CHAPTER IV
CROOKED NOSE
“Some fire, boys!”
“Yes, we aren’t going to get there any too soon.”
“I doubt if we can save any of the old shacks if they get going.”
Thus spoke Ned, Bob and Jerry as they sat in the automobile, pullingthe fire engine along the road. It was not as easy as Jerry had thoughtit would be, and he had to use the utmost power of his car, strong asit was; for the steamer was heavy, and the roads were of dirt. But itwas the only solution of the difficulty, with one horse disabled, andno others immediately available.
“Can you make it, boys?” asked Hank, from his seat in front of thethrobbing engine.
“We will make it, or bust a cylinder!” exclaimed Jerry, as he turnedoff the road into a cross street that led to Frogtown, the scene of thefire.
On chugged the automobile, and behind it rumbled the fire engine. Themachine was not of the heaviest construction, or perhaps Jerry’scar, powerful as the latter was, could not have pulled it. But, as ithappened, it was possible to move it along at good speed, and they weresoon at the head of the street on which stood the burning structure.
“It’s one of the big tenements!” cried Ned.
“Yes, and it’s gone beyond saving, I guess,” added Jerry. “The enginedidn’t get here in time.”
This was evident to all. The tenement, a long, rambling structure ofwood, three stories high, was blazing at one end. Already about half ofit had been consumed and had fallen in red ruins. The wind was blowingthe flames toward the unburned portion, and it was only a question oftime when it would all go.
“Here comes the other engine!” some one shouted, as Jerry drew the onehe was pulling up to a fire plug.
“They’d better try to save the rest of the block, and let this shebanggo!” exclaimed Jake Todger, as he jumped down and began to attach thebig hose from the hydrant to the pump.
Two hose carts were on hand, one belonging to the engine the boys hadpulled to the fire, and the members of the department began to attachthe line to the engine.
“We’ll have a stream on in a jiffy!” exclaimed Jake. “But the secondengine’d better play on the other end of the block to keep that fromcatchin’.”
This seemed to be the idea of the chief of the fire department, for hecame rushing up, and gave orders that the tenement adjoining the onethat was ablaze, should be kept wet down.
“You play on the fire itself, Jake!” the chief ordered. “What happenedto your engine, and where’s the driver?”
“Pitched off and hurt, I guess. Bad, too. The horses ran away an’ one’sgot a busted leg. Jerry Hopkins and his chums pulled the engine herewith their auto.”
“Good for them! Well, get busy.”
Jerry ran his car out of the way, and then the engine he had brought tothe blaze began pumping. Soon two powerful streams were available, oneplaying on the blaze itself, and the other forming a curtain of waterto prevent the fire from spreading.
“Anybody hurt?” asked Jerry of the chief.
“No, I guess not. We got most of the folks out before your engine gothere. I’m much obliged to you. I don’t know what we’d have done if wehadn’t had both engines.”
The fire was a fierce one, and many of the families had hurried outwith only a small portion of their possessions. But it was somethingto have escaped with their lives, for the fire was caused by theexplosion of an oil stove a woman was using, and the flames spreadrapidly. The woman was badly burned, as was one of her children, andthey had been taken to the hospital.
“Think they can save any of it?” asked Bob of Jerry, as they stoodwatching, having put their automobile in a safe place.
“Not any of the tenement that’s burning, I don’t. They’ll be lucky ifthe rest of the block doesn’t go.”
“That’s what I think,” added Ned. “Say, hadn’t we better go back to theprofessor?” he asked. “Maybe he’ll think it funny of us to have goneoff and left him.”
“You ought to know him better than that by this time!” exclaimed Jerry,with a laugh. “He won’t think about anything but that bug he’s tryingto catch. The idea of stopping a runaway team of fire engine horses,and not knowing it! Just stopped ’em because he thought they’d trampleon some insect! And then you think he’ll feel hurt if we don’t comeback after him!
“Just let him alone. Sooner or later he’ll show up at one of our homes,and then we can find out what he’s doing in this neighborhood now.”
“Maybe he’s planning some expedition to South America, or some placelike that, and he wants us to go with him,” said Bob. “We have hadsome corking times with him.”
“Nothing like that doing now,” observed Ned. “We’ve got to stick on atBoxwood Hall, I expect. Of course it’s a dandy place, and all that, butI would like a trip off into the wilds. And if we could take ProfessorSnodgrass along it would be dandy.”
But events were to shape themselves differently for the motor boys.Those of you who have read the previous books of the series need nointroduction to Professor Snodgrass. He was a scientist of learning andattainments, and in the boys he had firm friends. They had taken himwith them on nearly all of their trips, by automobile, in the airships,in the submarines, and when they journeyed in their motor boats.
