Life in the Red Brigade, by R.M. Ballantyne

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Title: Life in the Red Brigade London Fire Brigade

Author: R.M. Ballantyne

Release Date: June 6, 2007 [EBook #21695]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

LIFE IN THE RED BRIGADE, BY R.M. BALLANTYNE.

CHAPTER ONE.

Wet, worn and weary--with water squeaking in his boots, and a mixture of charcoal and water streaking his face to such an extent that, as a comrade asserted, his own mother would not have known him--a stout young man walked smartly one morning through the streets of London towards his own home.

He was tall and good-looking, as well as stout, and, although wet and weary, had a spring in his step which proved beyond all question that he was not worn-out. As the comrade above referred to would have said, "there was plenty of go in him still." His blue and belted coat, sailor's cap, and small hatchet, with the brass helmet swinging by its chin strap on his left arm, betokened him a member of "The Red Brigade,"--a London fireman--one of those dare-anything characters who appear to hold their lives remarkably cheap, for they carry these lives in the

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