water!"

Demming saw the speaker for an instant,--an erect little figure in a
foppish gray suit, with a "cat's eye" gleaming from his blue cravat.
One instant he stood on the piece of timber upon which he had jumped;
the next he had flung off his coat, and was speeding down the road
like a hare.

"D---- ef 'tain't the Cunnel," said Demming.

"Come on!" shouted Talboys, never slackening his speed. "Hurry!"

The men went. Demming, weak with pain, was content to look across the
gap between the trains and watch those left behind. The smoke was
growing denser now, and tongues of flame shot out between the joints
of wood. They said the man was at the other end. Happily, the wind
blew the fire from him. Jim and two other men climbed in again.
Demming could hear them swearing and shouting. He looked anxiously
about, seeking a familiar figure which he could not find. He thought
it the voice of his own fears, that cry from within the car. "Good
God, it's the Bishop!" But immediately Jim thrust his head out of the
window, and called, "The Bishop's in hyar! Under the cyar seats! He
ain't hurt, but we cyan't move the infernal things ter get him out!"

"Oh, Lordy!" groaned the vagabond; "an' I'm so broke up I cyan't lif'
a han' ter help him!"

In desperation, the men outside tried to batter down the car walls
with a broken tree limb. Inside, they strained feverishly at the heavy
timbers. Vain efforts all, at which the crackling flames, crawling
always nearer, seemed to mock.

Demming could hear the talk, the pitying comments, the praise of the
Bishop: "Such a good man!" "His poor daughter, the only child, and her
mother dead!" "They were so fond of each other, poor thing, poor
thing!" And a soft voice added, "Let us pray!"

"Prayin'," muttered Demming, "jes' like wimmen! Laws, they don' know
no better. How'll I git ter him?"

He began to crawl to the car, dragging his shattered leg behind him,
reckless of the throbs of pain it sent through his nerves. "Ef I kin
on'y stan' it till I git ter him!" he moaned. "Burnin' alive's harder
nor this." He felt the hot smoke on his face; he heard the snapping
and roaring of the fire; he saw the men about the car pull out Jim and
his companions, and perceived that their faces were blackened.

"It'll cotch me, suah 's death!" said Demming, between his teeth.
"Well, 'tain't much mattah!" Mustering all his strength he pulled
himself up to the car window below that from which Jim had just