CHAPTER XVIII
AN ALARM OF FIRE
"Mary had a little dog, It was a noble pup; 'Twould stand upon its front legs When you'd hold its hind legs up!"
Thus warbled Tommy as, having kicked the door shut, he subsided intoone of Allan's chairs by sliding over the back. Allan pushed hisbook away, yawned dismally, and looked over at his visitor mutelyquestioning:
"Where's Pete?" Tommy demanded.
"Am I his keeper?" asked Allan.
"You're his _fidus whatyoucallit_. Seen him to-night?"
"No; maybe he's studying."
"Careless youth," muttered Tommy. "Say, did you hear about Pete andBoeotia?"
"No; who's Boeotia, anyway?"
"Oh, it's that place in--er--ancient history, you know. It was atrecitation this morning; Professor Grove asked Pete how Boeotia wassituated. Pete wasn't prepared, but he thought he'd make a bluff at it.So he gets up and drawls out in his cheerfully idiotic way, 'Oh, he hada pretty good situation, but he lost it.'"
"What did old Grove say?" laughed Allan.
"Well, I wasn't there and can't tell you. I'm going to settle my debtsthis week, and we'll have that dinner at the Elm Tree Saturday night,if that's all right for you fellows."
"It's all right for me," said Allan.
"The funny part of it is," Tommy went on, smiling, "that I made justenough to pay for the dinner out of the reports of Pete's drowningwhich I sent to the Boston paper. I got my account yesterday."
"Tell that to Pete," laughed Allan.
"I'm going to. Where's the angel child?"
"The angel child is probably out in the kitchen. I can't keep her athome since vacation; she found out then where the grub comes from."
"I think she ought to go to the dinner with us, don't you?"
"Well, scarcely. Let's go down to the 'Ranch' and see what Pete's upto. I can't study any more to-night."
Town Lane was as dark as pitch save at remote intervals wherestreet lamps flickered half-heartedly, and to reach Pete's domicileat night without breaking a limb was quite a feat. To-night nothingmore exciting occurred than a collision with a stable door which wasswinging open, and the two reached the corner to find Pete's windowsbrightly illumined. Tommy, being in a musical mood, took up a positionunderneath and broke into song.
"Here 'neath thy window, Love, I am waiting, Waiting thy sweet face to see,"
he declared, strumming the while on an imaginary guitar. But the versecame to an end without signs from the window, and so they climbed thestairs. The "Ranch" was deserted. But even as they assured themselvesof the fact by looking into the bedroom, soft footfalls sounded on thestairs from the third-story loft, and a moment after Pete, lookinglike a conspirator, crept into the front room and softly closed thedoor behind him. Then his eyes fell on Allan and Tommy, and he grinnedmysteriously.
"Where'd you come from?" Allan demanded.
"Up-stairs."
"What's doing up there?" asked Tommy, suspiciously.
"Nothing at all." But the grin remained. Tommy sniffed.
"I'm going up to see," he threatened.
Pete sank into a chair, took up his pipe, and spread his hands apart asif to say, "Please yourself; believe me or not, as you like." Then helighted his pipe.
"What have you done with your coat?" asked Allan. "And why are youfestooned with cobwebs and decorated with dust?"
"_Quien sabe?_" answered Pete, shrugging his broad shoulders.
"Just the same, you've been up to something," declared Allan, sternly."And you'd better 'fess up."
"Huh!" grunted Pete.
"Out with it!" commanded Tommy.
"Huh!" said Pete again.
"Sounds like a blamed old Indian, doesn't he?" asked Tommy,disgustedly. "Well, don't you come and beg me to intercede with theDean for you."
The smile on Pete's face broadened; he chuckled enjoyably; but commandsand demands failed to move him to confession, and, after arranging forthe dinner at the Inn, Allan and Tommy took their departure, Pete, forsome reason and contrary to custom, making no effort to detain them. Asthey clambered down the steep stairs, Pete called after them:
"Say, it would be a great night for a fire, wouldn't it?"
"Fire?" repeated Allan. "Why?"
"Oh, such a dandy old high wind," answered Pete. "Well, _adios_."
"Wonder what he meant?" said Allan, on the way back. "It would be justlike him to get into another mess."
"About time," chuckled Tommy. "Good night."
