minutes allowed to get under
weigh. Two and a half gone already. Two-and-six fine if late, besides
a--"

The whip cracked, and Pax, leaping forward, seized the side of the
engine. Six brass helmets bounded into the air, and their owners
settled on their seats, as the horses made that momentary pause and
semi-rear which often precedes a dashing start. The man whom he had
been insulting held out a hand; Pax seized it, and was next moment in a
terrestrial heaven, while calmness personified sauntered into the back
office to make a note of the circumstance, and resume his pipe.

Oh! it was a brief but maddening ride. To experience such a magnificent
rush seemed to Pax worth living for. It was not more than half-a-mile;
but in that brief space there were three corners to turn like zigzag
lightning, which they did chiefly on the two near wheels, and there were
carts, vans, cabs, drays, apple-stalls, children, dogs, and cats
innumerable. To have run over or upset these would have been small
gratification to the comparatively tender spirit of Pax, but to _shave_
them; to graze the apple-stalls; to just scrape a lamp-post with your
heart in your mouth; to hear the tremendous roar of the firemen; to see
the abject terror of some people, the excitement of others, the obedient
"skedaddling" of all, while the sparks from the pump-boiler trailed
behind, and the two bull's-eyes glared ahead, so that the engine
resembled some awful monster rushing through thick and thin, and waving
in triumph its fiery tail--ah! words are but feeble exponents of
thought: it was excruciating ecstasy! To have been born for this one
burst, and died, would have been better than never to have been born at
all,--in the estimation of the enthusiastic Peter Pax!

A few minutes after George Aspel had borne the fainting Miss Lillycrop
from the house the engine arrived. Some of the men swarmed into the
house, and dived to the basement, as if fire and smoke were their
natural food. Others got the engine to work in a few seconds, but
already the flames had rushed into the lower rooms and passages and
licked away the windows. The thick stream of water had just begun to
descend on the fire, when another engine came rattling to the field, and
its brazen-headed warriors leaped down to join the battle.

"Oh!" groaned Miss Lillycrop at that moment, recovering in Aspel's arms.
"Oh! Tottie--To-o-o-o-tie's in the kitchen!"

Little Pax heard and understood.