“Excuse me for disturbing you,” he said, taking a seat, and looking around the room with a quiet smile upon his broad face.  “I know that you have had a hard night’s work, and need rest; and I should not have presumed to awaken you, had I not feared that you would forget the audience which his excellency has granted on this afternoon.”

“At what time, may I ask?” I inquired, trying to look as though I was awake—­in which I did not fully succeed, I am afraid, for the captain said, kindly,—­

“There, there, go to bed again, and let the audience be postponed until to-morrow.  Latrobe will readily understand why you are not present, and if he does not, I will get Colonel Hensen to explain the reason.  By the way, speaking of the colonel, he has grown to be a sworn friend to both of you, and as he has the governor’s ear in all matters, I think it will be well to speak to him in a candid manner, and enlist his aid.”

We bowed, without speaking at the advice, and the captain continued,—­

“Then I will ask the governor to postpone your interview until to-morrow, if you desire it.”

“By no means,” exclaimed Fred, the last words thoroughly arousing him.  “We have not had much rest for a number of nights, but we are not so tired that we cannot keep an appointment.  We shall be ready at the time you state.”

“Then in two hours’ time I will send Murden for you.  By the way,” the captain continued, in a careless tone, “if there is any thing I can help you to, command me.”

We knew that the captain alluded to our clothes, but we merely shook our heads and declared that we had a full supply.  He looked incredulous, but was too polite to contradict, and was about to depart, when he suddenly said,—­

“By the way, I don’t suppose you have seen the morning papers?  Here are the Argus and Herald.  You may like to look over them, as they contain an account of the fire, and mention the gallant conduct of two American gentlemen who were present.”

The captain laid down the papers, and was off without a word of explanation.  We felt that keen curiosity characteristic of Americans when they know that their names are in print, and hardly had the sound of the hoofs of the captain’s horse died away before we spread open the sheets, and after hunting over a column of matter which related to losses, with the names of individuals, we came across the following, headed,—­

“Incidents.—­During the fire this morning, two young men, whose names are unknown, but whom we hope to discover before our next issue, made their way to his excellency the governor, and volunteered to take the whole charge of the fire, and put the two hitherto almost useless engines in working order.  After some hesitation on the part of his excellency, consent was given, and two companies of a regiment allotted to man the brakes.  Under the direction of the young men the machines were brought into action, and were the means of saving property to a large amount.  We also hear it stated that the same parties organized the lines of buckets, although we do not vouch for the truth of the statement.”