"Can I go? Just to see where it is? Only to the corner? I won't go a step beyond the corner, I promise you."
Jack's word, when he gave it, was as good as his oath, and although the street was quite dark, yet as they lived in a quiet part of the city his mother saw him go without fear.
There was a good deal of noise and confusion outside. An engine ran past and men shouting; but in half an hour Mrs. Leigh and Bessy heard Jack coming leisurely up the steps, whistling and talking.
"Here, sir! Wheet! wheet! This way. In with you. Gracious, mother, how dark this hall is! Why don't Ann? Wheet--wheet! There!" opening the back door, "stay there till morning." He shut and locked the door again and came into the parlor.
"'Twasn't much of a fire--near two miles off--somewhere about the Northern mills."
"There was great confusion," said Mrs. Leigh.
"There always is. Now if I was the captain of a fire company, I'd manage differently. I'd say to this man, go here, and to that man, go there, and they should not dare to utter a word. Then the fires would be put out."
"Who was that in the hall, Jack?" inquired Bessy.
"A big dog; a most tremendous fellow. He came running alongside of me on the street, and turned up the steps as I did. Somebody's lost him, I suppose. I put him in the yard till daylight, and then I can see him and look up his owner."
"Was he a pretty dog?" said Bess eagerly.
"How could I tell? I told you I didn't see him. As he brushed by me, I felt that he was a strapping fellow. The hall's as dark as pitch."
"You didn't fix him with your eye, then?"
Jack said nothing, but lighted his candle and went to bed.
The next morning he was awakened by a thumping at the door, and in rushed Bessy, wild with excitement, the morning newspaper in her hand.
"O, Jack, listen to this!" jumping on the bed and beginning to read breathlessly:
"ESCAPE OF WILD ANIMALS.--The fire of last night communicated with the stables where the animals connected with Drivers' Menagerie were stored for the winter, and several of them escaped. They were promptly pursued and captured, with the exception of the Bengal tiger, that was last seen making its way toward the southern part of the city. At the hour of our going to press no traces have been found of the animal."