Page:Baseball Joe on the School Nine.djvu/176

 a ball as Baseball Joe had ever delivered. Straight and true—on and on and then—

Into the hands of the anxiously waiting man went the ball of cord. Eagerly he clutched it, while the crowd set up a great cheer.

"That's the stuff!" yelled a man in Joe's ear. "You sure are one good pitcher, my boy!"

"Never mind about that now," said the practical Joe. "Fasten on the rope. Quick!"

Willing hands did this, and Joe looked to see if the knot would not slip. He seemed to have assumed charge of the rescue operations.

"Haul up!" he yelled to the man through the newspaper megaphone. "Haul up the rope and make it fast. Then, when I give the signal, slide down."

The man waved his hands to show that he understood, and the next momnet [sic] he began pulling on the cord. The rope followed. Quickly it uncoiled from where the strands had been piled in readiness for just this. Up and up the man on the tower pulled it until he held the end of the heavy rope in his hands.

There now extended from the tower to the ground a slanting pathway of rope, such as is sometimes seen leading down into a stone quarry. It was high enough above the flames to enable a