crawled up the roof to the ridge and grasped it.

"Slowly now!" he shouts. "Take time and hold on tight. I will guide
you." He feels the frail support stiffen. She has drawn it into her
hands; now she is on the sill, and is working herself off. He clutched
his end firmly, steadying himself as best he might by bestriding the
ridge of the roof. The strain becomes greater, he feels her weight, she
is slipping down, down. Her hands strike a knot; the jerk almost throws
him off his balance. He utters a word of caution, lost in the growing
roar of the flames whose hungry tongues have begun to leap above the
gutter. She looks down, sees the approaching peril, and hastens her
descent. He is all astrain, with heart and hand nerved for the awful
possibilities of the coming moments when--ping! Something goes whistling
by his ear, which for the instant sets his hair bristling on his head,
and almost paralyses every muscle. A bullet! The flame is not
threatening enough! Some one is shooting at him from the dark.

IV

Well! death which comes one way cannot come another, and a bullet is
more merciful than flame. The thought steadies Hammersmith; besides he
has nothing to do with what is taking place behind his back. His duty is
here, to guide and support this rapidly-descending figure now almost
within his reach. And he fulfils this duty, though that deadly "ping" is
followed by another, and his starting eyes behold the hole made by the
missile in the clap-board just before him.

She is down. They stand toppling together on the slippery ridge with no
support but the rapidly heating wall down which she had come. He looks
one way, then another. Ten feet either way to the gutter! On one side
leap the flames; beneath the other crouches their secret enemy. They
cannot meet the first and live; needs must they face the latter. Bullets
do not always strike the mark, as witness the two they had escaped.
Besides, there are friends as well as enemies in the yard on this side.
He can hear their encouraging cries. He will toss down the blanket;
perhaps there will be hands to hold it and so break her fall, if not
his.

With a courage which drew strength from her weakness, he carried out
this plan and saw her land in safety amid half a dozen upstretched arms.
Then he prepared to follow her, but felt his courage fail and his
strength ooze without knowing the cause. Had a bullet struck him? He did
not feel it. He was conscious of the heat, but