Latest / Classic Dog Stories / Smoke, by John A. Moroso

Transcript

Smoke, by John A. Moroso · Classic Dog Stories

0:00
Speaker 1: Section fourteen of Best Dog Stories. This is a LibriVox recording.
0:07
Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
0:11
Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Section fourteen.
0:19
Speaker 1: Smoke by John A. Morosso. Jimmy Kelly's little girl Ellen
0:25
Speaker 1: come in with his dinner about twelve o'clock. As soon
0:29
Speaker 1: as Jimmy takes the eats from her hands and kisses her,
0:32
Speaker 1: she runs over to me and begins to say nice things.
0:35
Speaker 1: So I kissed her on the nose. Leave him alone,
0:39
Speaker 1: Jimmy yells to the kid, he's in bad. She pulled
0:43
Speaker 1: back from me, and I beat it to Mammy's stall
0:46
Speaker 1: and got comfortable between Mammy's hind legs. I knew she
0:50
Speaker 1: wouldn't budge as long as I was there, so I
0:53
Speaker 1: moved up after a little while to her front legs.
0:57
Speaker 1: She reached down and nosed me and told me to
1:00
Speaker 1: be all right after a bit. There's lots of fine
1:03
Speaker 1: human beings, but there ain't any born yet that is
1:06
Speaker 1: as good a friend to a fire dog as a
1:09
Speaker 1: fire horse is. I tucked down close to Mammy's left
1:13
Speaker 1: hoof and listened. What's the matter with smoke. I heard
1:17
Speaker 1: Ellen ask her daddy violating the rules and regulations again.
1:22
Speaker 1: He said, I had to beat him this morning, and
1:25
Speaker 1: I'll beat him every time he does it. Ellen looked
1:29
Speaker 1: like she was going to cry, but her old man
1:31
Speaker 1: didn't notice it as he was swallowing a can of
1:34
Speaker 1: hot soup. It smelled good. I've brought him two bones, pop,
1:40
Speaker 1: says Ellen, after watching her old man get around the eats.
1:44
Speaker 1: That's all right, says Jimmy, leave them with me. Ellen
1:48
Speaker 1: began to whimper, and so I whimpered, and Mammy got
1:52
Speaker 1: uneasy and kicked the side of the stall in awful wallop.
1:57
Speaker 1: It looked like we was all in bed. The only
2:00
Speaker 1: thing we had to be thankful for was the weather.
2:03
Speaker 1: The engine house doors were wide open and a nice
2:06
Speaker 1: cool breeze swept through the stalls. Being the chain in
2:11
Speaker 1: front of Mammy dropped. The gong was sounding our call
2:15
Speaker 1: on a third alarm, and the men came shooting down
2:18
Speaker 1: the brass pole like lightning, one on top of the other.
2:23
Speaker 1: Jimmy grabbed Ellen and tossed her in a corner as
2:25
Speaker 1: he dropped his eats. Mammy was under the harness in
2:30
Speaker 1: the center in one half second, her collar snapped tight
2:34
Speaker 1: and she ready to make the big lunge that would
2:37
Speaker 1: start us all off. Prince, just as white as she was,
2:41
Speaker 1: and Togo, looking like a snow horse, blanked her and
2:44
Speaker 1: began slapping the floor with their iron shoes to get
2:48
Speaker 1: the right feel of it for the start. Number sixty
2:52
Speaker 1: four is the heaviest steamer in the department, and there
2:55
Speaker 1: ain't anything in New York can touch our team. Prince
2:58
Speaker 1: on the left, Mammy in the middle, and Togo on
3:01
Speaker 1: the right. The second alarm had sounded twenty minutes before,
3:07
Speaker 1: and when the third came to call us out, we
3:09
Speaker 1: knew that there was some fire to fight, and that
3:12
Speaker 1: it had the goats of the companies already on the job.
3:16
Speaker 1: The fire was down in the oil and paint section
3:18
Speaker 1: below the old Brooklyn Bridge. If it was a paint house,
3:22
Speaker 1: that met sore eyes for everybody, firemen, horses, cops and dogs.
3:28
Speaker 1: Paint smoke cut like a knife, and the more water
3:31
Speaker 1: you pour on bursting barrels and cans, the more they smoke.
