Happily that shut-up room was at the extreme end of the building, the point to which the flames must come last.

And here, just at the moment when the work of devastation was almost accomplished, came the Malsham fire-engine rattling along gaily through the dewy morning, and the Malsham amateur fire-brigade, a very juvenile corps as yet, eager to cover itself with laurels, but more careful in the adjustment of its costume than was quite consistent with the desperate nature of its duty.

Here came the brigade, in time to do something at any rate, and the engine soon began to play briskly upon the western wing.
Ellen Whitelaw was in the wood-yard, watching the work going on there with intense anxiety.

The removal of the wood pile seemed a slow business, well as the three men performed their work, flinging down great crushing piles of wood one after another without a moment's pause.

They were now joined by the Malsham fire-escape men, who had got wind of some one to be rescued from this part of the house, and were eager to exhibit the capabilities of a new fire-escape, started with much hubbub and glorification, after an awful fire had ravaged Malsham High-street, and half-a-dozen lives had been wasted because the old fire-escape was out of order and useless.
"We don't want the fire-escape," cried Mr.Carley as the tall machine was wheeled into the yard.