ut of the building with his burden he would have to make haste. There
were doors along the corridor, and he knew that they opened into rooms.
He put Merriwell down, and finding the first door locked, kicked it in
with his foot.

The room was full of smoke, but the fire had not yet entered it. Hodge
hastily tore from the bed a big double blanket, and retreated with it
into the corridor. This blanket he wound round Merriwell's face and
shoulders and hands; then lifted Frank again, protecting himself with
the folds of the blanket as well as he could as he did so. Thus dragging
Merriwell, he stumbled toward the hell of fire that roared in the
stairway.

There was a jarring sound, and for a moment it seemed that the whole
building was tumbling down round his ears. A section of the rear wall
had fallen outward, and the part of the hotel containing the kitchen was
a burning wreck. Bart hardly heard the sound, so absorbed was he in the
task before him. He did not feel Merriwell's weight--in fact, his
strength seemed to be as great as Browning's.

"Frank!" he cried, in his heart--"Frank, my dearest friend, if I can't
carry you out, we'll die together!"

The fire in the stairway had greatly increased. But Hodge did not
hesitate. Wrapping the blanket closer about Merriwell and himself, he
rushed, with seeming recklessness, but with a boldness that was really
the highest form of courage, into that raging cauldron of fire, and
descended with the steady celerity of one who sees every foot of the way
and has no thrill of fear.

The blanket crisped and cracked and smoked into flame as the fiery waves
beat against it. Bart seemed to be breathing liquid flame. But the thick
bulk of the blanket shielding Merriwell's face and hands kept them from
the searing fire.

Half-fainting, but victorious, Bart Hodge reeled out of the hotel,
bearing Merriwell in his arms. A great cheer went up from the excited
crowd, for, somehow, the information had spread that a daring attempt to
rescue a friend was being made by one of the college students.

Merriwell's flock dived through the thick smoke and carried both Hodge
and Merriwell to a place of security. And even as they did so the
tottering side wall, that had so long been swaying, fell, and the shell
of the burning hotel collapsed like a house of cards.

* * * * *

The next morning Danny Griswold bounced into Merriwell's room. Hodge was
there. He and Frank wer