"They'll never get that fire out!" cried a man in the crowd. "Why don't you let it burn, Chief?"
"Because we're here to put out fires. I'm going to——"
But what the chief was going to do he never said, for at that moment, above the crackling of the fire and the shouts of the men and boys, there arose an agonized shout.
"Help! Help! Save me!"
All eyes turned instinctively upward, and there, perched on the ledge of what had once been the clock tower of the factory, high above the roaring, crackling flames, stood a man, wildly waving his arms and crying:
"Help! Help! Save me!"
"Look! A man! He'll be burned to death!" yelled a score of persons as they saw the danger.
"That's about right, unless he gets down pretty soon," shouted Tom into Joe's ear. "Why doesn't he go down?"
"Probably because the stairs are burned away," was Joe's shouted answer—everyone was shouting, partly to make themselves heard and partly because of the excitement, which was contagious.
"Help! Help!" cried the man again. He gave
