Then Ready was seen again at the window, staring about in a bewildered way, as if he contemplated leaping to the street below.
"Do you suppose the fire could cut him off so soon ?" Merry anxiously queried.
"It doesn't seem likely," Diamond answered.

"But, of course, no one can tell.

The Chickering set are up there yet!" A crowd was collecting, and Merry's friends were thinking of going on across the street, when the arrival of a clanging fire-engine drove them back to the corner from which they had started.
It could now be seen that even in that brief space of time the fire was rapidly spreading.

The blaze first seen had increased in size, and flames were now issuing from other windows on that floor.

The fire seemed to be in the third story.