Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-08-05

| to make smoke vents in the roof Then the
| door fell open, the crew disappeared in the
| doorway and he followed at full tilt to
| blunder up the stairs behind a hand lamp
| hat shone in the darkness ahead of him.
Smoke smartcd in his eyes and burned in
his nostrils. There was some one behind
him hurrying him forward. He took the
endless steps three at bound and raced
along the Railways. And what with the ex-
element and the plea sure he took in it his
heart beats seemed to lift him from his feet.
He ciambered. painting. up the ladder
through the scutte leaped a dividing para
pet between the buildings and attacked the
tin roofing with an eager jab of his tool.
Around him. AK and hook and cutter tore
and stripped and splntered tin and rafters
and the glass and sash of skylights, till the
smoke began to curl upward out of gaping
holes in the roof. and the men pushed back
their helmets from their foreheads and
wiped the sweat from their eyes. Capt.
Meaghan was shouting orders at them from
the top of the cornice where he stood to
watch the work in the street below. They
depended on him to warn them of danger
from whatever direction they might be men,
aced, and they worked with as little appar-
ent apprehension for their safety as farm
laborers digging In a field
AT Meaghans command a ladder was
dragged over the parapet and lowered into
the skylight, and Gallagher and three men
slid down it. Corrigan stood. listening
alertly, with his eye on his captain, as eager
as hound. He heard the windows of the
draught of evil-smelling smoke drew up
through the vents. Mighty thick down
there some one behind him said; and
without turning he nodded if the remark
had been addressed to him.
He watched Capt. Meaghan lean over the
cornice and bawl directions to Gallagher in
the lower windows. He heard the answer
come up thin and faint from below. There
were anxious calls and answers across the
roof, and he understood that one of Gale
gher's men had been lost in the smoke.
Meaghan hurried rescuing party down the
ladder. and Corrigan remained to chew at
his mustache.
When these men returned with GaIlegher's
missing fireman and laid him the roof
three OF the crew famed him with their
helmets while Corrigan and the others. at
Meaghan's orders, raised the ladder from
the skylight and carried it over to the cor
nice where the captain stood. They low
cred it over the front of the building till it
hung by its hooks; and Lieut.. Gallagher and
the other two men, with red and watering
eyes. climbed up it from the windows and
hauled it up after them.
The captain turned from converse ton with
them to order Long Tom" Donnelly to re-
port that the roof open and that the
lire creeping along the floor below.
Hurry EN- up! Hurry EN- up" he shout
ed after him; and Corrigan felt a prickly
heat of Impotence strike up from the warm
roof under his feet.
There was an explosion that shook the
building. and he recognized it the puff
of the back draft Just missed it, Lieut..
Gallagher said to little Fuchs. Fuchs wiped
wide grin with the back of his hand. and
Corrigan smiled in sympathy. The sparks
began to swirl up in the smoke from the
vents. Capt. Meaghan, cursing the engine
companies, cried: "Gallegher! Take half
the men an report below. We're dom no
good here.
Corrgan watched the lieutenant with
wistful eye, but Gallagher did not see. He
signaled with a wave of the hand to four of
no Sfn her
nice, and they trailed after him nonchalant-
ly. Corrigan swallowed a lump of disap
pontment in his throat and shifted on his
feet.
They stood leaning on their TOOLS while
the smoke redeemed with the growth of the
flames beneath it; and to Corrigan it seemed
as slow to watch the sunrise that had
used to end his night of duty on the plat
form of his trolley car. 1t was an inter-
minable interval of inaction; he patted his
heel on the tin as If on the ringer of gong.
HI Meaghan cried. Corrigan growled
in unconscious echo of him: Hi!
Meaghan wheeled on him. And then, at last,
there was the sound of voices from the
neighboring roof and they looked to see
pipeman lifting the nozzle of an empty hose
from the scuttle there. Corrigan ran with
the others to help, and they drew the hose
from the trap in the roof till 1t stretched
like an angleworm plucked from clod.
There was a shout of orders given and re-
peated, a breathless pause, and then the
its stream into the raw wound of tin and
wood.
Corrgan shook the spray from his eyes
end ran laughing to Tighten up the heavy
line. pulling and lifting the pulsing body of
the hose from the scuttle and carrying it
across the roof as gently as If he We're
afraid rough hand would break It, And
when he reached the skylight where the fire
had showed he found the smoke black. the
top of a ladder pointing up from 1t and the
last of the pipemen disappearing in the
cloud. Following the best traditions of the
department, they had gone to tight the fire
from the inside.
Capt Meaghan cried: well, boys, there's
nuthin more to do here but the washin
down. Better get below again"
Corrigan looked up to the sudden realiZa-
ton that the fun was over. 1t had only just
begun. and already it was over for him. lie
blinked up at the clear moonlit sky that
showed through the drift of smoke, filling
his burningey with the cooling light. The
men were carrying their tools and ladders
across the roof to take them below. He
turned TO follow them reluctantly
But the pounding on the roof, the shock
of the back draft and the running to and
fro of the heavy crew had had an effect on
the old timbers that had not been reckOned
with. A beam cracked like the report of Il
pistol The captain turned with an oath of
alarm. Corrigan, looking back over his
shoulder, saw the great water tank; that
had been supported across the lower angle
of the parapet, fall in the tremor of a
cracking earthquake that sunk the weak
ened roof under his feet like the deck of a
rolling ship. He sprang for the parapet and
leaped upon it as his footing gave way be-
meath him; the water Kissed above the snap
ping OF the timbers; he heard the men cry
out in horror. and he turned to find dead
silence broken by low groan from the
wreckage hidden in the smoke.
The three pipemen, who had gone down
the skylght ladder, We're imprisoned there.
All the truckmen had escaped.
There was no confusion. Capt. Meaghan
called out his orders quickly and coolly-to
one to report to the chief. to another to lead
up another line of hose, to a third to bring
the life lines from the truck, to fourth to
warn the men below that the whole weight
of the roof rested now on a floor that was
already burning. But Corrigan did not wait
for any orders he had turned with the in
stinct of the undrilled to make an indi-
vdual effort to save the men who would be
slowly roasted between burning floor and
burning roof. Snatching an AK from the
nearest hand he ran along the parapet to
| the cornice and began to creep down the in
| cline of the tin roofing into the smoke He
| heard the captain shout: Back there, you!
| Three's enough and then the smoke blew
over him in wave that blinded him. and
| choked him, and seemed even to fill his ears
| so that he heard nothing more. The tin