Noisy Wind-up Fire Engine

When still a quarter of a mile away, I realized that this fire was much more serious than that of the previous night: first of all, a gale of wind was blowing right down on the town. Then, when I wondered why there were so few fire engines, I was told that there were two other fires, and the man with whom I talked did not scruple to ascribe them to a plot and determination to burn the town down! «Them damned foreign anarchists are at the bottom of it»; he said, «three fires do not start on the very outskirts of the town with a gale of wind blowing, without some reason.» And indeed, it looked as if he were right. In spite of all the firemen could do, the fire spread with incredible rapidity. In half an hour I saw they were not going to master it soon or easily, and I rode back to get Reece, who had told me that he would have come with me the previous night if he had known where the fire was. When I got back to the hotel, Reece had gone out on his own and so had Dell and the Boss. I went back to the fire. It had caught on in the most extraordinary way ...»