the low guards, and Bim's joyful welcome of his
master was pitiful in its extravagance. The dog seemed to say, "I knew
you would come if I only waited patiently and barked loud enough. Now
you see why I couldn't leave."

The object to which Bim thus directed attention, as plainly as though
possessed of speech, was a little curly-haired puppy, a Gordon setter,
so young that its eyes were not yet opened.

Billy Brackett picked it up and dropped it over the side into Winn's
arms. Then he tried to do the same by Bim; but, with a loud bark, the
nimble dog eluded his grasp, and dashed away into the thick of the
smoke. Tongues of flame were licking their cruel way through it, and
as Bim emerged, his hair was scorched in yellow patches. He dragged
out a dead puppy, laid it at his master's feet, and before he could be
restrained had once more dashed back into the stifling smoke. Again he
appeared, this time weak and staggering, every trace of his white coat
gone. He was singed and blackened beyond recognition; but he was a
four-footed hero, who had nobly performed a self-imposed duty. As he
feebly dragged another little dead puppy to his master's feet, Billy
Brackett seized the brave dog in his arms, and sprang over the side of
the doomed steamboat into the waiting skiff. Tears stood in the young
man's eyes as the suffering creature licked his face, and he exclaimed,
"I tell you what, Winn Caspar, if this blessed dog isn't possessed of a
soul, then I'm not, that's all!"

Meanwhile Winn was pulling the skiff swiftly beyond reach of danger.
It was none too soon; for before they reached the raft, the glowing
mass behind them reared itself on end as though making a frantic effort
to escape its fate. Then, with a hissing plunge, it disappeared
beneath the turbid flood of the great river. A second later there came
a muffled explosion, and a column of water, capped by a cloud of steam,
shot upward. At the same time the scene was shrouded in a darkness
made absolute by the sudden extinguishing of the fierce light, while
the silence that immediately succeeded the recent uproar seemed
unbroken.

Then the momentary hush was invaded by the sound of many voices, some
of which were uttering groans and cries of pain. A score of fortunates
from the burned packet, who had been driven by the flames to the
extreme after-end of the boat, where they were hidden from the view of
those on the raft, had leaped into the water as they we