“But, Mr. Bayard, Mr. Bayard--you ain’t got it through your head--I said I wouldn’t be the man to tell you, and I wish to gollyswash I’d stuck to it.” “Bob! It isn’t the _Mission_?” “Oh, sir--yes! They’ve set us afire!” “Now, Bob,” said the minister, suddenly shooting up in the dark at Bob’s side, with coat and vest over his arm, “run for it! Run!” * * * * * The building was doomed from the first. The department saw that, at a glance, and concentrated its skill upon the effort to save the block. The deed had been dexterously done. The fire sprang from half a dozen places, and had been burning inwardly, it was thought, for an hour before it was discovered. The people had been too poor to hire a night-watchman. “We trusted Providence,” muttered Captain Hap. “And this is what we get for it!” The crowd parted before the minister when he came panting up, with Bob a rod behind. Bayard had got into his coat on the way, but he had not waited for his hat. In the glare, with his bared head and gray-white face, he gathered an unearthly radiance. He made out to get under the ropes, and sprang up the steps of the burning building. “No, sir!” said the chief respectfully; “you can’t get in, now. We’ve saved all we could.” “There are some things I _must_ have. I can get at them. I’ve done this before. Let me in!” commanded the minister. All the coherent thought he had at that moment was that he must save some of the pictures--Helen’s pictures that she had given to the people. In that shock of trouble they took on a delirious preciousness to him. “Let me into my own chapel!” he thundered. But the chief put his hand upon the preacher’s breast, and held it there. “Not another step, Mr. Bayard. The roof will fall in five minutes. Get back, sir!” He heard his people calling him; strong hands took hold of him; pitying faces looked at him. “Come, Mr. Bayard,” some one said gently. “Turn away with us. Don’t see it go.” He protested no more, but obeyed quietly. For the first time since they had known him, he faltered, and broke before his people. They led him away, like a wounded man. He covered his face when the crash came. The sparks flew far and hot over the wharves, and embers followed. The water hissed as it received them.