3:36
Speaker 1: Jimmy's kid was safe in the corner and stood there
3:39
Speaker 1: without fidgeting. There ain't any fireman's little girl afraid of
3:43
Speaker 1: the noise and the rush. When we make the start,
3:46
Speaker 1: Jimmy was up in the driver's seat with the reins
3:49
Speaker 1: in his hands and leaning over Mammy's big white back.
3:53
Speaker 1: I ran out and cleared the way for the steamer.
3:57
Speaker 1: I whooped it up as loud as I could, and
3:59
Speaker 1: started the Fulton Street peddlers running for cover. I nipped
4:03
Speaker 1: one of the slow ones on the heel and he hollered.
4:07
Speaker 1: All the truck drivers heard me and pulled into the curbs,
4:11
Speaker 1: and that part of my job was done and done right.
4:14
Speaker 1: All my people were in the fire department, and my
4:17
Speaker 1: grandmother Blaze had a reputation when she passed in Believe me,
4:21
Speaker 1: her picture hangs on the wall in the Commissioner's office
4:25
Speaker 1: at headquarters. We had a downgrade on Fulton Street to William,
4:31
Speaker 1: and our team was good and fresh. We made some
4:34
Speaker 1: fast time and turned north on William. I was keeping
4:37
Speaker 1: close to Mammy's nose all along the first stretch, but
4:41
Speaker 1: I knew what a mean street William was. The cross
4:44
Speaker 1: streets are so narrow and close together that any minute
4:48
Speaker 1: a truck might roll out in front of us. So
4:50
Speaker 1: I spread myself and took a half block lead on
4:53
Speaker 1: number sixty four. At Beakman Street, I got the sting
4:58
Speaker 1: of the paint smoke and saw that the down near Pearl.
5:02
Speaker 1: I turned east, whooping it up for fair and sending
5:06
Speaker 1: all the people and vehicles out of the middle of
5:08
Speaker 1: the road. Jimmy brought the steamer around the sharp corner
5:12
Speaker 1: with a rush, and without touching the standpipe or the curb.
5:16
Speaker 1: There ain't a man in the uniform can touch Jimmy
5:19
Speaker 1: for handling a team and steamer as big as ours.
5:23
Speaker 1: He keeps a whip in the socket, but only because
5:26
Speaker 1: the regulations say keep one. If the regulations told him
5:30
Speaker 1: to drive with one eye shut, he would shut one eye.
5:33
Speaker 1: That's Jimmy. He's got red hair and he sticks to
5:36
Speaker 1: the regulations. I saw him twist his mouth down in
5:41
Speaker 1: the corner, and I knew he was jollying Mammy about
5:44
Speaker 1: being slow. The old girl spread out a little prince
5:48
Speaker 1: was slow, and she turned her pink nose around as
5:51
Speaker 1: she pulled away and snapped him on the jaw. The
5:54
Speaker 1: old man come to life and began to work harder.
5:58
Speaker 1: Togo never thinks of any but getting to a fire,
6:01
Speaker 1: and Mammy had no kick on his work. Number sixty
6:06
Speaker 1: four was coming down the Beakman Street grade to Pearl
6:09
Speaker 1: faster than any steamer ever went over a street in
6:12
Speaker 1: this big town of New York, and so I lit
6:15
Speaker 1: out to increase my distance, knowing there would be danger.
6:19
Speaker 1: The big engine belched and screamed as she come along,
6:22
Speaker 1: and the bell of the hose wagon behind her kept
6:25
Speaker 1: banging away, but it all didn't count for much. The
6:29
Speaker 1: elevated trains over Pearl Street and the big grind of
6:32
Speaker 1: the bridge trains above them would drown any kind of noise.
6:37
Speaker 1: The breeze was blowing from the river, and the smoke
6:40
Speaker 1: got thicker as we ran along. I could see Jimmy's
6:43
Speaker 1: eyes watching me over Mammy's white ears as they went
6:47
Speaker 1: up and down. For he depended on me to keep
6:50
Speaker 1: the way clear for him. I willed every two bounds
6:54
Speaker 1: to make sure that things were right in both directions.