The professor had been connected with colleges and museums, for hisservices as a collector and curator of insects and reptiles were muchin demand. He was an enthusiast of the first water, and would do evenmore desperate and risky things to secure a rare bug than stopping arunaway fire engine.
Of late he had headed a department at Boxwood Hall, and the boys wereglad of this, for he proved as good a friend to them there as he hadafield on their various trips.
They had left him at Boxwood, about three weeks before, quietly andpeacefully cataloging some of his insects, and now they beheld him inthe midst of considerable excitement. The professor seldom sent wordthat he was coming. He just came.
“Look!” suddenly cried Jerry, as he and his chums stood watching theblaze. “What’s the idea over there?” and he pointed to where somefiremen were raising a ladder at the still unburned end of the blazingtenement.
“Looks like a rescue,” observed Ned.
“That’s what it is,” said Bob. “They’re taking down an old woman!”
“And some children!” added Jerry.
This was what was going on. Two families, in the top story of the endof the structure not yet directly on fire, had either been overlookedin the other rescues, or they had hidden away in fear, and were notseen.
Now some one had either told of them, or the unfortunates had beenseen at the windows, and a call was given for a ladder. One was raisedagainst the wall, and two firemen went up. They succeeded in bringingdown the woman and the children, who had been trapped when the stairsburned away.
A cheer greeted the plucky efforts of the firemen, for the rescue wasnot an easy one. Ned, Bob and Jerry joined in the tribute. All aroundwas the crackle of flames, and thick clouds of smoke rolled here andthere, smarting eyes and choking throats. The throbbing and puffingof the steamers mingled with the shouts and orders that flew back andforth.
Suddenly a cry arose at the far end of the burning tenement; the endthat could not longer be held back from the flames.
The three chums ran to where the cry sounded, and observed, leaning outof a second story window on the end of the house, an old man. Smokepoured from the window back of him, and behind him could be seen theruddy flames, ever coming nearer.
“Another one they’ve forgotten,” cried Ned.
“Or else he hid away, or has been unconscious,” added Bob.
“They’ve got to get him soon!” exclaimed Jerry.
But the firemen, and there were none too many of them even with thewhole department out, were busy elsewhere. Some were attending thenozzles, others were helping at the engines and some were stillcarrying to places of safety the women and children brought down fromthe front of the blazing struct
ure.
“We’ve got to get him down!” cried Jerry.
“If we only had a ladder!” added Ned.
“Here’s one!” shouted Bob, and he pointed to a short one that had beenthrown on the ground, evidently as of no use in reaching the women andchildren who were taken from the floor higher up.
“Will it reach?” asked Ned.
“We’ve got to try,” Jerry yelled. “Bring it over!”
With the aid of his chums, he raised it against the window. Just thenpart of the house fell in, and the crowd surged back, thinking to getout of danger, so the boys were left comparatively to themselves inmaking this rescue.
“Hold the ladder at the foot, Bob,” directed Jerry; “it isn’t any toofirm. Ned and I’ll go up and see if we can get him down.”
The old man, half choked from smoke, was leaning from the window now,shouting as well as he could with his feeble breath.
“Don’t jump!” yelled Ned. “We’re coming after you!”
Quickly he started up the ladder, followed by Jerry. The old man heldout his arms to them imploringly.
Bob braced himself against the foot of the ladder to prevent it fromslipping, and for once in his life he was glad that he was fat andheavy. He made a good anchor.
“Keep still! We’re coming! We’re coming!” yelled Jerry.
The aged man was excited and fearful, and small wonder. The smoke,pouring from the window around him, was thicker now, and the flamesback of him were brighter.
Up and up went Ned and Jerry. When they came closer they could hear theold man shouting:
“My money! My money! I must get my money and the jewelry!”
They were at the window now, the ladder just reaching to it, with not afoot to spare.
“Never mind about your money and jewelry!” shouted Jerry. “You’ll belucky to get off with your life. Come on, we’ll help you down!”
“No, I must get my money! I can not afford to lose it! I must go backand get it, and get the jewelry! They took some but I saved the rest.”
He turned as though to hobble back into the smoke filled and fireencircled room.
“You’ll be burned to death if you go!” shouted Jerry.
“Oh, but I must get my money!” whined the aged man. “Crooked Nose camefor it, but I hid some of it away from him. I must get it. I don’twant Crooked Nose to get it! Oh, wait until I get my money!” and hedisappeared from the casement.