The Sky Pilot's Great Chase; Or, Jack Ralston's Dead Stick Landing

“Hear that, partner? The fire alarm as sure as you’re born and me, always like a little kid, crazy to run with the engine and watch the fire boys go through with their thrillin’ stunts. Come along, buddy – supper c’n wait a bit for us an’ we’ll be all the hungrier at that. Snatch up your hat an’ let’s go!”

II

TRAPPED BY THE FLAMES

Jack seemed perfectly willing to accompany his chum, even if it did put a damper on their supper. Possibly he was like the vast majority of American youngsters in his youth, and could never resist the lure of a fire.

Accordingly they hurried down to the lower floor and dashed outside.

“Which way now, partner?” gasped Perk who was a bit short of wind after making that rush downstairs, not waiting to use the elevator. “I don’t see any glow in the sky to tell where the blaze c’n be.”

“Follow the crowd – that’s our only cue, Perk,” Jack hastened to say. “Listen to all that row – must be a fire engine heading to the spot; ought to set us right, I reckon.”

“Sure thing, Boss an’ here she comes a rushin’ along like an express train – no hosses though, these days which knocks a whole lot o’ the picture silly. On your way, John Jacob, I’m with you!”

They ran like deer, side by side. Others were streaming ahead, everybody displaying the utmost zeal to get to the fire before the conflagration was smothered by the streams of water turned on it.

Perk was in his glory – this sort of thing appealed to his nature as a pond would to a flock of thirsty ducks. Only for his lack of wind he might have indulged in a few cowboy whoops as he tore up one street and down another, touching elbows with his pard and eagerly straining his eyes in the hope of presently detecting a gust of smoke that would proclaim their arrival at the scene of operations.

“Thar she blows!” Perk suddenly gasped, “see that black smudge blowin’ in from a side street ol’ hoss? Jest one more burst an’ we’ll be Johnny on the spot! Wow! ain’t this glorious sport though?”

Jack made no answer, since there was nothing to say and he needed all his breath to keep going, not yet having caught his second wind.

Already a large crowd had gathered and was milling this way and that, trying in every way possible to catch a better view of the house that was the object of all these activities. Several engines had arrived and were making a great noise as they began to throw streams of water on the imperiled building as well as its near neighbors that would soon be in danger should the fire get a better start.

“Whee! smoke aplenty but so far I don’t lamp any fire,” Perk was saying in disjointed fragments as he and Jack stopped running and commenced to make their way through gaps in the moving crowds.

“A four-story frame building,” observed Jack as though that fact gripped his attention first of all, “and looks like it might be a tenement in the bargain.”

“I kinder guess you’re ’bout right there, partner.” Perk chimed in. “See the women and kids huddled up over yonder, some o’ ’em holdin’ bundles o’ stuff they’ve grabbed up when they hurried to get out! Ain’t that too bad, though – the poor things, to git burned out o’ their homes.”

It was a picture well calculated to wring the heart of a softy like Perk. Apparently all of the tenants had managed to get clear of the smoke-filled halls for the police officers standing guard at the exit were preventing any of the wildly excited women from rushing back into the building, doubtless with the intention of saving some beloved article which had a value in their eyes far in excess of its intrinsic one. Although they fought desperately to push past, the stern guardians of the law stood between and held them back, as if acting under the belief that such an act would be sheer suicide with all that dense smoke filling the halls and stairways.

“There, I saw a flash of flame jest then, Jack!” suddenly ejaculated Perk and if there was a little tinge of satisfaction in his voice it was hardly to be wondered at, the old boyish spirit rising up superior to his feeling of sympathy for the unfortunate families thus dispossessed of their humble homes.

Jack himself had noted the fact, although he made no remark, only shook his head sadly as if recognizing the fact that despite the fight put up by the fire laddies the frame building was very likely doomed.

They stood there and watched operations for some little time meanwhile other engines had come up, attached their hose to convenient hydrants and added fresh streams to those already drenching the buildings.

“Hot ziggetty dog! this here is gettin’ some monotonous, partner,” Perk finally remarked, “mebbe after all we’d show good sense by hikin’ back to the hotel and tacklin’ that grub.”

“Don’t be in such a big hurry, buddy,” objected the other who usually did prove to be some sticker, as Perk often observed, “since we’ve gone and made the run we ought to see a bit more of the fire. Supper will keep and besides, you’re likely to have a bigger vacuum to be filled. What say to taking a turn around and getting a view from another quarter?”

“That ain’t a bad idea boy, let’s get a move on,” agreed Perk who always liked a change of base when it promised further novelty.

