tuttered.

"Oh, I circulate everywhere, like first-class currency. Want to go up
and take a peep with me, Merriwell? I'd give a V any time to hear one of
those fellows respond to a toast! Come along. What d'ye say? I'll be the
pilot."

But Merriwell was no more in the mood for such an escapade than the
other members of the "flock." Thereupon, Ready skipped across the street
himself and disappeared within the hotel.

Merriwell and his friends walked down the street, and in the course of
half an hour returned to that corner. Then they saw Ready at one of the
upper windows, looking down at them. He had a big piece of cake in one
hand and a glass of wine or tea in the other.

"Come up to the feast!" he bellowed. "Great fun!"

But Merriwell had his eyes fixed elsewhere. Suddenly he exclaimed:

"That hotel is on fire!" He had observed a tongue of flame leaping from
a window.

He started across the street, but before he had taken a dozen steps the
fire-alarm bell sounded. A few of the people in the hotel seemed to be
awaking to the fact that the building was on fire. Merry's friends
joined him, and they stood near the center of the street, looking up at
the fire and discussing the matter. Then Ready was seen again at the
window, staring about in a bewildered way, as if he contemplated leaping
to the street below.

"Do you suppose the fire could cut him off so soon?" Merry anxiously
queried.

"It doesn't seem likely," Diamond answered. "But, of course, no one can
tell. The Chickering set are up there yet!"

A crowd was collecting, and Merry's friends were thinking of going on
across the street, when the arrival of a clanging fire-engine drove them
back to the corner from which they had started.

It could now be seen that even in that brief space of time the fire was
rapidly spreading. The blaze first seen had increased in size, and
flames were now issuing from other windows on that floor. The fire
seemed to be in the third story. Luckily, the hotel stood on a corner,
away from other buildings.

People were now pouring in a stream from the exits. Merriwell looked
again toward the window where Ready had been seen.

"Ready will come right across here as soon as he gets down," he said. "I
suppose he is all right, but the fire is on that floor!"

But Ready did not appear. Other fire-engines arrived and began their
work. Firemen swarmed everywhere. But the fire increased in intensity in
spite of this fight against i