On they went through smoke and water. Every moment Bruce stumbled over some box or piece of furniture and once he fell full length on the floor; but he picked himself up, seized the hose, and blindly followed as it drew him across the room. He stumbled again, but this time it was not a box or a piece of furniture that his foot encountered but something that yielded as he touched it, and suggested somehow the horrible idea that it was a dead human body. Stooping down and groping with his hands he touched a warm human face; and then, still groping and feeling with his hands, he found that it was the body of a boy who had evidently been smothered in smoke. For a moment Bruce stood undecided as to what course he should pursue. The hose was still traveling across the floor, at a rapid rate, and although he shouted to his companions he could hear nothing in reply. Should he follow them as had been ordered or should he turn back with the boy’s body in his arms? All at once he remembered that Mr. Trask had once told him that a fireman’s first duty was to save human life—and saying to himself “I’ll be on the safe side anyhow,” he lifted the inanimate form in his arms and slowly made his way back to the window by which he had entered.
So quiet was his burden that he felt sure there was no more life in the frail body, but no sooner had he gained the fresh air, than the lips began to move, and a feeble movement of the arms told him that his efforts had not been in vain. Fortunately his burden was but a light one, and wrapping one arm tightly about it he managed to climb out on the ladder and carry it down to the street. Then without an instant’s hesitation he climbed up the ladder again and began to follow the line of hose, which was still moving as swiftly as before. But he had not gone far before a great flash of light lit up the room in which he was, and then it seemed to him as if the building shook beneath his feet. Looking behind him he saw a great wall of solid flame rise up from the floor. The hose was still moving through his hand, and with one look behind, he plunged bravely into the dark smoke that lay before him.
[Illustration: “He managed to climb out on the ladder and carry it down to the street.”—_Page 156._]