now it so happened that at the very moment when bruce was lying on his back in a ward of the new york hospital, a very pretty young girl, whose name might have been on his lips at that painful point of his career, was walking along a shady garden path, with her arms about the waist of a young girl of her own age and equally pretty. one of these young girls, as the least intelligent of my readers may guess, was laura van kuren; the other was her particular friend, kitty harriott. as they walked they turned their heads toward one another and seemed engrossed in an eager conversation.

“hush!” exclaimed kitty, as she laid a warning hand on her friend’s arm. “harry might be around somewhere, and i wouldn’t have him hear us for the world.”

“harry’s upstairs finishing his lessons, so you’ll have to put up with me until mr. reed lets him loose. he got kept in to-day as usual, but i dare say if he knew you were here he’d climb out of the window and come down into the garden as he did last week.”

179kitty colored slightly at laura’s words, and then observed with a show of carelessness, “i’m sure it’s a matter of perfect indifference to me whether i see him or not. boys are nuisances anyway, and besides i wouldn’t have him hear what we’re saying for all the money in the world.”

what laura and kitty were talking about will probably never be known, at any rate it does not materially concern the readers of this book. they were discussing some affairs of their own, and there are no secrets or mysteries in the world which are invested with the solemn importance that young girls of fourteen or fifteen bestow upon those which they whisper about as they walk through a garden arm and arm, and with heads bent close together. they were so absorbed in their talk that they were startled to hear a familiar voice calling to them from one of the upper windows of the house, and they looked up to see harry climb over the sill and then descend like a young monkey to the ground, by means of the wisteria vine, to the great terror of kitty, who had no brothers of her own and who fairly screamed with fright when harry pretended to miss his hold of the vine, dropped two or three feet and then caught himself cleverly and slid down the rest of the way, with ease and rapidity.

180“mercy!” cried kitty to laura who had watched her brother with apparent indifference, “i don’t see how you can stand there like that and look at him. suppose he should fall and break his head, how would you feel then?”

“pshaw!” exclaimed laura carelessly, “he only does that to show off because you’re here. i knew he’d be out here the minute he caught sight of us. got your lessons yet, harry?” she continued, addressing herself to her brother as he joined them.

“bother the lessons!” was the boy’s reply, “i’ve got something a great deal more interesting, that i might tell you about if i wanted to. it’s something that you, particularly, miss laura, would be glad to know.”

“well, what is it?” asked his sister indifferently, “is it anything very important?”

“important enough to be in the newspaper and for me to go right down town to see about it,” rejoined her brother.

“tell me, what it is, harry, won’t you please?” said kitty, in the pleading way which she knew he could not resist, and in reply harry produced a copy of the new york herald, which he had been hiding behind his back, carefully folded it, and then, holding it in front of the young girls’ faces, permitted them 181to read a single sentence before he snatched the paper away again. what they read was: “the name of the injured fireman is bruce decker. he was removed to the new york hospital, where he now lies in a precarious condition.”

kitty turned toward laura, whose face was white and whose teeth were tightly clinched. “isn’t it dreadful?” she cried, as she threw her arm about her friend’s waist.

“let me see the rest of it, harry!” cried laura, imperiously, trying to take the paper from her brother’s hand.

“no, you don’t!” cried the boy, resolutely, as he held the herald out of her reach, “not until you find that ball of mine you said you lost yesterday.”

“harry!” called a stern voice near them, and the boy turned sharply round to find his tutor, mr. reed, advancing rapidly toward him. “go back to your room at once, harry!” said mr. reed, sternly; and before the boy could reply his sister tore the paper from his grasp and ran off with it at the top of her speed.

“come back with that!” cried her brother, as he started in pursuit, but the angry voice of his tutor recalled him before he had gone 182twenty paces, and he marched into the house very red in the face, and casting angry glances behind him at the two girls, who were now sitting in the summer-house, eagerly reading the long account of the fire at which bruce had so nearly lost his life. when they had finished it laura drew a long breath, and then burst into tears.

“don’t cry, dear,” said kitty, as she wiped a tear or two from her own face, “i’m sure he’s not badly hurt and will be all right again in a very few days.”

“it would be dreadful if he were to die without ever finding out the mystery of his birth,” wailed laura. “oh, dear, if i only knew where to find him i would write him a letter or go down to see him.”

“the paper says he’s at the new york hospital,” said kitty. “why don’t you go down there this very day? i think it would be just too romantic and interesting for words.”

laura sprang to her feet and wiped the tears from her eyes with a swift movement of her hand. “i’ll do it,” she said. “i’ll find out where the new york hospital is and how to get there, and i’ll start this very minute. harry thought he was so smart because he read it in the paper first, and was going down 183there himself all so bold and gay, but he’ll find out when he does get there that i’ve been there before him.”

kitty’s face flushed with excitement. she thought it the most romantic thing in the world that laura should run the risk of displeasing her father by making a long journey all by herself to an unknown part of the town simply to sit by the bedside of a daring young fireman who had been injured while going into a burning building to save a human life. the paper said that he was lying in a “precarious condition,” but neither one of the two girls knew what that long word signified, and they did not dare to ask anyone.

“come up to my room with me, i’m going to get ready now,” said laura, as she led the way into the house.

a quarter of an hour later harry, who was moodily poring over his latin grammar and wondering whether bruce had been severely hurt or not, saw from his seat by the window the two girls crossing the garden and disappearing through a side gate. he wondered idly where they were going to, and then he fell to thinking about how to get even with his sister for the trick she had played him that morning, and he was engaged in this manner when mr. reed 184suddenly entered the room and asked him what progress he was making with his lessons. the boy took up his book again with a sigh that was so deep that the tutor asked him if he was sick or if anything serious had happened.

“no,” he replied, “nothing has happened to me, but i’m afraid something awful has happened to bruce.” and then he told the tutor what he had read in the herald, and mr. reed becoming very much interested went out and found the paper where the young girls had dropped it in the summer house, and then returned to his pupil’s room and said, “i’m afraid he’s badly injured and i’m very sorry for it, for he was a very manly, polite young man, and i should judge from the account in the newspaper that he had showed himself to be a brave one as well. i really think you ought to go down to the hospital and see how he is getting along.”

harry leaped to his feet, but mr. reed restrained him by saying firmly, “not until your lessons are finished. if you can recite them to me within an hour, we will start at once.”

with this incentive to work, harry returned to his task with such industry and enthusiasm, that when his tutor returned at the close of the hour he found his pupil able to recite his lessons 185without a single mistake, which was altogether an unusual condition of things with him. then putting on his hat, mr. reed told harry to accompany him and they started for the elevated railroad together.