LONE WOLF 259 



flame in his face drove him back to the middle 

 of the floor, where the little bear stood whim- 

 pering. Just at this moment a massive tor- 

 rent of water from a fire engine crashed through 

 the window, drenching Lone Wolf, and knock- 

 ing the bear clean over. The beneficent 

 stream was whisked away again in an instant, 

 having work to do elsewhere than on this 

 already doomed and hopeless shed. But to 

 the wise little bear it had shown a way of 

 escape. Out through the window he scurried ; 

 and Lone Wolf went after him in one tremen- 

 dous leap just as the flames swooped in and 

 licked the floor clean, and slew the huddled 

 leopard in its cage. 



Outside, in the awful heat, the alternations 

 of the dazzling glare and blinding smoke, 

 the tumult of the shouting and the engines, 

 the roar of the flames, and the ripping crash 

 of the streams, and the cries of the beasts, 

 Lone Wolf found himself utterly confused. 

 But he trusted, for some reason, the sagacity 

 of the bear, and followed his shaggy form, 

 bearing diagonally up and across the wind. 

 Presently a cyclone of suffocating smoke 

 enveloped him, and he lost his guide. But 

 straight ahead he darted, stretched out at top 

 speed, belly to the ground ; and in another 

 moment he emerged into the clear air. His 



