With these words the three visitors entered the building, and in a moment Mr. Dewsnap was in the midst of a voluble description of the workings of the service. Bruce noticed that both strangers seemed to display a more than ordinary degree of interest, and they both of them took notes of what they heard. Mr. Dewsnap, who knew as much of the department as a good many firemen, talked to them energetically and kept them interested until the company returned from the fire, and Chief Trask, alighting from his wagon, came forward to welcome his visitors. The two visitors were introduced respectively as Baron Bernstoff and the Honorable Rupert Doubter. “These gentlemen,” said Mr. Dewsnap, “have come to this country for the purpose of studying its peculiar institutions, and they are particularly desirous of learning all they can about the Fire Department of New York, the fame of which has spread through every city in Europe. The fact is, that although they are too polite to say so, I am afraid that they do not believe what has been told them in regard to the rapidity with which our companies get out to a fire when the alarm sounds. I’ve shown them as much as I can about the building and explained to them the way the alarms are sent out, but I just wish you would tell them what you know, and give them a little illustration of how things are done.” Chief Trask, like all efficient members of the service, took a just pride in his work and was never so happy as when expatiating to benighted foreigners on the wonderful efficiency of the fire brigade of New York, as compared with those of the other leading capitals of the world. “Our motto, gentlemen,” said the chief, “is to be always ready for an emergency, and when that emergency comes to meet it without an instant’s loss of time. We have just come from a fire about six or eight blocks from here, and now you will see that the men are getting ready for the next alarm.” As he spoke he directed his visitors’ attention to the truck, which by this time had been backed carefully into the quarters to its resting place in the centre of the building, while the men were leading the horses slowly up and down the street, to the admiration of a group of small boys who had been attracted to the scene by the return of the apparatus, and were now gazing upon the firemen with that profound respect which a New York boy always entertains for those superior and uniformed beings. The horses were thoroughly rubbed down and then returned to their stalls, and at the same time the men, aided by Bruce, carefully inspected the hook and ladder truck to see that nothing had been broken in their swift run, and then washed the mud from its wheels and did not leave it until it was in perfect order and ready to go out at once on parade should occasion require it.