make up lost time. At least forty men had their hands on the drag-rope, and were taking her along at a lively rate, while the two who held the tongue and steered the engine, being obliged to run at the same time, had all they could do. The foreman was standing on the top, with a large tin trumpet in his hand, through which he occasionally shouted an order to the men.
"Let's take hold of the drag-rope and run with her," said Phaeton.