Part 56 (1/2)

”No, there's a chance of saving them, professor, and I'll risk it!” said Ishmael, preparing for a start.

”You are mad; you shall not do it!” exclaimed the professor, seizing the boy and holding him fast.

”Let me go, professor! Let me go, I tell you! Let me go, then! Israel Putman would have done it, and so will I!” cried Ishmael, struggling, breaking away, and das.h.i.+ng into the burning building.

”But George Was.h.i.+ngton wouldn't, you run mad maniac, he would have had more prudence!” yelled the professor, beside himself with grief and terror.

But Ishmael was out of hearing. He dashed into the front hall, and up the main staircase, through volumes of smoke that rolled down and nearly suffocated him. Ishmael's excellent memory stood him in good stead now.

He recollected to have read that people pa.s.sing through burning houses filled with smoke must keep their heads as near the floor as possible, in order to breathe. So when he reached the first landing, where the fire in the wing was at its worst, and the smoke was too dense to be inhaled at all, he ducked his head quite low, and ran through the hall and up the second flight of stairs to the floor upon which the boys slept.

He dashed on to the front room and tried the door. It was fastened within. He rapped and called and shouted aloud. In vain! The dwellers within were dead, or dead asleep, it was impossible to tell which. He threw himself down upon the floor to get a breath of air, and then arose and renewed his clamor at the door. He thumped, kicked, shrieked, hoping either to force the door or awake the sleepers. Still in vain! The silence of death reigned within the chamber; while volumes of lurid red smoke began to fill the pa.s.sage. This change in the color of the smoke warned the brave young boy that the flames were approaching. At this moment, too, he heard a crash, a fall, and a sudden roaring up of the fire, somewhere near at hand. Again in frantic agony he renewed his a.s.sault upon the door. This time it was suddenly torn open by the boys within.

And horrors of horrors! what a scene met his appalled gaze! One portion of the floor of the room had fallen in, and the flames were rus.h.i.+ng up through the aperture from the gulf of fire beneath. The two boys, standing at the open door, were spell-bound in a sort of panic.

”What is it?” asked one of them, as if uncertain whether this were reality or nightmare.

”It is fire! Don't you see! Quick! Seize each of you a blanket! Wrap yourselves up and follow me! Stoop near the floor when you want to breathe! Shut your eyes and mouths when the flame blows too near. Now then!”

It is marvelous how quickly we can understand and execute when we are in mortal peril. Ishmael was instantly understood and obeyed. The lads quick as lightning caught up blankets, enveloped themselves, and rushed from the sinking room.

It was well! In another moment the whole floor, with a great, sobbing creak, swayed, gave way, and fell into the burning gulf of fire below.

The flames with a horrible roar rushed up, filling the upper s.p.a.ce where the chamber floor had been; seizing on the window-shutters, mantel-piece, door-frames, and all the timbers attached to the walls; and finally streaming out into the pa.s.sage as if in pursuit of the flying boys.

They hurried down the hot and suffocating staircase to the first floor, where the fire raged with the utmost fury. Here the flames were bursting from the burning wing through every crevice into the pa.s.sage. Ishmael, in his wet woollen clothes, and the boys in their blankets, dashed for the last flight of stairs--keeping their eyes shut to save their sight, and their lips closed to save their lungs--and so reached the ground floor.

Here a wall of flame barred their exit through the front door; but they turned and made their escape through the back one.

They were in the open air! Scorched, singed, blackened, choked, breathless, but safe!

Here they paused a moment to recover breath, and then Ishmael said:

”We must run around to the front and let them know that we are out!” The two boys that he had saved obeyed him as though he had been their master.

Extreme peril throws down all false conventional barriers and reduces and elevates all to their proper level. In this supreme moment Ishmael instinctively commanded, and they mechanically obeyed.

They hurried around to the front. Here, as soon as they were seen and recognized, a general shout of joy and thanksgiving greeted them.

Ishmael found himself clasped in the arms of his friend, the professor, whose tears rained down upon him as he cried:

”Oh, my boy! my boy! my brave, n.o.ble boy! there is not your like upon this earth! no, there is not! I would kneel down and kiss your feet! I would! There isn't a prince in this world like you! there isn't, Ishmael! there isn't! Any king on this earth might be proud of you for his son and heir, my great-hearted boy!” And the professor bowed his head over Ishmael and sobbed for joy and grat.i.tude and admiration.

”Was it really so well done, professor?” asked Ishmael simply.

”Well done, my boy? Oh, but my heart is full! Was it well done? Ah! my boy, you will never know how well done, until the day when the Lord shall judge the quick and the dead!”

”Ah, if your poor young mother were living to see her boy now!” cried the professor, with emotion.

”Don't you suppose mother does live, and does see me, professor? I do,”

answered Ishmael, in a sweet, grave tone that sounded like Nora's own voice.