6:57
Speaker 1: Suddenly Jimmy stood up and began sawing on the reins.
7:01
Speaker 1: I turned a half somersault to rubber for the trouble,
7:04
Speaker 1: and wholly cerberus if there wasn't a kid no bigger
7:08
Speaker 1: than myself poddling out in the street. The baby was
7:13
Speaker 1: about five feet from the curb and just getting under
7:16
Speaker 1: way to cross the street. About four more steps and
7:19
Speaker 1: it would have been right in line for death. Everybody
7:23
Speaker 1: on the sidewalks was watching the big engine come down
7:27
Speaker 1: the grade, and the little one was so small that
7:30
Speaker 1: nobody noticed it. There was only one thing to do.
7:34
Speaker 1: I jumped for that kid and hid it right in
7:36
Speaker 1: the breast with all my might. It let out a
7:39
Speaker 1: yell and fell back to the curb. Number sixty four
7:43
Speaker 1: had plenty of room, and I saw Jimmy settle back
7:46
Speaker 1: slowly in his seat and lean over Mammy's back again,
7:50
Speaker 1: with a grin on his face. We pulled up in
7:54
Speaker 1: one of the short streets down in the swamp sections,
7:57
Speaker 1: and of all the smells I ever got, this one
8:00
Speaker 1: was the limit. A big wholesale paint house was one
8:04
Speaker 1: sheet of flame, and the fire had spread to a
8:07
Speaker 1: hide and leather warehouse next door. When you mix the
8:10
Speaker 1: smell of burning oil and paint with burning hide and
8:13
Speaker 1: hair and have to rush right into it and stay
8:16
Speaker 1: in it until the chief orders a retreat, Jess put
8:19
Speaker 1: it down as coming from old smoke, that whether you're
8:22
Speaker 1: a man, a horse or a dog, you know that
8:25
Speaker 1: you're earning your keep. Jimmy was off his seat in
8:29
Speaker 1: one jump and loosening the bits of the horses. He
8:32
Speaker 1: stopped long enough to give me a slap on the
8:35
Speaker 1: shoulder for getting that kid out of his way, and
8:38
Speaker 1: I felt mighty good. What's a beating between old friends anyhow.
8:44
Speaker 1: But there wasn't any time for talking or tail wagging.
8:47
Speaker 1: The sparks were falling through the smoke and smell, and
8:50
Speaker 1: Jimmy covered the team up to the eyes. Croker was
8:54
Speaker 1: right there on the job, and he was the maddest
8:56
Speaker 1: chief that ever tackled a fire. There was only the
9:00
Speaker 1: one thing that ever got him to cussing out real loud,
9:03
Speaker 1: and that was when a fire got beyond four walls
9:06
Speaker 1: in the downtown section. There wasn't any use wasting time
9:11
Speaker 1: on the paint fire. There was nothing left there but
9:14
Speaker 1: burning oil, white hot iron, and red hot walls. The
9:18
Speaker 1: fire in the Hide and Hair layout was on the
9:21
Speaker 1: sixth floor, right under the roof. It had eaten in
9:25
Speaker 1: through the caves and had a good hold on the
9:28
Speaker 1: roof timbers and the stuff piled up close to them.
9:32
Speaker 1: The men were dropping like flies from the smoke. It
9:36
Speaker 1: cut holes in their lungs and made their eyes hang
9:39
Speaker 1: down on their black faces. There were ambulances from Gouverneur,
9:43
Speaker 1: Saint Vincent and Hudson Street hospitals. The doctors would carve
9:48
Speaker 1: off our crowd and cool him off and find places
9:51
Speaker 1: for them where they could breathe. Right, Nellie, and She's
9:55
Speaker 1: a Daisy, the mascot of number seventy Engines, came wagging
10:00
Speaker 1: over to me and told me that Croker was working
10:03
Speaker 1: all hands on account of the crews being crippled by smoke.
10:07
Speaker 1: Her driver, Mike Tiernan, and Jimmy Kelly, she said, would
10:11
Speaker 1: all be up in the Hide and Hair building in
10:14
Speaker 1: about three seconds. The cops would look out for the horses.
