, and
the baby by its night-dress in his teeth.

I saw at a glance that he had emptied the nursery, and turned to search
for another door. During the whole of this scene--which passed in a few
minutes--a feeling of desperate anxiety possessed me as to the fate of
the young lady to whom I had given up my doggie. I felt persuaded she
slept on the same floor with the children, and groped about the passage
in search of another door. By this time the smoke was so dense that I
was all but suffocated. A minute or two more and it would be too late.
I could not see. Suddenly I felt a door and kicked it open. The black
smoke entered with me, but it was still clear enough inside for me to
perceive the form of a girl lying on the floor. It was she!

"Miss McTougall!" I shouted, endeavouring to rouse her; but she had
fainted. Not a moment now to lose. A lurid tongue of flame came up the
staircase. I rolled a blanket round the girl--head and all. She was
very light. In the excitement of the moment I raised her as if she had
been a child, and darted back towards the passage, but the few moments I
had lost almost cost us our lives. I knew that to breathe the dense
smoke would be certain suffocation, and went through it holding my
breath like a diver. I felt as if the hot flames were playing round my
head, and smelt the singeing of my own hair. Another moment and I had
reached the window, where the grim but welcome head of the escape still
rested. With a desperate bound I went head first into the shoot, taking
my precious bundle along with me.

A fireman chanced to be going down the shoot at the time, carefully
piloting one of the maids who had been rescued from the attics, and
checking his speed with outspread legs. Against him I canonned with
tremendous force, and sent him and his charge in a heap to the bottom.

This was fortunate, for the pace at which I must have otherwise come
down would have probably broken my neck. As it was, I felt so stunned
that I nearly lost consciousness. Still I retained my senses
sufficiently to observe a stout elderly little man in full evening
dress, with his coat slit up behind to his neck, his face
half-blackened, and his shaggy hair flying wildly in all directions--
chiefly upwards. Amid wild cheering from the crowd I confusedly heard
the conversation that followed.

"They're all accounted for now, sir," said a policeman, who supported
me.

The elderly gentleman had leaped