for, although there _are_ three hundred and
seventy-eight heroes who hold the fiery foe so well in check, there are
limits to heroic powers of action, and it stands to reason that double
the number would do it better.

But we are wandering from our point. The engine has been tearing all
this time at racing speed along the Bayswater Road. It turns sharp
round a corner near Notting Hill Gate--so sharp that the feat is
performed on the two off wheels, and draws from Bob Clazie the quiet
remark, "Pretty nigh on our beam-ends that time, Joe." A light is now
seen glaring in the sky over the house-tops; another moment, and the
engine dashes into Ladbroke Square, where a splendid mansion is in a
blaze, with the flames spouting from the windows of the second floor.

The engine pulls up with a crash; the reeking horses are removed and led
aside. "Look alive, lads!" is the only word uttered, and the helmeted
heroes, knowing their work well, go into action with that cool
promptitude which is more than half the battle in attacking the most
desperate odds or the fiercest foe.

CHAPTER TWO.

The house on fire was, as we have said, an elegant mansion--one of those
imposing edifices, with fresh paint outside, and splendid furniture
within, which impress the beholder with the idea of a family in
luxurious circumstances.

No one could tell how the fire originated. In the daily "report" of
fires, made next day by the chief of the Red Brigade, wherein nine fires
were set down as having occurred within the twenty-four hours, the cause
of this fire in Ladbroke Square was reported "unknown." Of the other
eight, the supposed causes were, in one case, "escape of gas," in
another, "paraffin-lamp upset," in another "intoxication," in another,
"spark from fire," in another, "candle," in another, "children playing
with matches," and so on; but in this mansion none of these causes were
deemed probable. The master of the house turned off the gas regularly
every night before going to bed, therefore it could not have been caused
by escape of gas. Paraffin-lamps were not used in the house. Candles
were; but they were always carefully handled and guarded. As to
intoxication, the most suspicious of mortals could not have dreamed of
such a cause in so highly respectable a family. The fires were
invariably put out at night, and guards put on in every room, therefore,
no spark could have been so audacious as to have leaped into being and