has the alcove!" the lady managed to cry, as she caught his arm, and
looked, oh, so pleadingly, in his boyish, determined face.

After that Jack would have risked anything in the attempt to save that
innocent little one. He rushed off without saying a word. Several put
out a hand to stop him, under the belief that it was useless, since that
portion of the building seemed to be a mass of flames by now. But Jack
dodged them just as he did when running with the ball on the football
field.

When he dashed into the house, disappearing in the volume of smoke that
poured from the open doorway, a groan went up from the great crowd; for
they doubted as to whether he would ever be seen alive again.




CHAPTER XV

THE HONOR BRAND


"He's gone!"

"Who was that boy?" called the foreman of the fire company, as he came
running up, waving his speaking trumpet.

"Jack Stormways, the lumber man's boy!" some one answered.

"Well, he's a good one, all right; but I'm sorry for his mother!" said