he ran to the next corner, calling to the
guard. The alarm of fire was relayed to the court-house.

Meanwhile the two cowboys ran back to the building and hammered on the
door. Some one in an upstairs room screamed. Suddenly the door gave
inward. A woman carrying a cheap gilt clock pushed past them and sank in
a heap on the sidewalk. The guards heard some one running down the
street. One of them tied a handkerchief over his face and groped his way
up the narrow stairs. The hall above was thick with smoke. A door sprang
open, and a man carrying a baby and dragging a woman by the hand bumped
into the guard, cursed, and stumbled toward the stairway.

The cowboy ran from door to door down the long, narrow hall, calling to
the inmates. In one room he found a lamp burning on a dresser and two
children asleep. He dragged them from bed and carried them to the
stairway. From below came the surge and snap of flames. He held his
breath and descended the stairs. A crowd of half-clothed workmen had
gathered. Among them he saw several of the guards.

"Who belongs to these kids?" he cried.

A woman ran up. "She's here," she said, pointing to the woman with the
gilt clock, who still lay on the sidewalk. A man was trying to revive
her. The cowboy noticed that the unconscious woman still gripped the
gilt clock.

He called to a guard. Together they dashed up the stairs and ran from
room to room. Toward the back of the building they found a woman
insanely gathering together a few cheap trinkets and stuffing them into
a pillow-case. She was trying to work a gilt-framed lithograph into the
pillow-case when they seized her and led her toward the stairway. She
fought and cursed and begged them to let her go back and get her things.
A burst of flame swept up the stairway. The cowboys turned and ran back
along the hall. One of them kicked a window out. The other tied a sheet
under the woman's arms and together they lowered her to the ground.

Suddenly the floor midway down the hall sank softly in a fountain of
flame and sparks.

"Reckon we jump," said one of the cowboys.

Lowering himself from the rear window, he dropped. His companion
followed. They limped to the front of the building. A crowd massed in
the street, heedless of the danger that threatened as a section of roof
curled like a piece of paper, writhed, and dropped to the sidewalk.

A group of guards appeared with a hose-reel. They coupled to a hydrant.
A thin stream gurgled