“A fireman is always on duty, you know,” the chief explained. “Only one or two men go out to their meals at a time, so we are never left short-handed. At any moment a bad fire may break out, and we must be ready. For a big fire we have what we call second and third alarms. At a first alarm only four engines go to a fire. If I see when I reach the spot that it is likely to be a bad fire, I send in a second alarm, and that brings four more engines. If it is very dangerous, I send also a third alarm, and that calls four more; twelve in all. Besides these there is what we call the general alarm, 666, which calls every engine in the city--more than a hundred of them. But I hope we will never have occasion to use that.” “Well, I’m sure to see how you work at a fire,” Dick said, “as I am to stay till I have a chance to go out with you.” “You might possibly have to wait a day or two,” the chief answered; “but often we go out three or four times in a day and night.” When Dick went downstairs again he discovered on one side of the big room a dial telegraph instrument with which the foreman communicated with headquarters; and on the slate that hung by it he read this message, which evidently had just been sent:-- “Richard Sumner has presented an order to remain here and accompany apparatus to fires. Is it genuine?” “Ah, ha!” he laughed; “they’re not going to be caught napping with any forged order. I think it’s the most perfectly organized system I ever saw.” “How do you get up steam so fast in the boiler?” he asked the foreman. “Of course you must be ready for work when you reach a fire.” “I’ll show you,” the foreman replied. “To begin with, the boiler of the engine has two hundred and sixty flues, and that gives great heating surface. Then you see this pipe that comes up through the floor and fits over a corresponding pipe at the back of the engine? When the engine is backed in, the two pipes run together, and when it goes out they separate and automatic valves close them up. “Well, that pipe runs down into the cellar and connects with a furnace there in which a fire is always kept burning. The hot water runs up into the boiler, so, as you will easily see, the water in the boiler is always hot. That is a great help in making steam quickly. The furnace alone gives heat enough to keep five pounds of steam pressure always on the boiler. “Then we burn English cannel coal, at twenty dollars a ton, because it is full of oil and burns rapidly. The engine’s furnace is piled full of combustible wood soaked in oil, with a layer of cannel coal on top--always ready to start a quick fire. The engineer has a little torch made of tow fastened to a bit of wood, with a fusee stuck in the end. The fusee will not blow out in the hardest wind, and the instant the engine goes out the door the engineer strikes it against the wheel and touches off his fire. Inside of two minutes he has a hundred pounds of steam on.” At that moment the battalion chief joined them.