"Ah, you needn't grin, mother, an' tell me that the `_policemen_' are a fine set of men, and quite as brave and useful in their way as the firemen. I know all you respectable sort of people think that; but _I_ don't. They're my natural enemies, and I hate 'em. Come, mother, give me the socks and let me be off." Soon the vigorous urchin was on his way to the City, whistling, as usual, with all his might. As he passed the corner of the British Museum a hand touched him on the shoulder, and its owner said: "How much are ye paid a week, lad, for kicking up such a row?" Willie looked round, and his eyes encountered the brass buckle of the waist-belt of a tall, strapping fellow in a blue uniform. Glancing upwards, he beheld the handsome countenance of his brother Frank looking down at him with a quiet smile. He wore no helmet, for except when attending a fire the firemen wear a sailor-like blue cloth cap. "Hallo, Blazes! is that you?" cried the boy. "Just so, Willie; goin' down to Watling Street to attend drill." Willie (who had styled his brother "Blazes" ever since he joined the fire brigade) observed that he happened to be going in the same direction to deliver a message from his mother to a relation, which he would not speak about, however, just then, as he wished to tell him of a fire he had been at last night. "A fire, lad; was it a big one?" "Ay, that it was; a case o' burnin'-out almost; _and there were lives saved_," said the boy with a look of triumph; "and that's more than you can say you've seen, though you _are_ a fireman." "Well, you know I have not been long in the brigade, Willie, and as the escapes often do their work before the engines come up, I've not had much chance yet of seeing lives saved. How was it done?" With glowing eyes and flushed cheeks Willie at once launched out into a vivid description of the scene he had so recently witnessed, and dwelt particularly on the brave deeds of Conductor Forest and the tall fireman. Suddenly he looked up at his brother. "Why, what are you chucklin' at, Blazes?" "Nothing, lad. Was the fireman _very_ tall?" "That he certainly was--uncommon tall." "Something like _me_?" said Frank. A gleam of intelligence shot across the boy's face as he stopped and caught his brother by the sleeve, saying earnestly: "It wasn't _you_, Frank, _was_ it?" "It was, Willie, and right glad am I to have been in such good luck as to save Miss Auberly." Willie grasped his brother's hand and shook it heartily. "You're a brick, Blazes," said he, "and this is your birthday, an' I wish you luck an' long life, my boy. You'll do me credit yet, if you go on as you've begun. Now, I'll go right away back an' tell mother. Won't she be fit to bu'st?" "But what about your message to the relation in the City?" inquired Frank.