The young chief ran forward, telling Cole to look after the engine. As he did so sheets of flame burst from the windows of the extension, on which the aged watchman stood. "Get a ladder!" shouted Bert. "It's the only way he can get down! Fetch a ladder, boys!" One was found, and quickly raised against the extension in a place where the flames had not yet broken out. Bert was up it in a second, while some of his comrades held the end on the ground, to steady it. [Illustration: "Don't drop the child!" he called to Bert.] "Come on! I'll help you down!" cried Bert to the old man. "I--I can't!" was the quavering answer, "I've got rheumatism so I can hardly move, and I'm stiff from fright!" "You must!" insisted Bert. "This place will be all ablaze in another minute! Here, give me the little girl! I'll carry her down, and help you!" "You--you can't do it!" "Yes, I can. Give her to me! Come on!" Bert took off his coat. Then he wrapped the little girl, who was motionless from fright, in the garment. Next he tied the sleeves together, making a bundle with the little girl inside, but leaving an opening through which she could breathe. Then, holding the precious burden in one arm, with the other he assisted the old man toward the edge of the roof. "Go down the ladder!" cried the young chief. "I can't!" complained the aged watchman. "You must. The roof is giving way! Quick!" The man gave one frightened look back, and then, trembling with fear, he started to descend the ladder. "Don't--don't drop the child!" he called to Bert. "I'll not! Hurry! It's getting too hot here!" The flames were now coming through the roof of the extension. When the man was part way down the ladder, Bert, holding the little girl close to him, started to follow. "Give him a hand!" he cried to some of the young firemen on the ground, and two of them came up the rounds to aid the watchman. The old man reached the ground in safety, and Bert, with the child, was half way down the ladder when, from a window, past which he would have to climb, there burst out a terrible sheet of flame. CHAPTER XXIV AN ENCOUNTER WITH MUCHMORE For an instant the crowd was horror-struck. It seemed that the brave young chief, and the little girl, must perish. For it was next to impossible to pass through that sheet of flame unharmed. The mass of superheated air, generated by the varnishes and other material in the extension, was forcing the flame out from the window in the shape of a great fan. The ladder was beginning to blaze. Bert paused and looked down to the ground. The distance was not too great for him to jump, had he been alone, but, with the child, it might mean that both would be seriously injured.