10:19
Speaker 1: I was telling Nellie that she was some mascot when
10:22
Speaker 1: I heard Croker yell through his megaphone and saw the
10:25
Speaker 1: battalion chiefs beginning to get their men together. I asked
10:30
Speaker 1: her if she was going to follow Mike, and she
10:33
Speaker 1: said she was going to follow him if she got
10:35
Speaker 1: the chance, but that the men had been kicking her
10:38
Speaker 1: around for a half hour and she knew she was
10:41
Speaker 1: going to get a beating when they got back to
10:43
Speaker 1: the house. She asked me what I was going to
10:46
Speaker 1: do well, I told her, I'm just going to go
10:50
Speaker 1: as far as the regulations let me. I got a
10:53
Speaker 1: beating this morning myself. In my company. They let the
10:57
Speaker 1: mascot go as far as the floor beneath the fighting line.
11:01
Speaker 1: I've been in this business all my life, and my
11:03
Speaker 1: grandmother Blaze, has her picture hanging in the Commissioner's office.
11:08
Speaker 1: Jimmy gives me an awful beating every time I break
11:11
Speaker 1: the rules. But there's no telling what will happen in
11:14
Speaker 1: a fire like this one. I'll keep after Jimmy and
11:17
Speaker 1: stay on the floor below him if nothing happens. But
11:20
Speaker 1: if anything happens, the regulations won't stand a chance. Just then,
11:26
Speaker 1: Jimmy turned his helmet and beat it into the hide
11:29
Speaker 1: and Hair layout. Say maybe sixty four Company aren't smoke eaters,
11:35
Speaker 1: they just live on it. I've seen sixty four get
11:38
Speaker 1: away with gases in a big drug house, lays right
11:41
Speaker 1: in their block. That would kill Mammy to sniff, and
11:44
Speaker 1: Mammy has lungs and then some more lungs. I waited
11:48
Speaker 1: until the hose lines were stretched in the hide and
11:51
Speaker 1: Hair building, and then sneaked in and followed them. I
11:55
Speaker 1: knew that there would be nozzles at the other end,
11:58
Speaker 1: and that my Jimmy would be right there with a
12:00
Speaker 1: big piece of brass in his hands. He ain't afraid
12:04
Speaker 1: of anything except a trial before the commissioner for violating
12:08
Speaker 1: rules and regulations. He is a fireman, and he's had
12:12
Speaker 1: medals pinned on him by the Mayor. I seen them
12:15
Speaker 1: in his flat on Rose Street. I got up to
12:19
Speaker 1: the fifth floor and remembered the beating I got in
12:22
Speaker 1: the morning, so I stopped there. Jimmy and the crew
12:25
Speaker 1: was up on the sixth and there was some smoke.
12:29
Speaker 1: It cut at your throat like the sharp teeth of
12:31
Speaker 1: a young bull terrier. I had to stay there and
12:34
Speaker 1: eat it. And I had lots of time to think
12:37
Speaker 1: over things. For the bunch upstairs would never retreat until
12:41
Speaker 1: they got the word from the foreman, and the foreman
12:45
Speaker 1: never slips it to them until a battalion chief or
12:48
Speaker 1: Croaker himself shouts it. I was thinking over things when
12:53
Speaker 1: along comes a white patch to the head of the stairs.
12:56
Speaker 1: Never mind how black it is, you can tell fire chief.
13:01
Speaker 1: He wears a white helmet and white rubbers coat, and
13:04
Speaker 1: all it was Croaker. He was feeling the hose with
13:08
Speaker 1: his feet and going up to the fighting line. I
13:11
Speaker 1: beat it over to one side, and he passed me
13:14
Speaker 1: without knowing that I was there. I felt a little
13:18
Speaker 1: easier about Jimmy. When Croker was chief and was around
13:22
Speaker 1: at a fire there wasn't a man, horse or dog
13:25
Speaker 1: that didn't feel better for seeing him. He used to
13:29
Speaker 1: swear something awful and chew cigars and spit around enough
13:33
Speaker 1: to put out a one alarm, but he was one firefighter.
