For the wooden fence leading up to the bridge had caught fire, and it was burning like billy oh.
Oswald started to run; so did the others.

As he ran he said to himself, 'This is no time to think about your clothes.

Oswald, be bold!' And he was.
Arrived at the site of the conflagration, he saw that caps or straw hats full of water, however quickly and perseveringly given, would never put the bridge out, and his eventful past life made him know exactly the sort of wigging you get for an accident like this.
So he said, 'Dicky, soak your jacket and mine in the stream and chuck them along.

Alice, stand clear, or your silly girl's clothes'll catch as sure as fate.' Dicky and Oswald tore off their jackets, so did Denny, but we would not let him and H.O.wet theirs.

Then the brave Oswald advanced warily to the end of the burning rails and put his wet jacket over the end bit, like a linseed poultice on the throat of a suffering invalid who has got bronchitis.