Page:Baseball Joe on the School Nine.djvu/168

156 one look below him and crowded closer to the outer edge of the tower.

"Look out! Don't jump!" someone cried.

"We'll save you!" shouted the chief. "Get the ladder, boys! Lively now!"

Scores of willing ones raced to the wagon and began pulling out the ladders. They were the extension kind, and could be made quite long. Several men ran with one toward the building.

"Not that side! The flames are too hot! You can't raise it there!" cried the chief. "Try around back!"

The men obeyed but a moment later there came a disappointing shout:

"Too short! The ladder's too short! Get a longer one!"

"That's the longest we've got!" answered the chief.

"Then splice two together!" urged some one, but the suggestion could hardly have been carried out with safety. No one knew what to do. The flames were mounting higher and higher, bursting out on all sides now, so that in a few moments, even had there been a ladder long enough to reach to the man, it could not have been raised against the building.

"Help! Help!" continued to call the