oop and jerked at the knob of the front screen door.

It was locked, but Ralph tore it open in an instant. A woman's frantic
screams echoed as the young railroader dashed into the house. He was
quickly up the front stairs. At the top landing he paused momentarily,
unable to look about him clearly because of the dense smoke that
permeated the place.

Those frenzied screams again ringing out guided him down a narrow
hallway to the rear upper bedroom. The furniture in it was just
commencing to take fire. On the floor was the fireman's wife, a tiny
babe held in one arm, while with the other she was trying
unsuccessfully to pull herself out of range of the fire.

"Save me! save me!" she shrieked, as Ralph's form was vaguely outlined
to her vision.

"Do not be alarmed, Mrs. Fogg," spoke Ralph quickly--"there's no
danger."

He ran to the bed, speedily pulled off a blanket lying there, and
wrapped it about the woman.

"Hold the child closely," he directed, and bodily lifted mother and
babe in his strong, sinewy arms. The young railroader staggered under
his great burden as he made for the hallway, but never was he so glad
of his early athletic training as at this critical moment in his
life.

It was a strenuous and perilous task getting down the front stairs
with his load, but Ralph managed it. He carried mother and child clear
out into the garden, placed them carefully on a rustic bench there,
and then ran towards the well.

By this time people had come to the scene of the fire. There were two
buckets at the well. A neighbor and the young railroader soon formed a
limited bucket brigade, but it was slow work hauling up the water, and
the flames had soon gained a headway that made their efforts to quench
them useless.

Ralph organized the excited onlookers to some system in removing what
could be saved from the burning house. In the meantime he had directed
a boy to hasten to the nearest telephone and call out the fire
department. Soon the clanging bell of the hose cart echoed in the near
distance. The rear part of the house had been pretty well burned down
by this time, and the front of the building began to blaze.

Ralph got a light wagon from the barn of a neighbor. A comfortable
couch was made of pillows and blankets, and Mrs. Fogg and her child
were placed on this. Ralph found no difficulty in enlisting volunteers
to haul the wagon to his home, where his mother soon had the poor lady
and her babe in a conditio