Then came into his mind as clearly as if the words were yet being
spoken, what he had heard said to one of the classes concerning just
such peril as he was in at that moment, and without delay he returned to
the room, closing the door behind him to shut out the noisome vapor as
nearly as might be.

"Don't cry, baby, don't cry," he said soothingly to the screaming child
as he ran here and there looking for something with which to carry into
practice the lesson he had received.

CHAPTER XVI.

WINNING A MEDAL.

The struggles and screams of the child he was trying to save served to
confuse Seth, and the smoke, which was growing more stifling each
moment, bewildered at the same time that it choked him.

But for the lectures the boy had heard at headquarters, neither he nor
the baby would have left the apartment alive.

He realized the vital necessity of keeping a "grip on himself," as Josh
Fernald had expressed it, and, in order the better to do so, repeated
again and again the words of the instructor.

During the first dozen seconds he tried to soothe the child, and then
came the thought that the little one would suffocate more quickly by
inhaling the smoke-laden atmosphere as she gasped and sobbed violently.

A garment--perhaps it was a table-cloth or a light blanket--hung over
the back of a chair near at hand, and this Seth wound around the baby's
face, regardless of its struggles.

"A clear head is the next best thing to a ladder," he said again and
again, repeating the words of Mr. Fernald, and all the while searching
for a rope, or something which would serve him in its stead.

By this time the room was completely filled with smoke, and his eyes
were blinded, smarting, burning.

Near the window was a footstool, and seizing this with one hand he
hurled it through the glass.

Fresh air was a necessity now; he must have it, or speedily succumb to
the deadly vapor.

Holding the child, who was apparently in a paroxysm of fear, or a spasm
caused by pain, close against his breast, he thrust the upper portion of
his body through the aperture regardless of the sharp fragments of glass
which cut his flesh cruelly.

What a blessed relief was this first indrawing of comparatively fresh
air!

The "clear head" was coming to him rapidly, and he understood that
unless aid could be summoned from below he must make immediate battle
with the vapor again, for with every moment the flames on the landing
were