----------+--+
|Contusions |15|
+-------------------------+--+
|Fractures | 2|
+-------------------------+--+
|Sprains | 9|
+-------------------------+--+
|Burns and Scalds | 3|
+-------------------------+--+
|Injury to Eyes | 5|
+-------------------------+--+
| |46|
+=========================+==+

My friend Flaxmore himself met with an accident not long afterwards. He
slipped off the roof of a house and fell on his back from a height of
about fifteen feet. Being a heavy man, the fall told severely on him.

For about two weeks I went almost every evening to the Regent Street
Station and spent the night with the men, in the hope of accompanying
them to fires. The "lobby"--as the watch room of the station was
named--was a small one, round the walls of which the brass helmets and
hatchets of the men were hung. Here, each night, two men slept on two
trestle-beds. They were fully equipped, with the exception of their
helmets. Their comrades slept at their own homes, which were within a
few yards of the station. The furniture of the "lobby" was scanty--a
desk, a bookcase, two chairs, a clock, an alarm-bell, and four
telegraphic instruments comprised it all. These last formed part of a
network of telegraphs which extended from the central station to nearly
all the other stations in London. By means of the telegraph a "call" is
given--i.e. a fire is announced to the firemen all over London, if need
be, in a very few minutes. Those who are nearest to the scene of
conflagration hasten to it at once with their engines, while each
outlying or distant station sends forward a man on foot. These men,
coming up one by one, relieve those who have first hastened to the fire.

"Calls," however, are not always sent by telegraph. Sometimes a furious
ring comes to the alarm-bell, and a man or a boy rushes in shouting
"_fire_!" with all his might. People are generally much excited in such
circumstances,--sometimes half mad. In one case a man came with a
"call" in such perturbation of mind that he could not tell where the
fire was at all for nearly five minutes! On another occasion two men
rushed in with a call at the same moment, and both were stutterers. My
own opinion is that one stuttered by nature and the other from
agitation. Be that as it may, they were both half mad with excitement.

"F-f-f-fire!" roared one.

"F-f-f-fire