"The house is on fire!" shrieked the woman in a frenzied voice.
Smoke rolled down into the room, and the acrid fumes grew sharper.
"The house is on fire, and my baby is up-stairs!"
"Where?" demanded Peggy.
"In the room above this!" groaned the woman, taking a few steps and then
fainting.
"Jess," cried Peggy in a tense voice, "take that bucket and get water from
that pump in the corner and then follow me."
"But the boys!" gasped Jess.
"They are only stunned. I saw Jimsy's arm move just now, and the
lieutenant is breathing."
With these words, she started from the room, darting up a narrow stairway
leading from one end of the kitchen to the upper regions.
"What are you going to do?" shouted Jess, her voice shaky with alarm.
"Save that child if I can," flung back Peggy, plunging bravely up the
smoke-laden stairway.
In the unfamiliar house, and half blinded and choked by smoke and
sulphurous fumes, Peggy had a hard task before her. But she pluckily
plunged forward, feeling her way by the walls, and keeping her head low,
where the smoke was not so thick. As she reached what she deemed was the
top of the staircase, she thought she heard a tiny voice crying out in
alarm.
Following the direction of the sounds, she staggered along a hallway and
then reeled into an open door.
Pages:
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44