Tom grasped the situation instantly. Taking the smoke helmet
from the exhausted fire-fighter, the young inventor shouted:

"I'll fill your place! See if you can grab a hat, Ned, and come
on!"

One of the other firemen had two helmets, and he offered Ned
one. Pausing only long enough to see that Mr. Nestor and some
others were looking after the exhausted "smoke-eater," Ned raced
on after Tom. The two young men, following the firemen, made
their way around the end of the factory to the smoke-filled yard
in the rear. But for the helmets, which were like the gas masks
of the Great War, they would not have been able to live.

One of the firemen pointed through the luridly-lighted smoke to
a small structure near the main building. This was beginning to
burn. With quick blows of an axe the door was hewed down, and the
rescue party, including Tom and Ned, made its way inside. In the
light from the blaze, as it filtered through the windows, it
could be seen that a man lay in a huddled heap on the floor.

By motions the leader of the rescue squad made it clear that
the man was to be carried out, and Tom helped with this while
Ned, using an axe, cleared away some debris to enable the door to
be opened fully so the men could pass out carrying their burden.

The man was taken to the Nestor yard and stretched out on the
grass. Word was relayed to one of the ambulance doctors who were
on the scene attending to several injured firemen, and in a short
time the man, who, it appeared, had been overcome by smoke, was