Allan went to bed soon after eleven, with Two Spot, according tonightly custom, curled up against the small of his back. For a whilehe lay awake listening to the howling and buffeting of the wind, butpresently sleep came to him.
It seemed hours later, but was in reality scarcely thirty minutes, whenhe awoke abruptly with the wild clanging of a bell in his ears. He satup and listened. It was undoubtedly the fire-bell, and had he had anydoubt about it the sound of running footsteps in the street would haveconvinced him at once.
For a moment he weighed the prospective excitement of a conflagrationagainst the comforts of the warm bed. In the end the fire offeredgreater inducements, and he leaped out of bed, lighted the gas, andtumbled into his clothes. And all the time the fire-bell clangedand clashed on the March wind. Leaving Two Spot to the undisputedpossession of the bed, Allan left the house and looked expectantlyabout him. But there was no glow in the sky in any quarter; darknessreigned everywhere save about the infrequent street lamps. Here andthere persons were running toward the fire-house, and Allan followedtheir example.
Down Main Street he hurried, entered the yard back of the library,and cut across in the face of the buffeting wind to the beginning ofTown Lane. When he reached Elm Street he was part of a steady streamof excited citizens and students, all hurrying anxiously toward where,half-way down the narrow thoroughfare, the brazen alarum was pealingdeafeningly forth. And then, for the first time since he had awoke,Allan recollected Pete and his mysterious observation regarding fire.And instantly he knew that Pete and the fire-bell were in some wayworking mischief together.
Pete's rooms were in the building at the corner of Center Street,and next door stood the fire-house, a plain two-storied building,surmounted by a twenty-foot tower, at the top of which hung the bell.When Allan reached the scene the windows of Pete's front room werebrilliantly illumined, and from one of them hung Pete, exchanginglively salutations with friends in the throng below.
For a moment Allan's suspicions were deadened. In front of thefire-house the crowd jostled and craned their necks as they staredwonderingly upward to where the tower showed indistinctly againstthe midnight sky. On every hand were heard bewildered ejaculations,while members of the volunteer fire department ran hither and thither,questioning, suggesting, and plainly distracted. The big doors wereopen and inside the engine and hose-cart, horses in harness, were readyto sally forth the instant any one discovered where the fire was orwhy the bell clanged on and on without apparent reason. Through a holein the ceiling a big rope descended, and at every clang of the bell itrose and fell again, and the building shook with the jar.
"Hello, Allan! Isn't this great?" shouted a voice in his ear, and Allanturned to find Hal, arrayed principally in a plaid dressing-gown andwhite duck cricket hat, grinning from ear to ear.
"But--but what is it?" asked Allan, bewildered.
"Don't know; nobody knows. There's the bell and there's the rope; noone's pulling it; must be spooks! Isn't it jolly?" And Hal leaped withdelight and thumped Allan on the back.
"But why does the bell ring?" he asked, following the general exampleand staring upward at the tower.
"That's it! Why does it? Some say it's the wind, but that's poppycock,you know. What I think is that some one's got a rope hitched to thebell and is pulling it from the back of the building somewhere; that'swhat I think."
"But haven't they been around there to see?"
"Yes, but they're so excited and fussed they would
n't know a rope ifthey fell over it. Some one's having a lark, you can bet on that. Isn'tit a picnic? Just hear the old bell! Wow! Listen to that!"
Allan put his mouth to Hal's ear and whispered a single word. Halstarted, shot a glance at Pete's window and Pete himself, and burstinto a gale of laughter.
"D-d-do you think so?" he gasped. "But--how could he? Look, there he isat the window. O Pete!"
"Hush up!" whispered Allan. "They'll get onto it. Look, they've got aladder! They'll find out what's up now, all right, because the ropewill be hanging. We ought to warn Pete; come on!"
They wormed their way through the crowd, exchanging shouts ofsalutation with acquaintances as they went, until they were underPete's window. There they found Tommy, note-book in hand, looking veryimportant and excited.
"O Pete!" shouted Allan. "Is your door unlocked?"
