Chapter XXXXI. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE “Well my boy what can I do for you?” _Frontispiece_ “Well, Pete, old fellow, I’ve heard of you many a time.” 8 Chief Trask explains the fire box to Bruce. 17 “For fully a minute Bruce stood looking at the house.” 47 Bruce tells Laura the story of his visit to Mr. Dexter’s house. 72 Bruce in Mr. Dewsnap’s “fire library.” 79 “Never in his life had Bruce known such a reckless ride.” 91 “She was certainly very deaf.” 98 Bruce delivers a lecture on botany. 122 “Did you get the beggars’ time?” 136 “He managed to climb out on the ladder.” 156 Laura visits Bruce in the hospital. 190 Then Laura began to cry. 202 “So you’ve been in the hospital, have you?” 225 “My mother is buried here.” 248 “Mr. Dexter * * * held out his hand for the address.” 257 “Skinny writes a letter to Mr. Korwein.” 270 “Dere’s an answer ter dat.” 286 “And so this is the business you conduct, is it?” 317 “The horses bounded to their places.” 343 “A single slip or false step on his part meant death.” 368 THE THIRD ALARM. CHAPTER I. “Do you see that boy sitting on the curbstone over the way? Well, he’s been there for the last half hour, and I’d just like to know what he’s up to. Run over, Charley, and ask him what he wants.” It was John Trask, a chief of battalion in the New York Fire Department who addressed these words to his subordinate, Charley Weyman, one pleasant afternoon in early spring, and the boy to whom he referred had been sitting for some time on the curbstone across the street from the hook and ladder company’s quarters, peering anxiously through the open door which afforded him a view of the hook and ladder truck, the horses quietly munching their hay, and, in the rear room, half a dozen firemen seated about a table talking, reading or playing checkers.