worst had
happened, the tower had fallen, and the dead and dying, rather than
the burning structure, became the chief, almost the sole care of the
earnest workers, firemen and others.

With the falling of the tower one end of the building, from top to
base, became enveloped in flames and smoke, and flying timbers borne
that way by the wind made the place especially dangerous. As the
blackened fragments fell, small wonder that, seen through the smoke
and fire, they were sometimes mistaken for human beings by those who
had seen brave men making that fearful leap.

It was impossible to keep together in such a place, and we did not
attempt it; but as I now and then cast an anxious glance toward
Lossing, I noted that Voisin seemed to be all the time near him.

It was some moments after the falling of the tower, and while it was
still believed that there were yet men upon the burning roof, that I
moved toward the end of the building, where the smoke was hanging like
a curtain over everything below, while lifting somewhat above, to
look, if possible, toward that part of the roof which might be yet
intact. Lossing and Voisin seemed to be eagerly watching something
perilously near the choking smoke and falling timbers, I thought, and
I shouted a warning to them just as a group of firemen crossed my
path.

Almost at the instant a voice--it sounded like Voisin's--cried:

'Look! there's a man!'

In the hubbub of sounds the cry was not heard beyond me. I could not
have heard it a few feet farther away; but as it struck my ears I saw
Lossing look up, and, following his gaze with my own, I saw something
black and bulky, something that looked like an arm thrust out, as it
fell down and outward and into the thick smoke that obscured that end
of the building altogether.

Was it a man falling there in the thick of that suffocating smoke? I
saw Lossing spring forward and dash into the midst of it, with Voisin
close behind, and then with a shudder I rushed after them, seeing
nothing, but entering where they had entered the smoke-cloud, and then
for an instant I paused and held my breath.

The thing that had fallen lay in the thickest of the smoke, and over
it Lossing was just about to bend when I halted, seeing a sudden
movement on Voisin's part which made me clench my hands.

For the moment, save for my unseen self, they were alone, shut in by
the shifting but never rising smoke, and in that moment, as Lossing
bent over to pee