But remarkable things sometimes do happen in real life, and now, just as both engines were slowing down, while their captains looked anxiously about them as if in search of something, Bruce saw a grin of delight chase the clouds from Captain Murphy’s face, and then a sharp word of command caused the driver to come to a sudden stop close to the curb, and there stood Mr. Peter Dewsnap leaning carelessly on an ash barrel and waving his hand to Captain Murphy. In an instant the barrel was lifted from the sidewalk and hurled into the street, and then Bruce saw to his surprise that it had been placed over the hydrant for which both captains were looking, and all at once he realized that Mr. Dewsnap, who was a particular friend of Captain Murphy’s, had placed it there and mounted guard over it in order to prevent the other company from getting their stream on first. Captain Baker saw through the game, but just too late, for before he could reach the spot the engineer had his coupling attached and the men were beginning to stretch hose. “You stay with the tender until I send for you!” cried Captain Murphy, as he disappeared through the crowd. CHAPTER XVII. It was the first dangerous fire that Bruce had ever witnessed, and, having tied the horses to a convenient tree, he climbed up on the tender in order to get a good view of what was going on. A slight blaze had started in some cotton waste in a five-story brick building used for manufacturing purposes, and by the time the firemen arrived the smoke was pouring out of the upper windows in dense clouds, while the workmen and women were escaping, bareheaded, to the street, many of them coming through the big door on the ground floor, while others, in their anxiety to save themselves, came crashing through the lower windows and jumped to the sidewalk, heedless of the flying splinters of glass. The fire-escape, a series of iron balconies connected by ladders, was by this time crowded with frightened women making the best of their way to the ground, and it seemed to Bruce’s excited mind that the whole building must be full of human beings and that many of them would inevitably perish before aid could reach them.