imminent.
Then, as no Milly replied, he rushed up to the garret in the belief that
she might have taken refuge there or on the roof in her terror.

Just after he had rushed out of the nursery, Junkie burst in. The boy
was in his element now. We do not mean that he was a salamander and
revelled in fire and smoke, but he had read of fires and heard of them
till his own little soul was ablaze with a desire to save some one from
a fire--any one--somehow, or anyhow! Finding, like the rest, that he
could scarcely breathe, he made but one swift circuit of the room. In
doing so he tumbled on the chair on which the cause of all the mischief
still sat smoking, but undeniably "dood!"

"Blackie!" he gasped, and seized hold of her denuded but still
unconsumed wooden body.

A few moments later he sprang through the entrance door and tumbled out
on the lawn, where most of the females of the establishment were
standing.

"Saved!" he cried, in a voice of choking triumph, as he rose and held up
the rescued and smoking doll.

"Doan! my da'ling Doan!" cried Flo, extending her arms eagerly to
receive the martyr.

By that time the house was fairly alight in its upper storey, despite
the utmost efforts of all the men to extinguish the fire with buckets of
water.

"No use, no use to waste time trying," said the laird, as he ran out
among the females on the lawn. "Is everybody safe? eh? Milly--where's
Milly?"

"Milly! where's Milly?" echoed a stentorian voice, as Barret bounded out
of the smoking house with singed hair and blackened face.

"There--there she is!" cried several of the party, as they pointed
towards the avenue leading to the house.

All eyes were eagerly turned in that direction, and a general
exclamation of thankfulness escaped, as Milly was seen running towards
the scene of action. She had been down seeing old Mrs Donaldson, and
knew nothing of what had occurred, till she came in sight of the
conflagration.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

TWO FIRES SUBDUED.

Barret, half ashamed of the wild anxiety he displayed, turned at once,
sprang back into the burning house, and began to expend his energies in
helping his companions and the men of the establishment to save as much
as possible of the laird's property.

While this was being done and the attention of every one was directed
exclusively to the work of salvage--in which work Pat Quin shone
conspicuous for daring as well as for all but miraculous power to endure