Part 13 (1/2)

And he held up the package and then made a dive for the outer air, for the garage was now full of smoke.

Dave understood on the instant, and stooped to pick up one end of the burning box. Roger took the other end, and thus they ran from the garage.

Crack! crack! crack! It was the small firecrackers in the box that were beginning to go off, the pieces flying through a lower corner of the burning box.

”Into the back yard with it!” cried Roger. ”Keep it away from the buildings!”

”All right, this way!” answered Dave, and then the pair made for something of an open lot behind the kitchen of the mansion and there threw the box on the ground. Crack! bang! crack! went the firecrackers, going off singly and in bunches, until all were shot off.

”It's a pity we didn't save 'em,” said Roger, mournfully.

”It's a grand good thing they didn't go off in the garage,” returned Dave.

”Well, I saved the big cannon cracker anyway,” said Phil, as he walked up at that moment.

”Where did you put it?” questioned Roger, quickly.

”Over there, in a corner of the fence. I didn't want to take any chances, otherwise I might have taken it to the barn.”

”Better leave it outside, where it can't do any damage,” said Dave.

While talking, the three boys had been running back to the garage. There they found their chums and the men at work, including Senator Morr, all hauling the burning brushwood away and pouring water from a small hose on the flames. The most of the fire was out, so they found little to do.

Only one corner of the garage had been touched, and for this the senator was thankful.

”But it was careless of you, James, to put that brushwood there, so close to the building,” he said to the gardener, ”Don't do it again.”

”If you please, sir, I didn't put the brushwood as close as that,”

replied the gardener, stoutly. ”Somebody else did that.”

”What!” cried the senator, in surprise.

”I said I didn't put the brushwood so close to the garage, sir,”

repeated the gardener. ”I put it right there,” and he pointed to a spot about fifteen feet from the rear wall of the building. ”I was going to burn it up first thing in the morning,--that is if the young gentlemen didn't want the stuff for a bonfire at night.”

”But who did put the brushwood up against the garage?” demanded Senator Morr.

”I'm sure I don't know,” put in the chauffeur. ”But what James says, sir, is true--he put the heap out there--I was working around the garage when he did it.”

”Do you mean to insinuate that this fire was set by somebody?” cried the senator, quickly.

”I don't know about that, sir,” answered the chauffeur, while the gardener merely shrugged his shoulders. He was an old man and one who had been trusted by the Morrs for years.

”If what you say is true, I'll have to look into this matter,” remarked Senator Morr. ”I don't propose to have my garage burnt down, with two automobiles worth five thousand dollars,--not to say anything about the danger to the rest of the place. If I find----”

Bang! It was an explosion like a cannon and made everybody jump. As Dave looked, he saw a corner of a distant fence fly apart, and bits of fire seemed to fill the midnight air. Then followed utter silence.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AS DAVE LOOKED, HE SAW A CORNER OF A DISTANT FENCE FLY APART.]

”The cannon cracker!” gasped Phil.