"How the mischief did the fire break out?" inquired the professor,
handing up another bucket.
"Nobody knows. The mistress first found it out. She was woke up
a-smelling of smoke, and screeched out, and alarmed the house, and all
run out here. Be careful there, Jovial! Don't be afraid of singing your
old wool nor breaking your old neck either! because if you did you'd
only be saving the hangman and the devil trouble. Go nearer to that
window! dash the water full upon the flames!"
"Are all safe out of the house?" anxiously inquired the professor.
"Every soul!" was the satisfactory answer.
At this moment Ishmael came running up with the hose, exclaiming: "Here, professor! if you will take this end, I will run and put the
sucker to the spout of the pump."
"Good fellow, be off then!" answered Morris.
The hose was soon adjusted and played into the burning room.
At this moment there was a sudden outcry from the group of women and
children, and the form of Mrs. Middleton was seen flying through the
darkness towards the firemen.
"Oh, Grainger!" she cried, as soon as she had reached the spot, "oh,
Grainger! the Burghe boys are still in the house. I thought they had
been out! I thought I had seen them out but it was two negro boys I
mistook in the dark for them! I have just found out my mistake! Oh,
Grainger, they will perish! What is to be done?"
"'Pends on what room they're in, ma'am," hastily replied the overseer,
while all the others stood speechless with intense anxiety.
"Oh, they are in the front chamber there, immediately above the burning
room!" cried Mrs. Middleton, wringing her hands in anguish, while those
around suspended their breath in horror.
"More than a man's life would be worth to venture, ma'am. The ceiling of
that burning room is on fire; it may fall in any minute, carrying the
floor of the upper room with it!"
"Oh, Grainger! but the poor, poor lads! to perish so horribly in their
early youth!"
"It's dreadful, ma'am; but it can't be helped! It's as much as certain
death to any man as goes into that part of the building!"
"Grainger! Grainger! I cannot abandon these poor boys to their fate!
Think of their mother! Grainger, I will give any man his freedom who
will rescue those two boys! It is said men will risk their lives for
that. Get up on the ladder where you can be seen and heard and proclaim
this--shout it forth: 'Freedom to any slave who will save the Burghe
boys!'"
The overseer climbed up the ladder, and after calling the attention of
the whole mob by three loud whoops and waiting a moment until quiet was
restored, he shouted: "Freedom to any slave who will save the Burghe boys from the burning
building!"