Berry laughed.
"Why, you are his pal. Go along! I'll get Jerry to attend to you."
Lemuel slunk downstairs with Williams. "Look here, mate," said the
rogue; "I guess I ha'n't used you just right."
Lemuel expected himself to cast the thief off with bitter rejection.
But he heard himself saying hopelessly, "Go away, and try to behave
yourself," and then he saw the thief make the most of the favour of
heaven and vanish through the crowd.
He would have liked to steal away too; but he remained, and began
mechanically helping again wherever he saw help needed. By and by
Berry came out; Lemuel thought that he would tell some policeman to
arrest him; but he went away without speaking to any one.
In an hour the firemen had finished their share of the havoc, and
had saved the building. They had kept the fire to the elevator-shaft
and the adjoining wood-work, and but for the water they had poured
into the place the ladies might have returned to their rooms, which
were quite untouched by the flames. As it was, Lemuel joined with
Jerry in fetching such things to them as their needs or fancies
suggested; the refugees across the way were finally clothed by their
efforts, and were able to quit their covert indistinguishable in
dress from any of the other boarders.
The crowd began to go about its business. The engines had
disappeared from the little street with exultant shrieks; in the
morning the insurance companies would send their workmen to sweep
out the extinct volcano, and mop up the shrunken deluge, preparatory
to ascertaining the extent of the damage done; in the meantime the
police kept the boys and loafers out of the building, and the order
that begins to establish itself as soon as chaos is confessed took
possession of the ruin.
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