Life in the Red Brigade, Robert Michael Ballantyne [children's books read aloud txt] 📗

and in another moment a wild enthusiastic cheer burst from the vast multitude as he leaped into the street.

Laying Martha gently down on a doorstep, Sparks bent over her, and whispered in her ear. She appeared to have swooned, but opened her eyes, and gazed earnestly in the face of her deliverer.

"The Lord must have sent you to save me, Phil; He will save _you_ also, if you will trust Him."

"Forgive me, Martha, I was hard on you, but--"

"God bless you, Phil--"

"Clear the way there," cried a commanding voice; "here, doctor, this way."

The crowd opened. A medical man came forward and examined Martha, and pronounced her to be only slightly injured. Several men then raised her and carried her towards a neighbouring house. Phil Sparks was about to follow, but the quiet man with the broad shoulders touched him gently on the arm, and said that he was "wanted."

"Sorry to interrupt you in such a good work, but it can't be helped. Other people can take care of her now, you know; come along."

Sparks' first impulse was to knock the quiet man down and fly, but he felt a restraining power on his other arm, and, looking round, observed a tall policeman at his side. As if by magic, another tall policeman appeared in front of him, and a third behind him. He suddenly bent down his head and suffered himself to be led away. Seeing this, the Bloater and Little Jim wrenched themselves from the grasp of their respective captors, dived between the legs of the bystanders, as eels might do among sedges, and vanished, to their own inexpressible delight and the total discomfiture of the "bobbies." They met a few minutes later at a well-known rendezvous.

"I wish 'e 'adn't bin took," said the Bloater with a look of regret on his expressive though dirty countenance.

"Poor Martha!" said Little Jim, almost crying as he thought of her. "'Ow much d'you think 'e'll get, Bloater?"

"Twenty years at least; p'r'aps go for life; you see it's an aggrawated case. I've bin makin' partikler inquiries, and I finds 'e's bin raisin' no end o' fires doorin' the last six months--kep' the Red Brigade trottin' about quite in a surprisin' way. I rather fear that 'e'll be let in for ever an' a day."

The Bloater was not quite correct in his guess. When the trial came on, to the surprise of all, especially of his "pals," Phil Sparks pleaded _guilty_! Partly in consideration of this, and partly on account of his last courageous act in saving the girl, he was let off with fifteen years penal servitude.

But, to return from this episode. The great fire at the docks, after gutting several warehouses, was finally subdued. And what of the loss? A hundred thousand pounds did not cover it, and every insurance office in London suffered! In addition to this, several persons lost their lives, while the Red Brigade, besides having some of their number more or less severely injured, lost one of its best and bravest men.

Gallant Ned Crashington's fighting days were over. His mangled remains were gathered up next morning, and, a few days later, were conveyed by his comrades to their last resting-place.

It is no easy matter to move the heart of London. That vast nation-in-a-city has too many diverse interests to permit of the eyes of all being turned, even for a moment, upon one thing. Nevertheless the fireman's funeral seemed to cause the great cord to vibrate for a little. Hundreds of thousands of people turned out to witness the cortege. Ned's coffin was drawn, military fashion, on one of the engines peculiar to his profession, with his helmet and hatchet placed upon the lid. The whole of the force of the brigade that could be spared followed him in uniform, headed by their chief, and accompanied by a large detachment of the police force. The procession was imposing, and the notices that appeared next day in all the papers were a touching tribute of respect to the self-sacrificing fireman, who, as one of these papers said, "left a widow and son, in poor circumstances, to mourn his early death."

Ah, these things were soon forgotten in the rush of the world's business by all save that widow and son, and one or two bosom friends. Even the men of the Red Brigade _appeared_ to forget the fallen hero very soon. We say "appeared," because there were some among them who mourned Ned as a dear brother, chief among whom was Joe Dashwood. But whatever the feelings of the firemen might have been, theirs was a warfare that allowed no time for the undue indulgence or exhibition of grief. The regular "calls" and duties went on steadily, sternly, as if nothing had occurred, and before Ned's remains had lain a night in their last resting-place, many of his old comrades were out again doing fierce battle with the restless and untameable flames.


CHAPTER NINE.

Years passed away, and with them many old things vanished, while many novelties appeared, but the Red Brigade remained much as it was, excepting that it was, if possible, smarter and more energetic than ever.

