Well he might make the suggestion. For all this had taken time. As we labored to free each other we had heard an excited hubbub gathering outside, the wail of fire sirens had sounded, the yammer of voices raised in command, and a stream of water was already beginning to play upon one wall. But in the meantime, the fire had gained headway. The walls of this room were ruddy sheets of flame. The narrow circle of safety in which we stood was rapidly dwindling. And my skin was beginning to crack and blister with oven-fierce heat. I croaked despairingly, "But how, Hank? We're free, yes! But the doors are still locked, and the windows--" "Why, the skylight, Jim!" drawled Hank. "That's our exit--Hey! Grab him!" I whirled just in time to catch the falling frame of government agent Grimper. The thin man had come to an end of his endurance. His heart was stout and courageous out of all proportion to his physical makeup. With a stifled cry he had fainted dead away! * * * * * Well, there you are! One moment we were on our road to a Happy Ending, and _bing!_--all of a sudden the Three Gray Ladies slap us in the puss with a damp mackerel! I stared at Hank fearfully, and moistened parched lips. "Wh-what will we do with him, Hank? W-we can't just leave him here to die!" Hank stroked a lean and thoughtful jaw. "Sort o' complicates matters, don't it?" he queried. "Let's see--we couldn't h'ist him up, could we?" I said bitterly, "_I_ can't, Hank. I hate to admit it--but I'd be a damned liar if I pretended otherwise. I'm so weak, and my armpits so badly strained, that it will be all I can do to lift myself. Can--can you?" Hank shook his head miserably. "Nup. I didn't _jump_ off'n that chain just now, Jim, I _fell_ off. Hangin' up there like jerked meat wrenched somethin' in my back. I calc'late I c'n climb that chain myself, but I couldn't h'ist nobody else's weight. "Wait a minute! _Weight!_" He repeated the word more loudly. A gleam brightened in his eye. "Sure! Dead weight! That's the answer! Here--gimme a hand, Jim. We got to lash him to one strand o' this pulley-chain. Use them ropes. Got it? Okay--tie him tight, now." "He--he's tied!" I puffed. The smoke was beginning to get me now. Tears were coursing down my cheeks. Time was getting perilously short. "W-what do we do next?" "Git on the other end o' that chain," ordered Hank, "an' _climb_!" "W-what? And leave him dangling here below? But it only saves our lives, Hank! See, the flames are right on us. We won't have time to reach the skylight and haul him up--" "_Do whut I tell you!_" roared Hank, "_An' hurry!_" There was more vehemence in his voice than I'd heard at any previous time. It shocked, startled me into activity. I leaped for the side of the draw-chain opposite to that upon which Grimper was hanging limp; began climbing like a monkey, hand-over-hand. The dangling chain drew taut above me, and I saw that Hank, too, was climbing. I looked for Grimper--