orporal Fred in close attendance, broke once more into column of fours,
and plunged into a narrow street lighted by the flames shooting aloft
from the repair shops of the Great Western road. Ahead of them,
separated from the yards by the high picket-fence, was an open space
well nigh packed with rioting men, their savage faces ruddy in the
glare. The fence itself was blazing from the neighboring cars, and a
broad section almost opposite the shops had been hurled down by the mob.

"Back with you, Captain!" called the Colonel to his Adjutant. "Turn the
second battalion into the yards and up to that gap. We'll hem them on
two sides there! Close up! Close up!" he shouted to the rearward
companies. "Now, Captain Fulton, form line again the moment you clear
this lane." The Adjutant went clattering back full gallop. Another
minute, and the rush and roar of the crowd beyond the fence told that
the ready second was sweeping all before it down among the blazing cars.
Presently the long rows of drab felt hats could be seen dancing along in
the fire-light.

"Never fear, corporal, we'll be there in time," said the Colonel. "See,
the flames haven't reached half their length. Now, Fulton, right turn
and drive them north. Split 'em up! Give 'em--fits!" he added, with a
gulp, for he was a pious man, and opposed to the use of terms that come
"far more natural" at such a time. And the next thing Fred knew Captain
Fulton's men were again double-timing up another street, whirling the
crowd before them. "G," "H," and "L"--Fred's own company--were sweeping
the broad space in front of the shops from one side, and fairly pitching
the mob into the faces of their comrades of the second battalion as they
neared the gap. If there were broken noses, blackened eyes, battered
heads all through those suburban streets and lanes that grewsome night
it surely wasn't the fault of the Colonel's "boys," but a score of these
fellows, following the lead of the hatless corporal, who sprang from his
horse opposite the blazing entrance, bending low to avoid the stifling
smoke, pushed on across the little court-yard, past a wrecked and
dismantled wing whose roof was just crackling and bursting into fierce
flames.

Behind them, sure of protection now, a dozen linemen came dragging their
hose. A knot of ragged, raging "toughs," issuing from a narrow door,
burst away at sight of them--not so quick as to escape some resounding
thumps of those hated rifle-butts, and