In the lobby of our West-end station one pleasant summer evening, the men sat and stood about the open door beside the trim engines and _materiel_ of their profession, chatting heartily as men are won't to do when in high health and spirits. There were new faces among them, but there were also several that had long been familiar there. The stalwart form of Joe Dashwood was there, so little altered by time that there was nothing about him to tell that he was passing the period of middle-age, save a few grey hairs that mingled here and there with the dark curls on his temples. Bob Clazie was there also, but he had not stood the trials of his profession so well as Joe--probably his constitution was not so strong. A disagreeable short cough harassed him, though he made light of it. Frequent scorching, smoking, and partial suffocation had increased his wrinkles and rendered his eyelids permanently red. Nevertheless, although nearly fifty years old, Bob Clazie was still one of the best men in the Brigade.

Joe Dashwood wore a pair of brass epaulettes on his shoulders, which indicated that he had attained to the highest rank in the service, short of the chief command.

He was giving directions to one of the younger men of the force, when a tall strapping young man, with a plain but open and singularly pleasing countenance entered, and going up to him shook him warmly by the hand.

"Well, Bob, what's the news? you seem excited this evening," said Joe.

"So I am, Joe; and with good reason too, for several pleasant things have happened to-day. In the first place, my friend and patron--"

"That's the old gentleman with the ruddy face and the bald head?" interrupted Joe.

"Yes, and with the kind heart. Don't ever omit the kind heart, Joe, in your description of him, else you'll only have painted half the portrait."

"Well, but the kind heart ain't quite so visible at first sight as the ruddy face and bald head, you know."

"Perhaps not; but if you watched him long enough to see him _act_, you'd perceive the kind heart as plain as if it hung at his button-hole, and beat like a sixty-horse-power steam-engine _outside_ his ribs instead of inside," said the strapping young man with quite a glow of enthusiasm. "Oh, if you could only see how that old gentleman labours, and strives, and wears himself out, in his desire to rescue what they call our Street Arabs, you couldn't help loving him as I do. But I'm wandering from the pleasant things I've got to tell about. Through his influence my friend Jim has obtained a good appointment on the Metropolitan Railway, which gives him a much better salary than he had in Skrimp's office, and opens up a prospect of promotion; so, although it sends him underground before his natural time, he says he is quite content to be buried alive, especially as it makes the prospect of his union with a very small and exceedingly charming little girl with black eyes, not quite so remote as it was. In the second place, you'll be glad to hear that the directors of the insurance office with which I am connected have raised my salary, influenced thereto by the same old gentleman with the ruddy face, bald head, and kind heart--"

"Coupled with your own merits, Bob," suggested Joe.

"I know nothing about _that_," replied the strapping young man with a smile, "but these pleasant pieces of good fortune have enabled me and Jim to carry out a plan which we have long cherished--to lodge together, with Martha Reading as our landlady. In truth, anticipating some such good fortune as has been sent to us, we had some time ago devoted part of our savings to the purpose of rescuing poor Martha from that miserable needlework which has been slowly killing her so long. We have taken and furnished a small house, Martha is already installed as the owner, and we go there to-night for the first time, as lodgers."

"You don't say so!" exclaimed Joe, laughing; "why, Bob, you and your friend act with as much promptitude as if you had been regularly trained in the Fire-Brigade."

"We received much of our training _from_ it, if not _in_ it," returned the strapping young man with the plain but pleasant countenance. "Don't you remember, Joe, how perseveringly we followed you in former days when _I_ was the Bloater and _he_ was Little Jim?"

"Remember it! I should think I do," replied Joe. "How glad my Mary will be when she hears what you have done."

"But that's not all my news," continued the Bloater, (if we may presume to use the old name). "Last, but not least, Fred has asked me to be his groom's-man. He wrote me a very pathetic letter about it, but omitted to mention the day--not to be wondered at in the circumstances. Poor Fred, his letter reminded me of the blotted copies which I used to write with such trouble and sorrow at the training school to which my patron sent me."

"There's reason for the blotted letter besides the excitement of his approaching marriage," said Joe. "He hurt his hand the last fire he attended, and it's in a sling just now, so he must have taken it out, for temporary duty when he wrote to you. The truth is that Fred is too reckless for a fireman. He's scarcely cool enough. But I can inform you as to the day; it is Thursday next. See that you are up to time, Bob."

"No fear of me being late," replied the Bloater. "By the way, have you heard of that new method of putting out fires that somebody has invented?"

"I did hear of some nonsensical plan," replied Joe, with a slight expression of contempt, "but I don't think it worth while to pay attention to things o' this sort. There's nothin' can beat good cold water."

"I'm not so sure of that, Joe," replied his friend gravely. "I have been reading an account of it in the _Insurance Guardian_, and it seems to me that