The four unconscious men were laid out upon cots, drawn up in the reading room. Doctor Bray, college physician, and several students, were busy working over them. A great crowd stood in front of the dormitory, not allowed to enter. Judd fought his way through the crowd and stepped in at the door, his face black from smoke and the upper portion of his nightshirt drenched. Oole halted him. "You can't go in there!" Cries of, "Hold him!" "What do you think you are?" "Keep him out!" came from the crowd. "Cateye,--he's my room-mate!" said Judd, simply, and pushed Oole aside as though he were a mere toy. Oole, remembering how narrowly he escaped fate at the powerful hands of Judd once before, offered no resistance. "Come on! You let him in. Let us in!" some student shouted. "Sure! He's no better than any of us!" "Shut up, you guys!" bellowed Oole. "Cateye's in there and he's Rube's room-mate! Guess he has a right to go in." "I should say he has!" echoed Reynolds, coming up. "That guy put out the fire and saved some lives besides!" "What! Rube put out the fire?" "Sure he did! There were only five of us on the third floor who weren't suffocated. That was the nastiest, thickest smoke I ever got into! Benz and Mann both woke up and went out the window after yelling fire." "Benz and Mann! The yellow,--" began somebody, but stopped short when he saw the two fellows standing shamefacedly in the crowd. "Rube let down Cateye, Potts, and Pole, and then got out the hose," went on Reynolds, the crowd listening eagerly. "About this time I woke up and when I got the first whiff of smoke I lost my head. Rube saw me, told me what to do, and McCabe and I lowered all the other fellows while Rube fought the fire. Some of the guys were half awake but so stupid that they didn't know what they were doing so we hoisted them out the window anyhow. Thanks to Rube the dorm is saved and I guess the fellows will be none the worse for their experiences." "Bravo!" "Good work, all of you!" "Rube is some boy!" Benz turned about and walked away. "Rube again!" he muttered, angrily. "The lucky stiff!" * * * * * Cateye came to with a start, looked about and saw Judd. "For the love of mud, Judd, never choke me like that again. Why,--you almost killed me!" "Choke you, Cateye? I never choked you!" protested Judd, "You were in a fire, pal, an' the only thing I did was to shove you out the window." "Fire! Where? When?" Cateye sat up, then laid back again, weakly. "About three quarters of an hour ago. A little smudge at the dorm. You were suffocated,--" "So you didn't choke me after all," said Cateye, much relieved, feeling of his throat. "My, that was an awful dream! Gee! I smell like a piece of smoked ham! Say, who are those guys?" indicating the fellows on the other cots, over whom Doctor Bray was still working.