13:38
Speaker 1: He went up to the top, and the smell of
13:41
Speaker 1: hide and hair got worse. I was strangling, and so
13:44
Speaker 1: hunted around for a hose coupling that leaked. I got
13:48
Speaker 1: one and found the puddle and stuck my nose in
13:51
Speaker 1: it and kept it there. That's one of the first
13:54
Speaker 1: things a department mascot gets next to You can take
13:59
Speaker 1: any Dalmatian that's born in the business and lock him
14:02
Speaker 1: in a gas chamber with a bucket of water, and
14:05
Speaker 1: he'll come out alive, as long as the water has
14:07
Speaker 1: any air in it. I could hear the men upstairs
14:11
Speaker 1: scrambling around, and the axe crew began to make some noise,
14:16
Speaker 1: but there wasn't anything about that to worry me, and
14:19
Speaker 1: I fell to thinking over things again. The regulations always
14:23
Speaker 1: keep me guessing Now, this one about a dog staying
14:27
Speaker 1: on the floor below the fireman might mean all right
14:30
Speaker 1: for months, but it don't do any good with a
14:33
Speaker 1: dog that was born in an engine house. The idea
14:37
Speaker 1: of that rule is that when the time comes for
14:39
Speaker 1: a retreat, a fireman might stumble over the mascot and
14:43
Speaker 1: not be able to get up and make the getaway.
14:47
Speaker 1: Nobody ever stumbled over me, or over my mother or
14:50
Speaker 1: my father. And my grandmother Blaze, but I told you
14:54
Speaker 1: about her picture up at headquarters before Blaze croaked from
14:58
Speaker 1: old age. She told me a lot. She said that
15:02
Speaker 1: if the smoke was so thick she couldn't see, and
15:04
Speaker 1: if it was a hide or paint fire and she
15:07
Speaker 1: couldn't get the scent of her driver, she could feel
15:10
Speaker 1: just where he was. She told me that if I
15:13
Speaker 1: got to love the people around me, I could sense
15:15
Speaker 1: things and know just where they were and what was
15:18
Speaker 1: happening to them, even if they were miles away. She
15:21
Speaker 1: was right. I was thinking about the old lady when
15:26
Speaker 1: something told me things weren't right up above. I knew
15:29
Speaker 1: that the crew was losing out in the fight, and
15:32
Speaker 1: I was certain of it. When three men come staggering
15:35
Speaker 1: down with axes and began to smash at the windows.
15:39
Speaker 1: They knocked them out in a jiffy, and the smoke
15:41
Speaker 1: come rushing by like a cloud. But some air come
15:44
Speaker 1: in and I took my nose out of the puddle.
15:47
Speaker 1: There was a little light too. I saw Mike Tiernan,
15:52
Speaker 1: Nellie's boss, stick his head out of a window and signal.
15:56
Speaker 1: Then he leaned far over and put a hand to
15:59
Speaker 1: his ear. I knew what that meant. He was getting
16:02
Speaker 1: the order to beat it. I felt the floor under
16:05
Speaker 1: me getting warm. The fire had mushroomed down from the caves,
16:09
Speaker 1: had chewed up the laths back of the plastering, and
16:13
Speaker 1: was eating away at the beams under the fifth floor.
16:16
Speaker 1: Tyrnan turned and rushed upstairs, yelling the order to retreat.