"Hello, partner!" returned Pete in a happy bellow. "Isn't this great?Here I sit at my parlor window and watch all the wealth, beauty andfashion of our charming metropolis. And, say, ain't the racket fine?This is more noise than I've heard since a dynamite blast went offbehind my back! Why, it's almost like living in a city! Say, if youfellows----"
"We want to come up," shouted Allan. "Unlock your door."
Pete shook his head.
"Not on your life, partner; I've only got my nightie on. Want me tofreeze to death?"
"Well, put something on," said Allan anxiously, "and come down."
"'Fraid of catching cold. Besides, I must turn in now; I'm losing mybeauty sleep."
"But--but, Pete, they're--they're putting up a ladder!" blurted Allan.
"Are they?" asked Pete imperturbably. "Well, I'm not coming down tohelp 'em. They'll have to get on without me, my boy. Hello, Hal, thatyou? Ain't this wano? Such a cheerful----"
Pete's roar stopped suddenly, as did the noise of the crowd. Twofiremen half-way up the ladder at the front of the building nearly felloff. For a sudden appalling silence gave place to the uproar! The bellwas still!
After a moment of startled surprise--for at first the silence seemedlouder than the noise--every one broke into incoherent laughter andejaculations. The men on the ladder paused, undecided, and finally slidback to earth to hold a consultation.
"Well, ain't that a shame!" lamented Pete. "Just when I was beginningto get sleepy! Now I'm all woke up again. Say, you chaps, wait a bitand I'll slip something on and let you up." He disappeared from thewindow and was gone some time. Then the key scraped in the door at thefoot of the stairs and Allan, Hal, and Tommy slipped through. Pete,standing guard, locked the portal in the faces of several undesiredfellows and followed them up-stairs.
As Allan entered the room he glanced eagerly around. Just what heexpected to find would have been hard to say, but whatever it was hedidn't find it. The room presented its usual appearance, save thatarticles of apparel lay scattered widely about just wherever Pete hadhappened to be when they came off. Pete locked the room door, took hispipe from the table and proceeded to fill it. The others looked aboutthe room, looked at each other and looked at Pete. Pete scratched amatch, lighted his corn-cob and smiled easily back. Allan sank into theeasy chair.
"How--how did you do it?" he gasped.
"Do it? Do what?" asked Pete, blowing a cloud of smoke toward the openwindow. Outside sounds told of the dispersing of the throng.
"You know what," said Allan.
Pete went to the window, called good night to an acquaintance, closedthe sash and ambled back, smiling enjoyably.
"Wasn't it moocha wano?" he asked. "Just answer me that, Allan. Didanything ever go off more beautifully, with more--er--_eclat_, as wesay in Paree? Is your Uncle Pete the boss, all-star bell-ringer? Didyou get on to the expression, the--the phrasing? Did you----"
"Shut up, Pete," said Hal, grinning. "Tell us about it. Go on, like agood chap."
"There's little to tell," said Pete with becoming modesty. "Upthere"--he pointed toward the ceiling--"is a loft. Over there is abell. Bring a rope from the bell into the back window of the loft,down-stairs and through that door and--there you are! Quite simple."
"But, look here," piped up Tommy. "You were at the window when the bellwas doing its stunts. How--how was that?"
"Simple, too," answered Pete, waving aside a cloud of smoke. "There wasa noose in the end of the rope and the noose fitted over my knee as Ikneeled on the floor. It was hard work and I guess the hide's aboutwore off, but it was all for the sake of Art."
The three deluged him with questions simultaneously, and Pete, sittingnonchalantly on the edge of the table, answered them as best he could.
"But how about the rope?" asked Allan finally. "They'll see it andtrace it through the window."
"Oh, no, they won't, because, my boy, it isn't there any longer. WhenI said I'd put something on and let you fellows in, I cut it off atthe foot of the tower and brought my end of it away. They'll find arope there, all right, but they'll never guess it went through the backwindow. Besides, I can prove an alibi," he ended, with a generous andvirtuous smile.
"That's so," answered Tommy. "We saw you at the window."
"When the bell was ringing," added Hal.
"And I saw both his hands," supplemented Allan.
"Yes, I meant you should," said Pete. Going to the trunk he took frombehind it the lariat which usually hung on the wall, and from one endof it detached a few feet of hemp rope. This he put into the stove. Thelariat he replaced upon the wall.
"Thus we destroy all evidences of guilt," he said.