PEGGY'S INTUITION.
The movements of the invaders of the stable, which now housed the
"winged steeds" of the young aviators, were mysterious in the extreme.
The Norwegian carried a tin can containing some sort of liquid which
he was ordered to pour about the floor in the neighborhood of the
aëroplanes. This done, Dan Cassell collected several scraps of litter
and made quite a pile of it.
"All ready now, I guess," he said, with what was meant as an attempt
at a grin. But his lips were pale, and his forced jollity was a dismal
failure. As for his father, he made no attempt to conceal his agitation.
"Dan, they may be burned alive," he faltered; "better call it all off."
"Not when we've gone as far as this with it," was the rejoinder; "give
me a match."
"Dan!"
"It's all right, dad. They'll wake in time."
"But if not?"
"Then they'll have to take their medicine."
With fingers that trembled as if their owner was palsied, Jim Cassell
handed his son some matches. The latter took one, bent low over the pile
he had collected and struck the lucifer.
A yellow sputter of flame followed, and the next instant he was holding
it to the pile of litter which had been previously soaked by the
contents of the Norwegian's can.
But before he could accomplish his purpose and set fire to the pile of
odds and ends saturated to double inflammability by the kerosene the
Norwegian had carried, there came a startling interruption.
There was a knock at the door and a girlish voice cried:
"Roy! Roy, let me in!"
"Furies!" exclaimed Dan Cassell under his breath. "It's one of those
girls."
"Come on. Let's get away quick!" exclaimed his father, trembling from
nervous agitation.
"Not before I set a match to this," exclaimed Dan Cassell viciously.
He touched the match to the pile and the flames leaped up.
"Now for our getaway," he cried, and the three fire-bugs ran for the
window by which they had made their entrance.
In the meantime a perfect fusillade of blows had been showered on the
door outside. Jimsy awoke just as the last of the three midnight
intruders vanished through the window. His first instinct was a hot
flush of shame over the feeling that he had betrayed his trust.
Then to his ears came the voice that had alarmed the Cassells and
their tool.
"Roy! Jimsy! Are you there?"
"It's Peggy!" gasped Jimsy.
"And Jess," he added the next instant, and simultaneously there came the
pounding of a stick on the door.
"This is an officer of the law. Open up at once."
Jimsy, dazed by his sleep, had not till then noticed the blazing pile of
litter. Now he did so with a quick cry of horror. The stuff was blazing
up fiercely. Already there was an acrid reek in the air.
"The place is on fire!" he shouted.
The next moment there came a violent assault on the door and the crazy
lock parted from its rotten fastenings as a man attired in a police
officer's uniform burst into the place. Behind him came two wide-eyed
frightened girls. The leaping flames lit up their faces vividly.
"It's fire sure enough!" cried the police officer.
"Great Scot, what's happening?"
It was Roy who shouted the question. He was peering down from the loft
where he had been sleeping. The uproar had awakened him and in a jiffy
he was among them.
"Quick! the fire extinguishers!" he cried, and Jimsy, readily
understanding, secured the flame-killing apparatus from the biplane and
from the _Red Dragon_.
He and Roy, aided by the officer, fought the flames vigorously, and,
luckily, were able to subdue them, though if it had not been for the as
yet unexplained arrival of Peggy and Jess it is doubtful if they could
have coped with the blaze. When it was all out Peggy rushed into
explanations.
"Something warned me that you were in danger," she exclaimed, "and
I woke up Jess and we found this officer and came down here."
"What gift of second sight have you?" demanded Roy, gazing at the
smoking, blackened pile that had threatened the destruction of the
inflammable premises.
"I don't know. Womanly intuition, perhaps. Oh, Roy!"
The girl burst into a half-hysterical sob and threw her arms about her
brother's neck.
"You arrived in the nick of time, sis," he said, gently disengaging
himself from her clasp, "a little more and--"
He did not finish the sentence. There was no need for him to.
"Begorry, the ould place 'ud hev bin a pile of cinders in an hour's
time," declared the policeman.
It was Jess's turn to give an hysterical little sob.
Roy turned to Jimsy.
"Did you see anything? The place is reeking with kerosene. It was a plot
to destroy the aëroplanes and perhaps ourselves."
"I--I--"
Jimsy stammered. The words seemed to choke up in his throat. How was
he to confess that he had failed in his trust--had slept while danger
threatened?
"Well?"
Roy waited, plainly surprised. It was not like Jimsy to hesitate and
stammer in this way.
At last it came out with a rush.
"I--I--you'll never forgive me, any of you--I was asleep."
"Asleep! Oh, Jimsy!"
There was a world of reproach in Jess's voice. But Peggy interrupted
her.
"How was it, Jimsy?" she asked softly.
"I don't know. I give you my word I don't know."
Jimsy's voice held a world of self-reproach.
"I was reading," he went on, hurrying over the words as if anxious
to get his confession over with, "that book of Grotz's on monoplane
navigation. I felt sleepy and--and the next thing I knew I woke up
to hear you pounding on the door and shouting."
"A good thing the young ladies found me," put in the policeman; "shure
I was after laughing at them at first, but then, begorry, I decided to
come along with them. It's glad I am that I did."
"Who can have done this?" asked Roy, who had not a word of reproach for
his chum, although Jimsy had failed dismally in a position of trust.
"Begorry, they might have burned you alive!" cried the policeman
indignantly.
"No question about that," rejoined Roy; "it was a diabolical plot. Who
could have attempted such a thing?"
"Wait till I call up and have detectives sent down here," said Officer
McCarthy. "I'm after thinking this is too deep for us to solve."
Nevertheless, each of that little group but the policeman had his or her
own idea on the matter.