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CHAPTER VIII.— The Story of a Fire · Invisible Helpers

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  Chapter eight of Invisible Helpers. This is a libriyvox recording. All liberyvox recordings
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  are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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  liberyvox dot org. Read by KBHC. Invisible Helpers by A. WC.
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  Lead Beta. Chapter eight The Story of a Fire, Another piece of work
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  done by the same boy, Cyril, furnishes an almost exact parallel to some
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  of the stories from the books which I have given in earlier pages. He
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  and his older friend, it seems, were passing along in the prosecution of
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  their usual work one night when they noticed the fierce glare of a big fire
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  below them, and promptly dived down to see if they could be of any
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  use. It was a great hotel which was in flames, a huge caravansery
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  on the edge of a great lake. The house, many stories in height,
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  formed three sides of a square round a sort of garden planted with trees
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  and flowers, while the lake formed the fourth side. The two wings ran
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  right down to the lake, the big bay windows which terminated them, almost
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  projecting over the water, so as to leave only quite a narrow passageway under
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  them. At the two sides. The front and wings were built round inside
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  walls which contained also the lattice work shafts of the lifts, so that when
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  once the fire broke out, it spread with almost incredible rapidity, and before
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  our friends saw it on their astral journey, all the middle floors in each
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  of the three great blocks were in flames. Fortunately, the inmates, except
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  one little boy, had already been rescued, though some of them had sustained
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  very serious burns and other injuries. This little fellow had been forgotten in one
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  of the upper rooms of the left wing, for his parents were out at
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  a ball and knew nothing of the fire, while naturally enough, no one
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  else thought of the lad till it was far too late. The fire had
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  gained such a hold on the middle floors of that wing that nothing could have
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  been done even if anyone had remembered him. As his room faced onto the
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  inner garden, which has been mentioned, so that he was completely cut off
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  from all outside help. Besides, he was not even aware of his danger,
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  for the dense, suffocating smoke had so gradually filled the room that his
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  sleep had grown deeper and deeper, until he was all but stupefied in this
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  state, he was discovered by Cyril, who seemed to be specially attracted towards
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  children in need of danger. He first tried to make some of the people
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  remember the boy, but in vain and in any case it seemed scarcely possible
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  that they could have helped him, so that it was soon evident that this
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  was merely a waste of time. The older helper then materialized Cyril as before
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  in the room and set him to work to awaken and rouse up the more
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  than half stupefied child. After a good deal of difficulty, this was accomplished
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  to some extent, but the boy remained in a half dazed, semi conscious
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  condition through all that followed, so that he needed to be pushed and pulled
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  about, guided and helped at every turn. The two boys first crept out
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  of the room into the central passage which ran through the wing, and then,
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  finding that the smoke and the flames beginning to come through the floor made
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  it impossible for a physical body, Parill got the other boy back into the
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  room again and out of the window onto a stone ledge about a foot wide,
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  which ran right along the block just below the windows. Along this he
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  managed to guide his companion, half balancing himself on the extreme edge of the
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  ledge and half floating on air, but always placing himself outside of the other
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  so as to keep him from dizziness and prevent him from feeling afraid of a
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  fall. Towards the end of the block, nearest the lake, in which
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  direction the fire seemed less developed, they climbed in through an open window and
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  again reached the passage, hoping to find the staircase at that end still passable,
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  but it too was full of flame and smoke, so they crawled back
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  along the passage, Cyril advising his companion to keep his mouth close to the
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  ground, till they reached the lattice cage of the lift running down the long
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  well in the center of the block. The lift, of course, was
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  at the bottom, but they managed to clamber down the lattice work inside the
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  cage until they stood on the roof of the elevator itself. Here they found
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  themselves blocked, but luckily Cyril discovered a doorway opening from the cage of the
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  lift on to a sort of entressole just above the ground floor. Through this
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  they reached the passage, which they crossed, the little boy being half stifled
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  by the smoke. Then they made their way through one of the rooms opposite,
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  and finally, clambering out of the window, found themselves on top of
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  the verandah, which ran along in front of the ground floor between it and
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  the garden. Thence it was easy enough to swarm down one of the pillars
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  and reach the garden itself. But even there the heat was intense, and
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  the danger when the walls should fall very considerable. So Cyril tried to conduct
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  his charge round the end, first of one then of the other wing,
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  but in both cases the flames had burst through, and the narrow, overhung
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  passages were quite impassable. Finally, they took refuge in one of the pleasure
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  boats, which were moored to the steps of the quay at the side of
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  the garden next the lake, and casting loose, rode out onto the water.
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  Cyril intended to row around past the burning wing and land the boy whom
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  he had saved, but when they got some little way out, they fell
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  in with a passing lake steamer, and was seen for the whole scene was
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  lit up by the glare of the burning hotel, so everything was plain as
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  in broad daylight. The steamer came alongside the boy to take them off,
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  but instead of the two boys they had seen, the crew found only one,
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  for his older friend had promptly allowed Cyril to slip back into his astral
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  form, dissipating the denser matter which he had made for the time and material
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  body, and he was therefore now invisible. A careful search was made,
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  of course, but no trace of the second boy could be found, and
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  so it was concluded that he must have fallen overboard and been drowned just as
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  they came alongside. The child who had been rescued fell into a dead faint
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  as soon as he was safe on board, so they could get no information
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  from him, and when he did recover, all he could say was that
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  he had seen the other boy the moment before they came alongside, and then
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  knew nothing more. The steamer was bound down the lake to a place some
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  two days sail distant, and it was a week or so before the rescued
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  boy could be restored to his parents, who of course thought that he had
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  perished in the flames, for though an effort was made to impress on their
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  minds the fact that their son had been saved, it was found impossible to
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  convey the idea to them, So it may be imagined how great was the
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  joy of the meeting. The boy is still well and happy, and is
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  never wary of relating his wonderful adventure. Many a time he has regretted that
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  the kind friend who saved him should have perished so mysteriously at the very moment
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  when all the danger seemed over at last. Indeed, he has even ventured
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  to suggest that perhaps he didn't perish at all, that perhaps he was a
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  fairy prince. But of course this idea elicits nothing but tolerant smiles of superiority
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  from his elders. The comic link between him and his preserver has not yet
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  been traced, but no doubt there must be one somewhere. End of Chapter
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  eight read by K. B. Hc.