CHAPTER X
THE ACCUSATION
"Can you guess where it is, Jack?" gasped Frank Savage as he strove tokeep alongside the other while running to the fire.
Just then they reached a corner, and as they dashed around it theycame 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 littlecluster 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; "twoof the Lawson crowd here, dodging about and grinning as if theythought it a picnic?"
"Look at old Briggs, will you?" cried Sandy Griggs. "He's dancingaround 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 onpurpose?"
"It's a black scheme to get me out of competition!" the little, oldstorekeeper was crying as he wrung his hands wildly. "Somebody musthave known that my insurance ran out three weeks ago, and for once Ineglected to renew it! I shall be ruined if it all goes! Why don'tsome 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, "butI s'pose we're bound to forget everything but that some one's stuff isin danger, and that we belong to the scouts!"
"Come on then, everybody, and let's sling things around!" cried JudElderkin.
No matter how the fire started it was burning fiercely, and promisedto give the volunteer firemen a good fight when they arrived, as theywere likely to do at any moment now. Indeed, loud cries not far away,accompanied by the rush of many heavily booted feet and the tramplingof horses' hoofs announced that the engine, hook and ladder, andchemical companies were close at hand.
The nine scouts dashed straight at the store front. The door stoodconveniently open, though they could only hazard a guess as to how itcame so--possibly when brought to the spot with the first alarm offire the owner had used his key to gain an entrance.
Into the store tumbled the boys. The interior was already pretty wellfilled with an acrid smoke that made their eyes run; but through itthey 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 theshelves would suffer worst from the water soon to be applied, ledseveral of his companions to that quarter.
They were as busy as the proverbial beaver, rushing goods outdoorswhere they could be taken in hand by others, and placed in temporarysecurity. A couple of the local police force had by this time reachedthe scene, and they could be depended on to guard Mr. Briggs' propertyas it was gathered in the street.
The owner of the store seemed half beside himself, rushing this wayand that, and saying all manner of bitter things. Even at that moment,when the boys of Stanhope were making such heroic efforts to save hisproperty, he seemed to entertain suspicions regarding them, for heoften called out vague threats as to what would happen if they daredtake anything belonging to him.
Now came the volunteer fire-fighters, with loud hurrahs. There seemedno need of the ladders, but the fire engine was quickly taken to thenearest cistern and the suction pipe lowered. When that reservoir wasemptied others in the near vicinity would be tapped, and if the watersupply held out the fire could possibly be gotten under control.
That was likely to be the last time the citizens of Stanhope wouldhave to cope with a fire in their midst, armed with such old-fashionedweapons. A new waterworks system was being installed, and in thecourse of a couple of weeks Stanhope hoped to be supplied with anabundance of clear spring water through the network of pipes laidunder the town streets during the preceding summer and fall.
Mr. Forbes, the efficient foreman of the fire company, was the rightsort of man for the work. He was one of the town blacksmiths, a finecitizen, and highly respected by every one.
As his heavy voice roared out orders the men under him trailed thehose out, the engine began to work furiously, sending out black smokefrom its funnel, and the men who handled the chemical engine broughtit into play.
Even in that time, when dozens of things pressed hard upon the foremandemanding his attention, he found occasion to speak words ofencouragement 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 andBobolink came staggering along with their arms filled with bolts ofMr. Briggs' most cherished silks, "you've got the making of prizefiremen in you I can see. Don't overdo it, though, lads; and make wayfor the men with the hose!"
By the time the first stream of water was turned on the fire theflames were leaping upward, and the entire back part of the storeseemed to be doomed. Being a frame building and very old it had beenlike matchwood in the path of the flames.
"Now watch how they slam things down on the old fire!" exclaimedBobolink as he stood aside unable to enter the store again since thefiremen had taken possession of the premises. "The water will do moredamage than the fire ever had a chance to accomplish."
"Wow! see them smash those windows in, will you!" shouted JudElderkin, as a man with a fire axe made a fresh opening in one sideof the store in order to put a second line of hose to work.
Everybody was calling out, and what with the crackling of the hungryflames, the neighing of the horses that had drawn the fire-engine tothe spot, the whooping of gangs of delighted boys, and a lot of othermiscellaneous sounds, Bedlam seemed to have broken loose in Stanhopeon this night before Christmas.
"They've got the bulge on it already, seems like," announced TomBetts.
"But even that doesn't seem to give Mr. Briggs much satisfaction,"remarked Frank. "There he is running back and forth between the storeand 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'sleft of the Briggs' store may be saved. But Mr. Briggs is bound tolose a heap, and it cuts the old man to the bone to let a dollar slipaway from him."
"To think of such a smart business man allowing his insurance policyto 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 effortsof the firemen. Most of the building was saved, though the businesswas bound to be crippled for some time, and Mr. Briggs' loss would runinto 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 thealarm before the boys got here. Why, it was the quickest run onrecord, I should say."
"Here they come this way," observed Tom Betts, "and the foreman istrying 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 inmore ways than bulk."
"Perhaps Mr. Briggs may want to scold us for not getting more stuffout before the water was turned on," chuckled Bobolink.
"Don't answer him back if he does," Jack warned them, "because we knowhe'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 atrembling finger at Bobolink and exclaimed in a vindictive voice:
"I knew this fire was started in revenge, and there's the boy who didit!"