“Come this way then,” Jack told him, starting to the left, “the crowd thins out off yonder, and we’ll be able to push through much easier. They still keep on coming though; men, women and lots of children who’d be better off at home I reckon still, what would you have? Chances are the average kid is just as wild to run with the fire engine as when we went into action!”

“Seems like it,” chuckled Perk, grinning amiably at a bunch of half-grown lads who had just come up and were staring goggle-eyed at the red streaks of leaping fire that appeared frequently amidst all the dense smoke.

Jack had been right in choosing to take the left turn, for they presently had everything to themselves. Evidently the other side of the building presented the most picturesque part of the conflagration, for hardly a straggler was met as they pursued their way.

“Here’s the rear of the tenement,” Jack remarked in a loud voice for the assembled steamers were kicking up so much noise that it was not easy to make himself heard. “See, they’re trying to wet down the building that backs up so close to the one that’s afire. It’s a four-story one at that and luckily built of brick, which may save it from catching fire.”

There seemed to be a rear entrance for a cop was standing guard there, apparently to keep any frantic tenant from rushing inside in the mad hope of rescuing some cherished object that had been forgotten in the frantic dash from the building earlier in the evening.

Flames were now coming out of several windows in the upper part of the doomed structure. On seeing this Jack lost all hope of the house being saved through the heroic efforts of the striving firemen.

“It’s bound to go, Perk,” he remarked, “I’m sorry for those poor families that stand to lose everything they’ve got in the wide world. Such as they never have a red cent of fire insurance. Look at that burst of flame will you? Small chance anybody’d have if they were unfortunate enough to get trapped up there!”

“Ugh! don’t mention it, partner!” cried the shocked Perk, his gaze fixed on the red tongues that kept flickering out of the upper windows like angry demons. “Many a time I’ve dreamed I was in a fire-trap like this here, an’ had to slide down the water-pipe with greedy fingers like them flames up there settin’ my clothes afire, singein’ my hair and eyebrows an’ nigh chokin’ me in the bargain. I’ll dream o’ this for a month o’ Sundays but ain’t it a thrillin’ sight though?”

That was just like honest-hearted Perk – filled with pity for those who stood to lose all their scanty earthly possessions, yet fascinated and duly thrilled by the fire itself and the whole surrounding panorama.

A minute afterwards Perk burst out in most intense excitement, gripping his chum’s arm with a strained clutch as he cried:

“Je-ru-sa-lem crickets! now ain’t that a danged shame though?”

“What do you mean buddy?” demanded Jack, also thrilled.

“Up yonder at that third-story window where the smoke’s comin’ out in big whoops – I certain sure did see a poor woman reach out, wringin’ her hands like she was hopin’ they started to set the ladders up – then she fell back again in the smoke – oh! Jack, she’s goin’ to be smothered an’ burned to a crisp if nobody c’n get to her in time!”

III

BRIDGING THE GAP

“Which window, Perk?” cried the startled Jack, staring upward.

“That one – third from the further end – gee whiz! like I might be in a cutout – brain all in a mixup – what c’n we do, Boss – knock that cop over an’ skoot upstairs?”

“Not any of that stuff, buddy,” Jack told the impulsive one in his impressive fashion. “He represents the Law, and so do we. Besides, look at the smoke rolling out of that rear door, it would be the last of us if we started that fool racket.”

“But – somethin’s got to be done, Jack – we jest can’t stand here and let a poor woman be burned to death. Do somethin’ partner, ’cause I’m flyin’ blind in a messy fog and can’t see where I ought to head.”

His voice and manner were both imploring, and Jack could not but be impressed by the gravity of the occasion.

“Sure you saw some one are you, Perk?” he demanded.

“Jack, I got good eyesight, an’ – looky there, right now, she’s back at the same window an’ will you b’lieve me if she ain’t got a kid alongside her? Wouldn’t that jar you, ol’ hoss?”

Jack no longer entertained any doubt regarding the truth of what his comrade had seen for he too could dimly make out moving figures at the third window from the end of the burning tenement.

“They’re makin’ motions to us right now!” sang out the greatly distressed Perk in new agony of mind. “I swan if I don’t think they’re meanin’ to make the jump an’ it’d be a crack-up dead sure!”

Startled by his own works Perk began to make violent gestures, as though endeavoring to warn the frightened woman not to dream of jumping.

“Hold your hosses – we’ll get goin’ an’ have you out o’ that mess in a jiffy;” and then turning upon his companion Perk almost savagely demanded: “It’s up to us, Jack – now how’re we goin’ to do it?”

“There’s only one chance that I can see,” Jack told him, “which is by way of this other building here. We must rush up to the third floor and if luck backs us we can find some way of passing over to her room – see, it’s only a matter of five or six feet at most. Come on, buddy!”