Connie therefore only removed his shoes. She tucked the blankets round him, and said, "Good-night, Ronnie."
"What is that verse?" asked Ronald again. ""He that shall endure to the end"----"
""Shall be saved,"" finished Connie.
When she came to these words she noticed that little Ronald was sound asleep. Connie changed her mind about lying down. She sat on the floor by the boy"s side, laid her head on the pillow close to his, and also dropped asleep.
Big Ben called out the hour but the children slept. Perhaps the Voice spoke to them in their dreams, for they smiled now and then. Doubtless they were far away in those dreams from the dreadful attic, from the influence of a most cruel woman, from hunger and cold. The fire burned to a fine red glow, and then cooled down and grew gray and full of ashes, and eventually went out. For it had burned its heart out trying to help the children; and without a heart, even fire cannot keep alive.
But the two children slept on, although Ronald now stirred uneasily and coughed in his sleep. It seemed to Connie that she also was oppressed by something, as though a great and terrible nightmare were sitting on her chest. Ronald coughed louder and opened his eyes.
"Connie, Connie--where are we?" he cried.
Connie sat up with a stare.
"I be stiff," she began, "and--and cold. Wotever"s the hour? Bide a bit, Ronald, and I"ll find the matches and turn on the gas."
"What"s the matter with the room?" said Ronald.
"I don"t know nothing," said Connie.
"My eyes smart," said Ronald, "and I can"t breathe."
"I feel queer too," said Connie. "I won"t be a second finding out, though. You lie quiet."
She groped about, found a match-box, which still contained a few matches, struck a light, and applied it to the gas, which was at full pressure now, and roared out, making a great flame.
"W"y, the room"s full o" smoke," said Connie. "Wottever can it be?"
Ronald sat up in bed, opening his eyes.
"Where does it come from?" he said. "The fire is out."
Just then Big Ben proclaimed the hour of three.
"He that shall endure," thought Connie. "To the end," darted through Ronald"s mind; and just then both children heard an unmistakable and awful roar. Was it the roar of human voices or the roar of something else--a devouring and awful element? Connie turned white. Now, if ever, was the time to be brave.
"I"ll open the winder and look out," she said.
She sprang towards it and, with a great effort, pushed it half up. The moment she did so, the noise from without came louder, and the noise from within was more deafening.
"Fire! fire!" shouted a mult.i.tude of people from below in the street; and "Fire! fire!" cried the frenzied inhabitants of the old tenement-house. Connie and Ronald were on the top story. Connie went back to Ronald.
"The house is on fire, Ronnie!" she said. "But we mustn"t be frightened, either of us; we must think of the grand verse, and of what Big Ben said. Big Ben"s an angel, you mind; Giles knows all about that."
"Oh yes," said Ronald, his teeth chattering; for the draught from the open window, although it relieved his breathing, made him intensely cold. "It"s a beautiful verse, isn"t it, Connie?" he continued.
"Yus," said Connie. "Let"s get to the winder, Ronnie dear. We"ll call out. There are people down in the street. The fire-engines "ull be on in a minute; we"ll be saved, in course."
"Oh, of course," said Ronnie. He staggered to the floor, and put his feet into his shoes. "A good thing I wasn"t undressed," he said.
"Yus," said Connie. "Now, let"s get to the winder."
The children staggered there. The smoke was getting more dense; the room was filling faster and faster with the horrible, blinding, suffocating thing. But at the window there was relief. Connie put out her head for a minute, and then quickly drew it back.
"There"s flames burstin" out o" the winders," she said. "I wish as the firemen "ud come."
The children clung to one another. Just then, above the roar of the flames and the screams of the people, something else was distinctly audible. The fast approach of horses; the gallant figures of men in bra.s.s helmets: the brave firemen--members of the n.o.blest brigade in the world--were on the spot.
"It"s hall right," said Connie. "They"ve come. Don"t yer be a bit frightened, Ronnie; we"ll soon be out o" this. You ax Giles w"en you see him wot _"e_ thinks o" firemen. "_Es_ father were one. Oh, there"s no fear now that they"ve come!"
She pressed close to the window and put out her head and shoulders.
Ronald did likewise. The men out in the street were acting promptly. The hose were brought to bear on the increasing flames. But all to no purpose; the house was past saving. Was any one within?
"No," said a woman down in the crowd; "hevery soul is out, even to my last biby--bless him!"
She gave a hysterical cry, and sat down on a neighboring doorstep.
But the firemen of the London Brigade are very careful to ascertain for themselves whether there is any likelihood of loss of life.
"Has any one come down from the top floor?" asked a tall young man. He had a splendid figure--broad, square shoulders, and a light and athletic frame--which showed at once that he was the very best possible sort of fireman.
Just then the flames burst out more brightly than ever, and Connie, with her fair hair surrounding her little face, and Ronald clinging to her hand, were both distinctly seen.
"My G.o.d!" cried the firemen, "there are children up there. Put the escape up at once--don"t lose an instant--I am going up to them."
"You can"t; it"s certain death," said one or two. Several other voices were also raised in expostulation. But if any one in that crowd supposed that they were going to turn George Anderson, the bravest fireman in London, from his purpose, they were mistaken.
"That little angel face, and the face of the boy by her side!" he said once or twice under his breath. And then up and up he went--up and up--the children in the burning room (for the flames had broken out behind them now) watching and watching. His fear was that they might fall from their perilous position. But they had both crept out on to the window-ledge.
"Courage, courage!" he shouted to them. "Hold tight--I"ll be there in a minute!"
"The window is so hot!" gasped Connie.
"Think--think of the Voice," whispered Ronald.
He closed his eyes. In another minute he would have been beyond all earthly succor, and up in those beautiful realms where angels live, and his mother would meet him. But this was not to be.
In less than an instant a firm hand rescued the two children from their perilous position, and they were brought down to the ground uninjured.
Ronald fainted in that descent, but Connie kept her consciousness. They were out of Mammy Warren"s awful house. She had a queer sense as though she had been delivered from a worse danger even than fire.
People crowded round, and presently the tall fireman came up.
"What is your name?" he said to Connie.
"Connie," she replied.
"Well, Connie," he answered, "it was the sight of your beautiful face in the window that gave me courage to save yer. Now, do you want to have a shelter for yourself and your little brother to-night?"