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Bell considered rae steel and looked ih the flames, but Brewster and Hall were in the back and they would have been burned alive

He looked back across the garage Through the deepening s a spot where the flaher and more fierce

There was no other way

Warry O’De chorus of the fire when he said, “I knohat you did for the others, Mr Bell Just make sure I’m buried in a Catholic cemetery or my sainted mother will make heaven hell for me”

He ran across to the closed door, forcing hi fro minutes and doubtless burned the Irishman’s hands as he yanked on it to open the door No sooner had the door risen a few inches than the influx of fresh oxygen caused the fire to expand in nearly every direction as though the air itself was combustible

Bell was protected by the dump truck’s enclosed cab, and Brewster and Hall were afforded soh sides of the truck’s body, but Warry took the blast of flathe chain, sacrificing himself so the others could live and complete their mission

Isaac Bell had never witnessed such an act of bravery in his life

Even before the door was high enough, Bell put the truck in gear and started gunning for the exit in the vain hope that soate just then reached critical temperature and exploded with the force of a bundle of dynamite

Warry O’De ceased to exist

Bell sla white flame rolled over the truck’s cab and rocked the vehicle on its suspension The h to be sheltered from the blast by the truck’s steel body, but the concussion wave left hi back toward the center of the building rather than picking his way through the burning debris toward the exit Bell opened his door enough to grab theboard He then raced through the inferno and out onto the street, the truck trailing smoke from where the fire had burned off some paint

He braked a half block from the fire, and looked the mechanic in the eye “I just saved your life Do what you were told to do in there but don’t htened to speak “Nod your head if you understand”

The rip The mechanic stepped down onto the road Bell yelled for his companions The two men, sooty but unharmed, climbed down from the back of the truck and joined Bell in the cab They accelerated ahile crowds of onlookers began to gather to watch the fire consue

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No one spoke during the ride back to the abandoned cotton mill where they’d stashed the byzanium Rather than empty the crates into the duravel, Bell decided to load them filled and just bury them with more dirt froh for the extra weight Vern Hall was no help with any of the physical labor, and while Brewster illing, he was too weak and wasted to be of any use either It fell on Isaac Bell to load the hundred-pound crates and shovel a few hundred pounds of dirt on top

They were back on the road around suppertiha south The men kept their own counsel while they drove The only sound in the truck was the growl of the engine and the hiss of the tires on the pave It was only when they were about ten miles north of the Port of Southampton that Bell turned the truck off thefarh the darkness, forcing Bell to drive at a walking pace Ancient rock walls lined parts of the road and divided some of the pastures