the burning express shed.

Bart anxiously scanned his father's face. It was black and blistered but
he was breathing naturally.

"Overcome with the smoke--or tumbled and was stunned," declared the
roustabout.

Excited approaching shouts caused the speaker to glare down the tracks.
Half a dozen people were hurrying to the scene of the fire. The
roustabout with a nervous gasp vanished in the darkness.

Bart was hovering over his father in a solicitous way as a night
watchman and a freight crew appeared on the scene. There was a volley of
excited questions and quick responses.

No means of extinguishing the flames were at hand. The newcomers
suggested getting the insensible Mr. Stirling over to the street beyond
the tracks a few hundred yards distant, where there was a drug store.

Bart ran for the hand truck on the platform, saw two of the men start
off with his father on it, and hurried back to the burning express shed.

He had hoped to save something, but one effort drove him back, realizing
the foolhardiness of repeating the experiment. The building and its
contents were doomed.

The crowd began to gather and grew with the moments. A road official
appeared on the scene. Bart made a brief, hurried explanation and ran
over to the drug store.