sking any more lives! Bart can do that, if any
one can!"

Browning felt that this was true, and fell back with a groan, while a
bit of suspicious moisture shone in his eyes. The walls were in such a
state that the firemen now began to disconnect the hose and to get the
engines away. They warned back the crowd, and policemen began to shout
orders and to enforce them with batons.

In the meantime, what was Bart Hodge doing, and what had befallen Frank
Merriwell? Hodge was sure that Frank had made his way to the stairway
where Willis Paulding had said Jack Ready had fallen. It was the center
stairway leading from the third story.

Hodge had not much difficulty in passing through the hotel office, for,
after the dash through the doorway, he found the smoke not so dense. It
seemed to be sucked into the doorway, and the clerk's desk and vicinity
were comparatively free of it. The room was deserted, and there were
everywhere evidences of a hasty leave-taking.

Bart ran first to the elevator, thinking he might be able to use that,
but the door appeared to be warped, and he could not get it open easily.
He did not know whether the elevator was in running condition, and much
doubted it, because of the explosion in the basement. Therefore, not
wishing to lose any time, he jumped for the nearest stairway, as soon as
he felt that no help could be had from the elevator, and climbed as fast
as he could toward the second story.

This stairway was filled with smoke, and he felt the heat increase as he
ascended, but he still had no trouble, except from the smoke. But when
he reached the second floor his heart almost failed. The stairway on
which Jack Ready had fallen, and the only stairway Bart could see, was
wrapped in flames, which writhed and twined like serpents. The heat,
too, was intense.

Bending close to the floor, to escape the smoke and heat as much as
possible, Bart groped about, looking everywhere for Merriwell, thinking
he might have fallen there. He saw him nowhere, and called loudly. But
no sound came back except the roar of the fire. It even drowned all the
noises of the street. But not for a moment did he think of turning back,
though he knew how awful the danger would be if he tried to go up that
burning stairway. He cast about for some sort of protection. A flimsy
curtain of cotton material was stretched across a doorway. This Hodge
pulled down and wrapped round his head, protecting his hands with it
also as wel