"It's too short!" "Tie two together!" "There aren't two!" "Tell them to jump!" "No! No! They'd break their necks!" "Someone go in and fetch 'em!" "Impossible! The stairs are ablaze!" "Does anyone hear the engine coming?" "Not a sign of it yet." "Then God help them, for we can't!" The room was getting hotter and hotter. Aldred could hear the roar of the flames in the passage now. How long would the door keep them out? It was plain that, unless both girls were to perish, something must be done, and that instantly. Disengaging Mabel's clinging arms, Aldred propped her against the window-sill, then groped her way through the dense smoke across the room. The six beds in the hospital were always kept made up, perfectly ready for use. Aldred pulled off the twelve sheets one after the other, and carried them in a bundle back to the window, where, with trembling hands, she knotted them firmly together, just as Miss Drummond had shown in the fire-drill practice. She dragged forward the nearest bedstead till its foot almost touched the sill, and, fastening her improvised rope round a post, pulled it hard, to make sure that the knot was safe. "Mabel," she said loudly, "we must try the sheet dodge. I'm going to lower you down. Let me tie this end round your waist, quick!" "No! No!" cried Mabel, who had somewhat recovered her scattered senses. "I'll lower you! I'm the bigger, and stronger than you. Here, give me the end!" "I shan't. You must go! Mabel, I insist! This is no time for arguing. My mind's made up, and I shall make you!" Aldred was fastening the knot as she spoke, with quick fingers. She would take no denial. Had she not come to rescue her friend, and was she to be so easily gainsaid? "But, Aldred! Aldred! If I go first, who will lower you afterwards?" "I'll slip down somehow." "You know you can't! It's saving me at your own cost!" The heat was terrific, and the roar on the landing had increased sevenfold. With a crash the door fell in, and a sheet of flame burst like a furious living thing into the room. Aldred turned almost fiercely upon Mabel. "For your father's and mother's sake! Think of them!"