The Thorogood Family | Page 8

courage in the midst of danger.
But the enemy was very strong that night, and the brigade could make no impression whatever on the burning house, the inside of which glowed like a smelting furnace.
"Try the drawing-room window, Jim, wi' the fire-escape," said our foreman to one of his men.
He helped Jim to push the huge ladder on wheels to the window mentioned, and placed it in position. While Jim ran for a nozzle and hose, there was a great cry from the crowd. A woman had got out on the ledge of an attic window, and knelt there shrieking and waving her arms, while the smoke curled round her, and the flames leapt up at her. She was high above the head of the escape; but there were fly-ladders which could be raised above that. These were instantly hoisted, and our foreman sprang up to the rescue.
The danger of the attempt lay in this--that, though the lower and upper parts of the escape were comparatively free from smoke, the middle was shrouded with a dense mass, through which now and then a lurid red flame burst. But our hero thought only of the woman. In a second or two he had disappeared in the smoke.
Two of the firemen stood below holding a nozzle of the hose and directing it on a particular spot. They did not dare to move from their post, but they could see by a glance upwards what was going on.
"Fred," said one to the other in a low voice, "He'll save her, or there'll be a man less in the brigade to-night. He never does anything by halves. Whatever he undertakes he does well. Depend on't, that Harry Thorogood will save that woman if she can be saved at all."
As he spoke Harry was seen emerging above the smoke, but when he reached the top of the highest ladder he was fully six feet below the spot where the woman knelt.
"Come! girl, come!" he shouted, and held out his arms.
The terrified creature hesitated. She was afraid. She doubted the strength of the escape--the power of the man.
"Come! come!" again he shouted.
She obeyed, but came against the fireman with such force that the round of the ladder on which he stood gave way, and both were seen to go crashing downwards, while something like a mighty groan or cry rose from the multitude below. It was changed, however, into a wild cheer when Harry was seen to have caught the head of the escape, and arrested his fall, with one powerful hand, while, with the other, he still grasped the woman.
"God favours them," said a voice in the crowd, as a gust of wind for a few seconds drove smoke and flames aside.
Our bold fireman seized the opportunity, got the woman into the shoot, or canvas bag under the lowest ladder, and slid with her in safety to the ground.
The pen may describe, but it cannot convey a just idea of the thrilling cheers that greeted the rescued woman as she was received at the bottom of the escape, or the shouts of applause and congratulation that greeted Harry Thorogood as he emerged from the same, burnt, bleeding, scraped, scarred, and blackened, but not seriously injured, and with a pleasant smile upon his dirty face.
CHAPTER FIVE.
We turn now to a battlefield, but we won't affect to believe that the reader does not know who is one of the chief heroes of that field.
Robert Thorogood is his name. Bob does not look very heroic, however, when we introduce him, for he is sound asleep with his mouth open, his legs sprawling, his eyes tight shut, his bed the ground, his pillow the root of a tree, and his curtains the branches thereof. The only warlike point about Bob is the trumpet-sound that issues from his upturned nose.
Bob's sentiments about soldiering are queer. His comrades laugh at him a good deal about them, but they never scoff, for Bob is strong and full of fire; besides he is a pattern of promptitude and obedience, so they respect him. Moreover, he is a kindly and jovial man, therefore they are fond of him.
The battlefield of which we write was in the East. The fight had been between the British and Russians. The British had been victorious, and slept on the field.
When the bugles sounded the next morning they stopped the nasal trumpets everywhere, and Corporal Robert Thorogood was the first man of all the host to "fall in"--which he did by himself. But he was not long alone; others quickly joined him.
The companies were soon numbered, proved, formed into column, and marched off. Then there was a short halt for breakfast.
"Why, you're not half a soldier, Bob," said a hearty young comrade, while hastily eating his rations. "I saw you