"Come, give me your hand, and step out on the ladder," cried Tom to
the teacher.

"I-- I can't!" gasped Miss Harrow. And now the youth saw that she was
almost paralyzed from fright. She clung desperately to the window
sill, evidently unable to move. Clinging to the ladder with his left
hand, Tom placed his right foot on the window sill, and then he
reached down and caught the teacher under the arm.

"Come, you don't want to stay here," he ordered, almost sternly, and
pulled the teacher to her feet.

"Oh, oh, we'll fall! I can't do it!" were her gasped-out words.

"You've got to do it-- unless you want to be burned up. Now then, if
you don't want to climb down the ladder, let me carry you."

"I-- I-- oh-- I can't move!" And with these words, the teacher sank
down across the window sill.

A sudden change in the wind drove a cloud of smoke into Tom's face,
and for the moment he and the teacher were hidden from the view of
those below.

"Oh, look! Tom will be burned up!" screamed Nellie.

"No, he won't," returned Sam, reassuringly. "He knows what he is
doing." Nevertheless, Sam was as anxious as anyone over his brother's
safety.