rs. She
would take no denial. Had she not come to rescue her friend, and was she
to be so easily gainsaid?

"But, Aldred! Aldred! If I go first, who will lower you afterwards?"

"I'll slip down somehow."

"You know you can't! It's saving me at your own cost!"

The heat was terrific, and the roar on the landing had increased
sevenfold. With a crash the door fell in, and a sheet of flame burst
like a furious living thing into the room.

Aldred turned almost fiercely upon Mabel.

"For your father's and mother's sake! Think of them!"

Her nature was the stronger and the more masterful of the two. She had
always been the dominating influence, and now, in this great and awful
crisis, her will prevailed. Without further ado she pushed Mabel over
the window-sill, and, clinging with all her might to the sheet rope, let
her down as carefully and gently as she could. It was a great effort to
regulate the descent of such a heavy dangling weight, but she feared to
let her burden go with a run, lest Mabel's head should be dashed against
the wall of the house. Oh, what a fearful, dizzy depth it seemed from
the upper story to the ground! The crowd below stood stock-still,
pressing tightly together shoulder to shoulder, and gazing upward,
voiceless and almost breathless with suspense. Would Aldred's frail
strength accomplish the task? The fire within had gained a grip of the
room, and shone behind her head like a halo. Still she did not flinch or
falter; she kept her nerve, and paid out her rope piece by piece,
manoeuvring the knots over the window-sill, and remembering every
necessary precaution.

The flames rolled nearer. Strangely enough, now that death was almost at
arm's length, she felt perfectly cool and collected, and far calmer than
she had done when first she had entered the room. Every thought and
effort of her being was concentrated on Mabel's escape; after that, she
cared nothing. Only a few yards now! She set her teeth, and hung on
grimly. She was nearly spent, but she just managed to control the last
quick rush as the rope's burden fell at length into the dozen eager
hands upraised to help. The crowd had waited in silence, but now a roar
rose up from below of deafening cheers and loud shouts of encouragement.

"Come down yourself!"

"Try hand over hand down the sheets!"

"Don't waste a minute!"

"Pluck will win yet!"

"We're all waiting to catch you, if you fall!"

But Aldred, standing exhausted and pant