“Heaven send the whole city be not destroyed!” he exclaimed; “never have I seen fire like unto this fire!

“Reuben, lad, make thy way with all speed to the Lord Mayor, and tell him of the peril in which we stand.  He is the man to find means to check this fearful conflagration.  Would to Heaven it were good Sir John Lawrence who were Mayor, as he was in the days of the plague!  He was a man of spirit, and courage, and resource.  But I much fear me that poor Bludworth has little of any of these qualities.  Nevertheless go to him, Reuben.  Tell him what thou hast seen, and tell him that if he wishes not to see London burned about his ears it behoves him to do something!”

Reuben dashed off along Thames Street westward to do his errand, and then the Master Builder turned gravely to his friend and said: 

“Harmer, I like not the aspect of things.  I fear me that even we are likely to stand in dire peril ere long.  Yet we shall have time to take steps for our salvation, seeing the wind is our friend so far, though Heaven alone knows when that may change, and drive the flames straight down upon us.  Yet, methinks, we shall have time for what must be done.  Wilt thou work hand in hand with me for the salvation of our goods and houses, even though it may mean present loss?”

“I will do whatever is right and prudent,” answered Harmer, hurrying hack towards the bridge with his friend and with those who had followed them, and in a short while they were surrounded by a number of frightened neighbours, all asking what awful thing was happening, and what could be done to save themselves.

The Master Builder was naturally the man looked to, and he gave answer quietly and firmly.  If the fire once leaped Thames Street, and attacked the south side, nothing short of a miracle could save the bridge houses, unless some drastic step were taken; and the only method which he could devise in the emergency, was that some of the houses at the northern end should be demolished by means of gunpowder, and the ruins soaked in water, so that the passage of the flames might be stayed there.

But at this suggestion the faces of those who lived in these same houses grew long and grave, as indeed the speaker had anticipated.  The owners were not prepared for so great a sacrifice.  They argued that with the wind where it was, the fire might in all probability not extend southward at all, in which case their loss would he useless.  They talked and argued the matter out for about twenty anxious minutes, and in fine flatly refused to have their houses touched, preferring to take their chance of escaping the fire to this wholesale demolition.

This was no more than the Master Builder had foreseen, and without attempting further argument he turned to his neighbour and said: 

“Then it must be your workshops and storerooms that must go.  You can better spare them than the house itself; and on the opposite side there is the empty house where poor David Norris lived and died.  There is none living there now to hinder us.  We must take the law into our own hands and make the gap there.  If the fire comes not this way, I will bear the blame with the Mayor, if we be called to account; but methinks a little promptitude now may save half the bridge, and perchance all the southern part of London likewise!”