Part 6 (1/2)

”This way--there's a ladder here by the hen house!” was what he replied.

Several of the boys seized upon it, and before you could think twice they were rus.h.i.+ng the ladder toward the side of the house. Paul climbed up, carrying with him a full bucket of water; and having dashed the contents of this in such a way as to wet a considerable portion of the s.h.i.+ngle roof, he threw the bucket down to one of the boys below.

Another was quickly placed in his hands. Everybody was working like a beaver now, even the farmer's wife, carrying water from the creek, and getting it up to the boy on the ladder. It was pretty warm work, for the heat of the burning barn seemed terrific; but then boys can stand a good deal, especially when excited, and bent on accomplis.h.i.+ng things; and Paul stuck it out, though he afterwards found several little holes had been burned in his outing s.h.i.+rt by flying sparks.

The barn, of course, was beyond saving, and all their energies must be expended on the house. By slow degrees the fire was burning itself out.

Already Paul felt that the worst was past, and that if they could only keep this up for another ten minutes all would be well.

A couple of neighbors had come along by this time, to help as best they could. When a fire takes place in the country everybody is ready and willing to lend a hand at carrying out things, or fighting the flames in a primitive fas.h.i.+on; for neighbors have to depend more or less upon each other in case of necessity.

”I reckon the house ain't liable to go this time,” Andy remarked, when Paul came down the ladder finally, trembling from his continued exertions, which had been considerable of a strain on the lad, wearied as he was with three days' tramping.

”That's a fact,” remarked the farmer, who came hustling forward about this time, ”and I owe you boys a heap for what you done this night. I guess now, only for you comin' to help, I'd a lost my house as well as my barn. As it is I've got a lot to be thankful for. Just put insurance on the barn, and the new crop of hay last week. I call that being pretty lucky for once.”

He shook hands with each of the scouts, and asked after their names.

”I want to let your folks know what you done for us this night, boys,”

he said, ”and p'raps you might accept some little present later on, just as a sort of remembrance, you know.”

”How did the fire start, sir?” asked Paul.

”That's what bothers me a heap,” replied the farmer.

”Then you don't know?” continued the scoutmaster, who felt a reasonable curiosity to learn what he could of the matter while on the spot.

”It's all a blank mystery to me, for a fact,” continued the farmer, whose name the boys had learned was Mr. Rollins. ”My barn and stable was all one, you see. My man has been away all day, and I had to look after the stock myself, but I finished just as dark set in, before supper, in fact, so there ain't been so much as a lighted lantern around here tonight.”

”Perhaps, when you lighted your pipe you may have thrown the match away, and it fell in the hay?” suggested Paul.

”If it had, the fire'd started long ago; fact is, I'd a seen it right away. And to settle that right in the start let me say I don't smoke at all, and didn't have any occasion to strike a single match while out here.”

Of course this statement of the farmer seemed to settle all idea of his having been in any way responsible for the burning of the barn.

”It looks like a big black mystery, all right,” declared Fritz, who always liked to come upon some knotty problem that needed solving.

”Have you any idea that the fire could have been the work of tramps?”

Paul went on to ask.

”We are never troubled that way up here,” replied the farmer. ”You see, it's away from the railroad, and hoboes generally follow the ties when they tramp across country.”

”That makes it all the more queer how the fire could have started,” Paul went on to remark, thoughtfully.

”Couldn't a been one of the cows taken to smoking, I suppose?” ventured Seth, in a humorous vein.

”One thing sure,” continued the farmer, a little uneasily, ”that fire must have been caused by what they call spontaneous combustion; or else somebody set it on purpose.”

”Do you know of anybody who would do such a terrible thing; that is, have you any enemy that you know of, sir?” questioned Paul.