And now there were other people besides the firemen and Mr. Dewsnap walking about inside the fire lines and stepping over the lengths of black hose, which were curling and writhing about the street like so many big serpents. Standing near the corner, Bruce noticed half a dozen well dressed young men, who were watching the scene carefully and from time to time making notes in books which they took from their pockets. They were the reporters of the daily newspapers who had been sent to the scene of action as soon as the alarm came in. Each one wore on his breast a silver plated fire-badge, issued by the department, which gave him the right to cross the line. Another man who wore a similar badge and stood in earnest conversation with the chief, was, so Mr. Dewsnap said, an employee of one of the great electric companies.
“And very useful those electric men are at a fire sometimes,” explained the old gentleman. “You see these electric wires were unknown in my time, but now it is a very important matter to keep track of them at a fire because it is a dangerous thing to have them break loose and swing about while the men are at work. It’s death to put your finger on one of them; and there’s no one but a regular employee of one of the electric companies that can handle them with any safety. Then there’s that chap from the gas works; he has a badge because he’s a useful man, too. Sometimes a stream of water thrown into a room will break a chandelier short off and then the gas escapes and there is liable to be an explosion when the flames reach it.”
“You’re wanted, Bruce!” cried a grimy fireman, as he rushed up to where the boy was standing.
The boy’s eyes flashed, and then he said reluctantly; “But Captain Murphy told me to watch the horses.”
“You go along!” exclaimed Mr. Dewsnap, peremptorily, “I’ll stay by the tender until you come back,” and the boy darted off without waiting to thank him.
Captain Murphy’s company was short-handed and Bruce was wanted to take a length of the hose. The captain was just entering the building by means of a ladder which reached to the third floor, and Bruce, taking his place on the hose, followed upwards the last of the line of men. The window at which the captain was making his entrance had received but five minutes before the thick stream of water directed by two fire-engines through the siamese joint and when they stepped over the charred and smoking window-sill they found the room black with smoke, and fully six inches of water on the floor. It was a hard pull to get the heavy hose up the ladder but Bruce did his best with the men and followed them as they climbed through the window. As the water surged about his feet he looked at the darkness before him and admitted to himself that he would not have dared to enter that building unless the others had gone before him. But no thought of turning back entered the boy’s mind. Not for any reward on earth would he have dropped his hose and sneaked back down the ladder. The smoke closed around him and made his eyes smart so that he could not keep them open; but still he kept on, unable to see the man who was twenty-five feet in front of him, but knowing by the drag on the hose that he was there. Where the captain was leading him or for what purpose he did not know. He was simply a soldier obeying orders. And the feeling that he was at last doing something as a fireman came upon him with a keen sense of exhilaration.