THE ACCUSATION
"Can you guess where it is, Jack?" gasped Frank Savage as he strove to
keep alongside the other while running to the fire.
Just then they reached a corner, and as they dashed around it they
came in plain sight of the conflagration.
"It's Briggs' store, fellows!" shouted Frank over his shoulder.
Ten seconds later all of them were on the spot where already a little
cluster of men and boys were gathered, some of them near neighbors,
others having come up ahead of the scouts.
"Hey! what's this I see?" Bobolink said to his chum nearest him; "two
of the Lawson crowd here, dodging about and grinning as if they
thought it a picnic?"
"Look at old Briggs, will you?" cried Sandy Griggs. "He's dancing
around like a chicken after you've chopped its head off."
"Did you ever see anybody so excited?" demanded Bobolink. "Hold on!
what's that he's saying now about somebody setting his store afire on
purpose?"
"It's a black scheme to get me out of competition!" the little, old
storekeeper was crying as he wrung his hands wildly. "Somebody must
have known that my insurance ran out three weeks ago, and for once I
neglected to renew it! I shall be ruined if it all goes! Why don't
some of you try to save my property?"
"Boys, it seems that it's up to us to get busy and do something!"
exclaimed Frank Savage, immediately.
"It comes hard to work for the old skinflint," declared Bobolink, "but
I s'pose we're bound to forget everything but that some one's stuff is
in danger, and that we belong to the scouts!"
"Come on then, everybody, and let's sling things around!" cried Jud
Elderkin.
No matter how the fire started it was burning fiercely, and promised
to give the volunteer firemen a good fight when they arrived, as they
were likely to do at any moment now. Indeed, loud cries not far away,
accompanied by the rush of many heavily booted feet and the trampling
of horses' hoofs announced that the engine, hook and ladder, and
chemical companies were close at hand.
The nine scouts dashed straight at the store front. The door stood
conveniently open, though they could only hazard a guess as to how it
came so--possibly when brought to the spot with the first alarm of
fire the owner had used his key to gain an entrance.
Into the store tumbled the boys. The interior was already pretty well
filled with an acrid smoke that made their eyes run; but through it
they could manage to see the barrels and boxes so well remembered.
These some of the scouts started to get out as best they could. Jack,
realizing that in all probability the rolls of cloth and silks on the
shelves would suffer worst from the water soon to be applied, led
several of his companions to that quarter.
They were as busy as the proverbial beaver, rushing goods outdoors
where they could be taken in hand by others, and placed in temporary
security. A couple of the local police force had by this time reached
the scene, and they could be depended on to guard Mr. Briggs' property
as it was gathered in the street.
The owner of the store seemed half beside himself, rushing this way
and that, and saying all manner of bitter things. Even at that moment,
when the boys of Stanhope were making such heroic efforts to save his
property, he seemed to entertain suspicions regarding them, for he
often called out vague threats as to what would happen if they dared
take anything belonging to him.
Now came the volunteer fire-fighters, with loud hurrahs. There seemed
no need of the ladders, but the fire engine was quickly taken to the
nearest cistern and the suction pipe lowered. When that reservoir was
emptied others in the near vicinity would be tapped, and if the water
supply held out the fire could possibly be gotten under control.
That was likely to be the last time the citizens of Stanhope would
have to cope with a fire in their midst, armed with such old-fashioned
weapons. A new waterworks system was being installed, and in the
course of a couple of weeks Stanhope hoped to be supplied with an
abundance of clear spring water through the network of pipes laid
under the town streets during the preceding summer and fall.
Mr. Forbes, the efficient foreman of the fire company, was the right
sort of man for the work. He was one of the town blacksmiths, a fine
citizen, and highly respected by every one.
As his heavy voice roared out orders the men under him trailed the
hose out, the engine began to work furiously, sending out black smoke
from its funnel, and the men who handled the chemical engine brought
it into play.
Even in that time, when dozens of things pressed hard upon the foreman
demanding his attention, he found occasion to speak words of
encouragement to the busy scouts as they trooped back and forth,
carrying all sorts of bulky articles out of the reach of the flames.
"Good boys, every one of you!" he called out to them as Jack and
Bobolink came staggering along with their arms filled with bolts of
Mr. Briggs' most cherished silks, "you've got the making of prize
firemen in you I can see. Don't overdo it, though, lads; and make way
for the men with the hose!"
By the time the first stream of water was turned on the fire the
flames were leaping upward, and the entire back part of the store
seemed to be doomed. Being a frame building and very old it had been
like matchwood in the path of the flames.
"Now watch how they slam things down on the old fire!" exclaimed
Bobolink as he stood aside unable to enter the store again since the
firemen had taken possession of the premises. "The water will do more
damage than the fire ever had a chance to accomplish."
"Wow! see them smash those windows in, will you!" shouted Jud
Elderkin, as a man with a fire axe made a fresh opening in one side
of the store in order to put a second line of hose to work.
Everybody was calling out, and what with the crackling of the hungry
flames, the neighing of the horses that had drawn the fire-engine to
the spot, the whooping of gangs of delighted boys, and a lot of other
miscellaneous sounds, Bedlam seemed to have broken loose in Stanhope
on this night before Christmas.
"They've got the bulge on it already, seems like," announced Tom
Betts.
"But even that doesn't seem to give Mr. Briggs much satisfaction,"
remarked Frank. "There he is running back and forth between the store
and the stack of goods we piled up in the street."
"I reckon he is afraid the police will steal some of the silks,"
chuckled Bobolink.
"The fire is going down right fast now," Tom Betts affirmed. "What's
left of the Briggs' store may be saved. But Mr. Briggs is bound to
lose a heap, and it cuts the old man to the bone to let a dollar slip
away from him."
"To think of such a smart business man allowing his insurance policy
to lapse, and to lie unrenewed for a whole month!" exclaimed Bluff.
"Got tired paying premiums for so many years and never having a fire,"
explained Jack.
As the crowd stood there the last of the blaze yielded to the efforts
of the firemen. Most of the building was saved, though the business
was bound to be crippled for some time, and Mr. Briggs' loss would run
into the hundreds, perhaps thousands, for all any one knew.
"Listen to him scolding the foreman of the fire company, will you?"
demanded Bobolink. "He seems to think a whole hour elapsed after the
alarm before the boys got here. Why, it was the quickest run on
record, I should say."
"Here they come this way," observed Tom Betts, "and the foreman is
trying to convince Mr. Briggs he is mistaken. He knows how excited Mr.
Briggs is, and excuses anything he may say. Mr. Forbes is a big man in
more ways than bulk."
"Perhaps Mr. Briggs may want to scold us for not getting more stuff
out before the water was turned on," chuckled Bobolink.
"Don't answer him back if he does," Jack warned them, "because we know
he's nearly out of his mind just now."
Still, even practical Jack was shocked when the old storekeeper,
coming face to face with the group of scouts, suddenly pointed a
trembling finger at Bobolink and exclaimed in a vindictive voice:
"I knew this fire was started in revenge, and there's the boy who did
it!"