Larry dared not wait another moment. He stepped quickly to the door and called out: "Joe, come here a moment!" "Yes, my lad." The furnace door closed with a clang. The fireman paused to pull at an iron rod that was suspended against the wall, and the short, quick roar of the five-minute whistle sounded. Larry had wheeled about the instant he saw Joe start in obedience to his call, and he was in time to see Croly again in the act of seizing the valve-gear. Without an instant's hesitation, he took hold of the wheel, and held it firmly, at the same time calling: "Quick, Joe!" The big fireman appeared, and his single eye looked from the face of the boy to that of Croly. "Did'st thee want me, lad?" he asked, in his gruff tones. "I want you to take this fellow away from the engine before we're all blown out of the building to pay for his carelessness," Larry answered. Cuttle's one eye glared upon Steve Croly, and the latter retreated, with a look of grim defiance. "He's away from the engine, lad," said Joe; "and, noo, what else would'st have me do wi' him? A'll frowd him oot, if thou'd give the wud." "If he will go out without help, all right; if not, you may boost him a little, if you wish to, Joe," said Larry, who had resolved to get rid of the dangerous loiterer, this time for good, if possible. "Git owd wi' thee!" ordered the big fireman, making a sudden and furious feint of seizing the intruder. This was more than Steve Croly had bargained for. It was very well to come in and attempt to defy a boy, of whom he was envious, but quite another thing to face the powerful fireman, whose bare, brown arms and single gleaming eye lent him a most formidable aspect. And so, without waiting to see how Larry went to work to set the great engine in motion, Steve hurried down the steps and across the boiler-room, not even looking back while he heard the fireman's heavy boots clumping along the stone floor. Joe did not attempt to follow the other outside. He turned back, with a grimace which was intended for a smile, but which made his face look uglier than ever; and a moment after the whistle sent forth its final roar, which was the signal for every man and boy in the vast works to be in his place and to begin work. Then, with the same silent mirth distorting his features, the fireman thrust his head into the engine-room and said: "He tho't he'd go, lad; and A doon't think he'll coom back in a hurry." Larry had started the great engine, and the silent, powerful strokes told him that his father had left it in its accustomed perfect order. The young engineer was still agitated from his encounter with Croly, and he well knew that this was not likely to be the end of it; but he could not help but smile in response to Joe Cuttle's evident enjoyment of the affair. "He didn't fancy having you put your grip onto him," said Larry, for the big fireman relished a bit of flattery as well as any one.