this strap."

"You are going to send me down first?" Craig exclaimed incredulously.

Quest smiled. Then he drew the rope round the table and tied it.

"You would like to have a chance of cutting the rope, wouldn't you, when I
was half way down?" he asked grimly. "Now then, don't waste time. Get on
to the window-sill. Don't brake too much. Off you go!"

Yard by yard, swinging a little in the air, Craig made his descent. When
he arrived in the street, there were a hundred willing hands to release
him. Quest drew up the rope quickly, warned by a roar of anxious voices.
The walls of the room were crumbling. Volumes of smoke were now pouring in
underneath the door, and through the yawning fissures of the wall. Little
tongues of flame were leaping out dangerously close to the spot where he
must pass. He let fall the slack of the rope and leaned from the window to
watch it anxiously. Then he commenced to descend, letting himself down
hand over hand, always with one eye upon that length of rope that swung
below. Suddenly, as he reached the second floor, a little cry from the
crowd warned him of what had happened. Tongues of flame curling out from
the blazing building, had caught the rope, which was being burned through
not a dozen feet away from him. He descended a little further and paused
in mid-air.

A shout from the crowd reached him.

"The cables! Try the cables!"

He glanced round. Seven or eight feet away, and almost level with him was
a double row of telegraph wires. Almost as he saw them the rope below him
burned through and fell to the ground. He swung a little towards the side
of the house, pushed himself vigorously away from it with his feet, and at
the farthest point of the outward swing, jumped. His hands gripped the
telegraph wires safely. Even in that tense moment he heard a little sob of
relief from the people below.

Hand over hand he made his way to the nearest pole and slipped easily to
the ground. The crowd immediately surged around him. Some one forced a
drink into his hand. A chorus of congratulations fell upon his deafened
ears. Then the coming of the fire engines, and the approach of a police
automobile diverted the attention of the on-lookers. Quest slipped about
amongst them, searching for Craig.

"Where is the man who came down before me?" he asked a bystander.

"Talking to the police in the car over yonder," was the hoarse reply.
"Say, Guv'nor, you only just made that!"

Quest pushed his