"`B-B-B-Brompton,' `B-B-B-Bayswater!' they shouted together; and then, turnin' fiercely on each other, the one said `N-N-N-No!' and the other said `N-N-N-No!' `Now, _which_ is it?' said Dale, `an' _be_ quick--do.' "`B-B-B-Brompton!' "`B-B-B-Bayswater!' in a breath; then says one, `I--I s-s-say _Brompton_!' an' the other, he says, `I--I s-s-say _Bayswater_!' "At this they grew furious, and Dale tried to calm them and settle the question by asking the name of the street. "`W-W-Walton S-Street!' cried one. "`P-P-P-Porchester T-T-Terrace!' shouted the other. "`N-N-No!' `Y-Y-Yes!' `N-No!' an' with that, one up fist an' hit the other a crack between the eyes. T'other returned on the nob, and then they closed. "Before this Mr Dale had ordered out one o' the engines, an' when he heard the two streets named it occurred to him that there might be _two_ fires, so he ordered out the other engine; and before we got the stutterers separated both engines were off full swing, one to Brompton, the other to Bayswater; but whether there are two fires or no is yet to be seen." Just as Baxmore concluded, the rattle of a returning engine was heard. Next moment it dashed up to the door, and the firemen, leaping off, streamed into the station, where; amid much comment and some laughter at the scene they had so recently witnessed, they hung up their helmets and crowded round the fire. "So it _was_ in Brompton, after all," said Jack Williams, stirring the coals; "but it was a small affair in a baker's shop, and we soon got it out." "Is the other engine back?" inquired Moxey. "Here she comes to answer for herself," said Mason, as the second engine dashed up to the station, and the men were joined by their comrades. "We've got it out," said Dale, sitting down before the desk to enter the particulars in his diary; "it was a private house, and well alight when we got there, but the Paddington engine was playing on it, and we soon got it under." "Faix, it's well them stutterers didn't kape us longer, else the whole house would have bin burnt out intirely," observed Joe Corney, binding up a slight wound in his thumb, which he had received from a splinter. Most of the men were more or less begrimed with charcoal and smoke, and otherwise bore marks of their recent sharp though short skirmish, but none of them deemed it necessary to remove these evidences of devotion to duty until they had refreshed themselves with a pipe. "Were there people in the house?" inquired Frank. "Ay, but Pickford was there with the escape, an' got 'em all out before we came up," said one. "Pickford said he couldn't help laughing after he got 'em out, at the remembrance o' their faces. When he first went in they was all sound asleep in the top floor, for the smoke was only beginnin' to show there, an' the surprise they got when he jump in among 'em an' shouted was wonderful to behold."