“I’ll not shake hands with you, Bruce, but I’d like to, and so would all the men at the quarters,” was Mr. Trask’s greeting as he seated himself beside the bed of the injured boy. “I don’t think that arm of yours will stand much shaking for some weeks to come, but we’re all proud of you nevertheless.” The boy’s face flushed with pleasure, and his eyes grew dim for the chief had never spoken to him in such a strain before, and besides he had fancied for a month or two past that his superior rather looked down upon him as a boy who was good for nothing except to bed down horses and make himself generally useful about the quarters. To be sure he did not quite understand why Mr. Trask should say that all the men wanted to shake hands with him, for he had but a hazy remembrance of the events of the previous day, and did not know that his name had been published in the papers with an account of his bravery in saving a boy’s life. He did not know what to say, so he simply remarked, “thank you sir.”

187The chief was silent for a moment and then went on, “well I suppose you’ve had enough of the fire department by this time, but when you get well I’ll see to it that you don’t lose anything by what you did yesterday. I had a talk with Mr. Dewsnap, and he’ll find a good position somewhere in case you don’t want to come back to the quarters again.”

Bruce’s lips quivered and an expression of dismay came into his face: “What!” he cried piteously, “leave the department the minute I begin to like it! Why, chief, what have I done that you should want to treat me in that way?”

“Then you’re not scared of the service by finding yourself laid up in a hospital, are you?” said the chief inquiringly.

“Scared out of it?” echoed the boy, “Why should I be scared out of it? I don’t remember everything that happened yesterday but I know that fire was the grandest thing I was ever at in my life. Why, I wouldn’t take all the money in the world for my experience yesterday.

“I used to hear my father tell about fires, and going into burning buildings and up on the tops of high roofs but I never had any idea of what the service really was until I found myself following the men with that big, cold, 188clammy hose in my hand. Please Chief Trask, let me stay at the quarters. I’ll do anything you want, if you’ll only let me go to fires with the men.”

“That’s right, my boy!” cried the chief heartily. “I like to hear you talk that way. I’ve been thinking for some time past that you were getting tired of the monotony of the thing and were looking out for a chance to better yourself, and then when you got hurt yesterday, I was afraid it had taken all the ambition out of you. But don’t be afraid, you can stay with us as long as you like, and as soon as you’re well again, I’ll see to it that you go out on the truck along with the rest of the men.

“That’s all I ask for, Chief,” said Bruce, eagerly, trying to raise his head from the pillow as he spoke, and then letting it fall again from sheer weakness. “The work was getting rather tiresome down there and I hated to be left alone when all the men were away at fires. But if you’ll only let me go with them, I won’t ask anything more of you.”

Then Chief Trask went away promising to come again soon, and Skinny, who had watched him closely through his small squirrel eyes, now turned and said: “Hay boss, dat was de chief of de bat’lion, I’ve seen him lots 189of times.” And it was evident from the boy’s manner that he regarded his friend and preserver with much greater respect than before.

A church clock in the neighborhood had just finished striking eleven, when Miss Ingraham the day-nurse, came to Bruce’s bedside and said, “There’s a young lady down stairs who wishes to see you; do you feel well enough to talk any more?”

A young lady to see him! Bruce wondered, who could it possibly be, and then a look came into his face that made the young lady in the white cap and plaid dress smile, for she guessed from it that it was someone in whom he was deeply interested, so she simply said “I’ll send for her to come up,” and three minutes later Bruce’s heart gave a great bound and then seemed to stand almost still as he saw Laura Van Kuren pause for a moment in the doorway and then walk directly towards his bed.

“Bruce,” she said, as she bent down beside him, “are you very much hurt? Oh I was so, so sorry when I read in the paper that you were precarious, and so I came right down to see you.”

Of course Bruce had not the slightest idea of what she meant by his being precarious, for 190he did not know that his exploit had been mentioned in the papers at all, but then Laura often used long words which she found in her favorite books, and he had become accustomed to this peculiarity of hers, and seldom inquired what she meant when the language happened to seem vague and unintelligible.

“No, I’m not badly hurt,” he answered cheerfully, “but I say, though, it was splendid of you to come down and see me and I’m ever so much obliged to you. Did you come all alone? Where’s Harry?”

“I came down here all alone,” replied the young girl solemnly, “and you mustn’t tell Harry a word about it, because I’d get into awful trouble if you did. Now promise you’ll never say a word about it.”

Bruce promised readily enough, and then Laura went on: “It would be awful if you had died without finding out the secret of your birth. Only think, you might go to Heaven and never know your own relations when you saw them there and they might be the very nicest people there too.”

Laura visits Bruce in the hospital.—Page 190.

191Bruce could not help laughing at the young girl’s serious manner of talking about what she persisted in calling the mystery of his birth. His mind was full of the fire department just then, and of the bright prospects which Chief Trask had opened to him by promising to allow him to go to all the fires just as if he were a regular member of the company. So he told Laura that at that moment he had no opportunity to pursue the investigations in which she seemed to take so much interest, but he assured her that the moment he found himself well enough to leave the hospital he would continue his search for the tall dark man with the scar across his face whom they both agreed was in some way identified with his early life.

At the end of fifteen minutes Laura went away promising to write him a letter as soon as possible, and leaving him with the cheering assurance that Harry would be down as soon as he had either learned his lessons or escaped from his tutor. Indeed during the whole of her visit she was haunted by an awful fear that her brother had clambered down the wisteria vine and might enter the door at any moment.

Harry did not appear until an hour or more after his sister had gone. Mr. Reed was with him, and they had stopped to buy a basket of fruit as a present for the injured boy. Harry was overflowing with sympathy, and Mr. Reed was very much more cordial than he had ever been before.

192“I suppose,” said the tutor as he and his pupil were taking their leave, “that you have not many friends in town to come to visit.”

“Oh, I’ve had two callers already this morning before you came,” replied Bruce; “Chief Trask came first and then—”

The boy stopped short, colored, hesitated, and then went on, “and there was another friend of mine who came. She just went away a little while ago.”

Both his visitors noticed his hesitation and Harry wondered if it could be possible that his sister had been down there ahead of him, but he said nothing to Mr. Reed of his suspicions. He resolved however to get at the truth of the matter so that he might have something fresh to taunt his sister with the next time they quarrelled.

It is doubtful if the whole city of New York contained a happier boy than the one who was lying, sorely wounded and with his eyes inflamed and almost blinded, in a narrow white cot in a common hospital ward. The sun was shining brightly through the tall windows, and the distant hum and roar of the great city sounded faintly in his ears. He knew that it would be many weeks, perhaps months, before he could hope to resume the career which had 193been interrupted so suddenly the day before, and to a boy who had never known a day’s illness in his life the prospect of a long, irksome confinement was anything but pleasant. Nevertheless, Bruce Decker felt that he had a great deal to make him happy just then.

First of all he realized that he had done his duty in f............