The stranger was tall and slight, his figure muffled in a long fur-lined overcoat. A dark derby hat was drawn low over his brows, but the professor caught a glimpse of a pale, dark face with wild, gleaming dark eyes and mustached lips curved in a demoniac expression of terrible cruelty. Then he flashed past, and Doepkin hurried on, exclaiming: “Percy Seabright! But what an expression! It was that of a madman!” He turned the corner toward Mrs. Vale’s house, then suddenly he saw that the whole neighborhood was illuminated by a glare of light as bright as noonday. In another moment he saw fiery flames and smoke bursting out of the windows of Italy’s home, wrapping the whole house in a winding-sheet of flame. A loud and prolonged shriek divided the shuddering midnight air. “Fire! Fire! Fire!” In an incredibly short space of time the street began to fill up with a shouting, gesticulating throng of human beings. The fire-bells rang, and soon the fire-engines came clattering upon the scene. But the fire had gained such rapid headway that it was feared the inmates could not escape. In the meantime Professor Doepkin had rushed to the rear of the house, trying to make an entrance. In vain, for the back of the building was a more solid mass of flame than the front. People said afterward that there had never been the equal of Professor Doepkin’s splendid daring. He helped the firemen to batter in the front doors, and then, with a blanket over his head, rushed into the house and disappeared in the black smoke that filled the broad hallway. “The fellow must be crazy! He will never come out alive!” declared the firemen unanimously. But they were mistaken. After about ten minutes of keen suspense, while the engines played rapidly on the doomed building, he reappeared, staggering down the marble steps with a white, senseless figure in his arms. Eager hearts went to his assistance, and the woman he had rescued was tenderly cared for; but when he had looked once on the fair face and streaming, golden hair he cried out wildly: “My God!” And before any one could prevent him, he rushed back into that holocaust of smoke and flame. “Poor fellow! there is some one that he loves inside that house. He must have rescued the wrong one,” cried one compassionate person. “He is a hero!” cried another. “But he has lost his senses, or he would never have gone back. The roof will fall in before he gets out. When the experienced firemen will not enter a burning building, you may always know that there is great danger,” cried out another croaker. And indeed no one could blame them. The house was wrapped in vivid flame, and the efforts of the firemen began to be directed to saving the adjacent buildings. Suddenly a prolonged cheer from a thousand throats rent the midnight air.