16:21
Speaker 1: I began to feel uneasy. I seen Croker many a
16:25
Speaker 1: time jump just a second before a roof dropped after
16:29
Speaker 1: getting all the men away. But I seen Jimmy Kelly
16:32
Speaker 1: stick on a fire job so long that I begun
16:35
Speaker 1: to hate him. The men come jumping down, all coughing
16:40
Speaker 1: and choking. Croker was staggering like he had begun a
16:43
Speaker 1: hard souse. Jimmy was the last to come down and
16:47
Speaker 1: as he come, I heard a crash. The bass pins
16:50
Speaker 1: of the stairs under the floor had burned out. There
16:54
Speaker 1: was a sprinkle of warm water, and I knew that
16:57
Speaker 1: the fire had reached the hose. The men had just
16:59
Speaker 1: dropped the top of the ladder poked over the window sill,
17:04
Speaker 1: and the men, some of them on all fours like dogs,
17:08
Speaker 1: went for it and crawled over to the outside. I
17:12
Speaker 1: wagged over to Jimmy and brushed against his leg to
17:15
Speaker 1: remind him that I had stuck to regulations. The smoke
17:19
Speaker 1: was thicker with the fall of the stairs, and it
17:21
Speaker 1: was getting hotter. The patch of light where the window
17:26
Speaker 1: was went out. The smoke was so thick Jimmy dropped
17:29
Speaker 1: to his knees and began to feel his way with
17:32
Speaker 1: his hands. The fire in the beams under our floor
17:36
Speaker 1: began to work through, and every now and then I
17:39
Speaker 1: would get singed. Jimmy was coughing awful hard, and I
17:42
Speaker 1: heard him say, Mother in Heaven, Mother in Heaven. The
17:47
Speaker 1: regulations required me to go down to the fourth floor
17:51
Speaker 1: when the fighting line retreated to the fifth, but regulations
17:55
Speaker 1: is meant for nice quiet times. My pal was up
17:58
Speaker 1: against it on the fifth and I guess I know
18:01
Speaker 1: my place. I'll take my beating. Nellie is going to
18:05
Speaker 1: get hers to night, and there's some consolation in that.
18:09
Speaker 1: I felt Jimmy's hand touch my back. He was trying
18:12
Speaker 1: to follow me. A big red gout came out of
18:16
Speaker 1: the floor, and I see the window again. The top
18:19
Speaker 1: of the ladder begun to move back. They must have
18:22
Speaker 1: thought that Jimmy was safe below. I left my pal
18:26
Speaker 1: and bounced to the window, and believe me, I whipped
18:29
Speaker 1: it up louder than I ever did while on the
18:32
Speaker 1: run to a fire. The bunch on the street heard me,
18:36
Speaker 1: and Skinny deavers our fore man recognized my voice. I
18:40
Speaker 1: saw him begin to dance around, and then the top
18:43
Speaker 1: of the ladder fell back in place. Skinny came up
18:48
Speaker 1: like a squirrel, and five men took their places on
18:50
Speaker 1: the rungs below him. When Skinny reached the sill, he
18:54
Speaker 1: tried to grab me, but I ducked and began barking
18:57
Speaker 1: at him. He swiped at me again, but I pulled
19:00
Speaker 1: back and barked some more. Then another sheet of flame
19:03
Speaker 1: come out of the floor, and I ran to Jimmy.
19:07
Speaker 1: The fore man bounced in the window when he saw
19:09
Speaker 1: my boss and pulled him to the ladder in three yanks.
19:14
Speaker 1: The floor began to sag. Something was giving away. I
19:18
Speaker 1: got my nose to the air as Skinny passed Jimmie down,
19:21
Speaker 1: and it was good air, I guess. I heard the
19:25
Speaker 1: chief shouting up for Skinny to hustle, but Skinny knew
19:28
Speaker 1: his business and he wasn't going to run any chance
19:32
Speaker 1: of dropping my boss five floors to the sidewalk. He
19:35
Speaker 1: was that sure and easy in every grip that it's
19:38
Speaker 1: up to me never to forget that man. The floor
19:42
Speaker 1: sagged again and I crawled to the window sill. Skinny
19:46
Speaker 1: was following my boss as the men passed him along,
19:49
Speaker 1: and he was down to the third floor. All I
19:52
Speaker 1: could do was to wag my tail on the hot
19:54
Speaker 1: window sill, hoping he would hear it and know I
19:57
Speaker 1: was thanking him. Suddenly he turned and began to climb
20:01
Speaker 1: up the ladder again. I heard Croaker shout to him
20:05
Speaker 1: to come back, and according to regulations, it was up
20:08
Speaker 1: to him to retreat, even if his own brother was
20:11
Speaker 1: in the building. But he didn't mind the regulations. He
20:16
Speaker 1: come up to the top rung and pulled me off
20:19
Speaker 1: the window sill and down we went together, me holding
20:23
Speaker 1: to his shoulder like little Ellen used to hang onto
20:26
Speaker 1: my pal's shoulder when she was a baby, and her
20:29
Speaker 1: mother used to bring her around to the engine house
20:31
Speaker 1: of an afternoon. End of Section fourteen.