d Joe. "He hurt his hand the last fire he
attended, and it's in a sling just now, so he must have taken it out,
for temporary duty when he wrote to you. The truth is that Fred is too
reckless for a fireman. He's scarcely cool enough. But I can inform
you as to the day; it is Thursday next. See that you are up to time,
Bob."

"No fear of me being late," replied the Bloater. "By the way, have you
heard of that new method of putting out fires that somebody has
invented?"

"I did hear of some nonsensical plan," replied Joe, with a slight
expression of contempt, "but I don't think it worth while to pay
attention to things o' this sort. There's nothin' can beat good cold
water."

"I'm not so sure of that, Joe," replied his friend gravely. "I have
been reading an account of it in the _Insurance Guardian_, and it seems
to me that there is something worth attending to in the new plan. It
looks as if there was life in it, for a company is to be got up called
the `Fire and Water Company.'"

"But what _is_ this new plan?" asked Joe, sending forth a violent puff
from his pipe, as if to indicate that it would all end in smoke.

"Well, I'm not sure that I've got a correct notion of it myself, but my
impression is that carbonic acid gas is the foundation-principle of it.
Fire cannot exist in the presence of this gas--wherever it goes
extinction of fire is instantaneous, which is more than you can say for
water, Joe; for as you know well, fire, when strong enough, can turn
that into steam as fast as you can pour it on, and after getting rid of
it in this way, blaze up as furious as ever. What this company proposes
to do is to saturate water with this carbonic acid gas mixed with
nitrogen, and then pour that prepared water on fires. Of course, if
much water were required, such a plan would never succeed, but a very
small quantity is said to be sufficient. It seems that some testing
experiments of a very satisfactory kind have been made recently--so you
see, Joe, it is time to be looking out for a new profession!"

"H'm. I'll stick to the old brigade, at all events till the new company
beats us from the field. Perhaps when that happens they'll enrol some
of us to work the--what d'ye call 'em?--soda-water engines. They'll
have engines of course, I suppose?"

"Of course," replied the Bloater; "moreover, they mean to turn their
prepared water to good account when there are no fires to put out. It
is said that the pro