PREFACE.
This book is a tale— a story — a work of fiction
founded on facts.
In the fabrication of it my chief aim has been to
convey a correct general idea of the working of the
London Fire Brigade, without attempting to expound
that brigade in its uttermost details.
If, in this effort, I have been in any degree success-
ful, much of my success is due to Captain E. M.
Shaw, chief officer of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade ;
to Sampson Low, Esq., Secretary to the London
Fire-Escape Society, and to those officers and men
of both brigades who have afforded me every facihty
and opportunity for acquiring information and
attending fires — to all of whom I now tender my
best thanks for their kindness and courtesy.
CHAPTER I.
HOW HIE TIGHT BEGAN.
One's own fireside is, to all well-regulated minds,
a pleasant subject of contemplation when one is
absent, and a source of deep gratification when
present.
Especially may this be said to be the case in a
cold, raw night in November, when mankind has a
tendency to become chronically cross out of dooi-s,
and nature, generally, looks lugubrious ; for, just in
proportion as the exterior world grows miserably
chill, the world ' at home," with its blazing gas, its
drawn curtains, its crackling fires, and its beaming
smiles, becomes doubly comfortable and cosy.
Even James Auberly, pompous, stem, and un-
genial though he was, appeared to entertain some
such thoughts, as he sat by his own fireside, one
such night, in his elegant mansion in Beverly Square,
Euston Road, London,' and smiled grimly over the
top of the Times newspaper at the fire.
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