Larry was eating supper that night he happened to glance out of the window. He saw an unusual light in the sky, and first took it for a glow from some gas furnace or smelting works across on the Jersey shore. But, as he watched, the light grew more brilliant, and there was a cloud of smoke and a shower of sparks.
“That's a big fire!” he exclaimed, jumping up.
“You're not going to it, are you, Larry?” asked his mother.
“I think I'd better,” he replied. “Most of the men are working to-night, and none of them may go to the blaze. If we want a good story we must be right on the spot. So I think I'll go, though I may find Mr. Newton or someone else covering it.”
“Well, be careful, and don't go too near,” cautioned Mrs. Dexter, who was quite nervous.
“I'll look out for myself,” said Larry, with all the assurance lads usually have.
“Take me to the fire, I'll help you report it,” begged Jimmy.
“Not to-night,” answered Larry. “It's probably a good way off, and you'd get tired.”
“Then you can carry me,” spoke the little fellow, ready to cry at not being allowed to go.
“You stay here, and I'll tell you a story,” promised Lucy, who had grown to be a strong, healthy girl since the surgical operation. “I'll tell you about Jack the Giant Killer.”
“Will you truly?” cried Jimmy. “Then I don't care about the old fire.”
He climbed up into his sister's lap, and soon was deeply interested in the story. Larry got on his hat and coat, and started out on the run. He found a big crowd in the street, hurrying toward the fire.
“They say it's a gas tank,” said someone.
“I heard it was an armory,” remarked another.
“It's neither; it's a big hotel, and about a hundred people are burned to death,” put in a third.
“Whatever it is, it's surely a big fire,” was a fourth man's response as he started to run.
Larry wanted to get to the fire in a hurry, so he asked the first policeman he met where the blaze was. Learning that it was well up town, though the glare in the sky made it seem nearer, Larry decided to get on an elevated train to save a long walk.
As he neared the scene he could see the sky growing brighter, and the cloud of smoke increasing in volume. The trail of sparks across the heavens became larger. Down in the street an ever-increasing throng was hastening toward the conflagration.
Larry dashed from the train as it slacked up at the station nearest the fire. He ran down the stairs, and through the streets. As he came into view of the blaze he saw it was a big store, which was a mass of fire. It evidently had secured a good start, as every window was belching tongues of yellow flame.
Larry found a crowd of policemen lined up some distance away from the conflagration, keeping people back of the fire lines. Fortunately Larry had a newspaper badge with him, and the sight of this, with a statement that he was from the Leader, soon gained him admittance within the cordon.
He could not but think of the first time he had been at a fire in New York, how he had helped Mr. Newton, and, incidentally, got his place on the paper.
But there was no time for idle speculation. The fire was making rapid headway, and, in response to a third and fourth alarm that the chief had sent in, several more engines were thundering up, and taking their places near water hydrants, their whistles screeching shrilly, and the horses prancing and dancing on the stones from which their iron-shod hoofs struck sparks in profusion.
Larry made a quick circle of the building, which occupied an entire block, but failed to see any reporters from the Leader. He knew it was only chance that would bring them to the place, since most of them had assignments in different parts of the city.
“I guess I'll have to cover this all alone,” thought Larry. “And it's going to be a big job.”
In fact, it was one of the worst and largest fires New York ever had. It was no small task for several reporters to cover it, and for a young and inexperienced one to undertake it was almost out of the question. But Larry decided that he would do his best.
He went at it in a business-like way, noting the size and general shape of the building, and how the fire was spreading. Then he found how many engines were on hand, and from a group of policemen, who had nothing in particular to do except keep the throng back, Larry learned that the fire had been discovered in the basement about half an hour before. One of the bluecoats told how two janitors in the place had been obliged to slide down a rope, as they were caught by the flames on a side of the building where there were no fire escapes.