l as he could. Then he measured the stairway and its
direction with a quick glance, and made a wild dash for the fire.

He went up the stairway at a run, with his clothes scorching and the
protecting cotton cloth bursting into flame. It was a desperate spurt,
but Hodge went through the fire, and with a bound threw himself beyond
it, and felt, rather than knew, that he was in some kind of hall, where
the fire was not so bad. He pulled aside the flaming cloth, pitched it
from him, put up his scorching hands to shield his eyes, and looked
about.

"Merriwell!"

The cry was one of joy.

"Merriwell!"

This time the exclamation held the tone of fear and dread. Frank
Merriwell was lying in this space, which Bart saw now to be a wide
corridor. Frank seemed unconscious. He was lying close against the wall,
with his arms doubled over his head. Near him was a piece of timber
which had fallen from the floor above. Other pieces of timbers seemed
about to fall from the same place. This one, as Bart saw at a glance,
had struck Merriwell down.

Bart's heart almost stopped beating when the thought came to him that
perhaps Frank was dead. He leaped toward him, with a bound, uttering
that cry of "Merriwell!" as he did so.

"Frank! Frank!" he cried. "Frank, are you much hurt?"

The roaring of the fire in the stairway sounded louder, than ever. Its
noise was like that of a raging furnace. Bart's hands were scorched, but
he did not feel the pain of the burns. Another piece of timber dropped
from the floor above within a foot of where he stood. Others seemed
about to fall. There was fire all round him, and the whole corridor
seemed on the point of leaping into flame.

Hodge lifted Merry's unconscious form and faced the fire. A groan came
from Merriwell's lips. Bart looked into the white face and saw a bloody
lump on the side of Merry's head. That face appealed to him as if for
protection from the fire.

In spite of his many faults, Bart Hodge held for Frank Merriwell the
love of a strong and manly heart. Frank was the one true and faithful
friend who had always stood by him--the one friend who always understood
him--the one friend who was every ready to defend him. And Hodge would
have laid down his life for Merriwell!

He saw that if he dashed through the fire with Merriwell, that face, so
strong and manly and true, would be horribly disfigured. He did not
think of his own so much as of Merriwell's. Yet he felt that if he got
o