Florence’s answer was to put out a hand and to grasp a fireman’s coat. The next moment, in this new disguise, they were away.
Had the girls happened to look back just before leaving the alley they might have surprised a stoop-shouldered, studious-looking man in the act of doing exactly as they had done, robing himself in fireman’s garb.
Dressed as they now were, they found the passing of the line a simple matter. Scores of fire companies and hundreds of firemen from all parts of the city had been called upon in this extreme emergency. There was much confusion. That two firemen should be passing forward to join their companies did not seem unusual. The coats and hats formed a complete disguise.
The crossing of the bridge was accomplished on the run. They reached the other side in the nick of time, for just as they leaped upon the approach the great cantilevers began to rise. A huge freighter which had been disgorging its cargo into one of the basements that line the river had been endangered by the fire. Puffing and snarling, adding its bit of smoke to the dense, lampblack cloud which hung over the city, a tug was working the freighter to a place of safety.
“We’ll have to stay inside, now we’re here,” panted Lucile. “There’s a line formed along the other approach. Here’s a stair leading down to the railway tracks. We can follow the tracks for a block, then turn west again. There’ll be no line there; it’s too close to the fire.”
“Might be dangerous,” Florence hung back.
“Can’t help it. It’s our chance.” Lucile was halfway down the stair. Florence followed and the next moment they were racing along a wall beside the railway track.
A switch engine racing down the track with a line of box cars, one ablaze, forced them to flatten themselves against the wall. There was someone following them, the studious boy in a fireman’s uniform. He barely escaped being run down by the engine, but when it had passed and they resumed their course, he followed them. Darting from niche to niche, from shadow to shadow, he kept some distance behind them.
“Up here,” panted Lucile, racing upstairs.
The heat was increasing. The climbing of those stairs seemed to double its intensity. Cinders were falling all about them.