Yet he felt that if he got
out of the building with his burden he would have to make haste. There
were doors along the corridor, and he knew that they opened into rooms.
He put Merriwell down, and finding the first door locked, kicked it in
with his foot.
The room was full of smoke, but the fire had not yet entered it. Hodge
hastily tore from the bed a big double blanket, and retreated with it
into the corridor. This blanket he wound round Merriwell's face and
shoulders and hands; then lifted Frank again, protecting himself with
the folds of the blanket as well as he could as he did so. Thus dragging
Merriwell, he stumbled toward the hell of fire that roared in the
stairway.
There was a jarring sound, and for a moment it seemed that the whole
building was tumbling down round his ears. A section of the rear wall
had fallen outward, and the part of the hotel containing the kitchen was
a burning wreck. Bart hardly heard the sound, so absorbed was he in the
task before him. He did not feel Merriwell's weight--in fact, his
strength seemed to be as great as Browning's.
"Frank!" he cried, in his heart--"Frank, my dearest friend, if I can't
carry you out, we'll die together!"
The fire in the stairway had greatly increased. But Hodge did not
hesitate.
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