scape was
first to reach the burning house. This was then, and still is, usually
the case, owing to the fact that escapes are far more numerous in London
than engines, so that the former, being always close at hand, often
accomplish their great work of saving life before the engines make their
appearance.

The escape in the immediate neighbourhood of Beverly Square was under
the charge of Conductor Samuel Forest, a man who, although young, had
already saved many lives, in the service of the Society for the
Protection of Life from Fire.

When Forest reached the field of action, Mr James Auberly was seen at
an upper window in a state of undignified _dishabille_, shouting for
help, and half suffocated with smoke, with Mrs Rose hanging round his
neck on one side and Matty Merryon at the other. Poor Auberly, having
tried the staircase on the first alarm, was driven back by smoke, and
rushed wildly to the window, where the two domestics, descending in
terror from their attic, clung to him and rendered him powerless.

Forest at once pitched his escape--which was just a huge
scientifically-constructed ladder, set on wheels. The head of it
reached to the windows of the second floor. By pulling a rope attached
to a lever, he raised a second ladder of smaller size, which was fitted
to the head of the large one. The top of this second ladder was nearly
sixty feet from the ground, and it reached the window at which Mr
Auberly was still shouting. Forest at once sprang up.

"Leave me; save the women," gasped Auberly, as a man entered the room,
but the dense smoke overpowered him as he spoke, and he fell forward.
The women also sank to the ground.

Forest instantly seized Mrs Rose in his powerful arms, and hurrying
down the ladder to the top of the escape, put her into the canvas trough
or sack which was suspended below the ladder all the way. Down this she
slid somewhat violently but safely to the ground, while Forest ran up
again and rescued Matty in the same way. Mr Auberly was more difficult
to manage, being a heavy man, and his rescuer was almost overpowered by
the thick smoke in the midst of which all this was done. He succeeded,
however, but fainted on reaching the ground.

It was at this point that the first engine arrived, and only a few
minutes elapsed when the second made its appearance, followed by the cab
from which the young man leapt with the exclamation of surprise and
alarm that had astonished Willie Wi