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, pulling the fire engine along the road. It was not as easy as Jerry had thought it would be, and he had to use the utmost power of his car, strong as it was; for the steamer was heavy, and the roads were of dirt. But it was the only solution of the difficulty, with one horse disabled, and no others immediately available.

“Can you make it, boys?” asked Hank, from his seat in front of the throbbing engine.

“We will make it, or bust a cylinder!” exclaimed Jerry, as he turned off the road into a cross street that led to Frogtown, the scene of the fire.

On chugged the automobile, and behind it rumbled the fire engine. The machine was not of the[25] heaviest construction, or perhaps Jerry’s car, powerful as the latter was, could not have pulled it. But, as it happened, it was possible to move it along at good speed, and they were soon 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 engine didn’t get here in time.”

This was evident to all. The tenement, a long, rambling structure of wood, three stories high, was blazing at one end. Already about half of it had been consumed and had fallen in red ruins. The wind was blowing the flames toward the unburned portion, and it was only a question of time when it would all go.

“Here comes the other engine!” some one shouted, as Jerry drew the one he was pulling up to a fire plug.

“They’d better try to save the rest of the block, and let this shebang go!” exclaimed Jake Todger, as he jumped down and began to attach the big hose from the hydrant to the pump.

Two hose carts were on hand, one belonging to the engine the boys had pulled to the fire, and the members of the department began to attach the line to the engine.

“We’ll have a stream on in a jiffy!” exclaimed[26] Jake. “But the second engine’d better play on the other end of the block to keep that from catchin’.”

This seemed to be the idea of the chief of the fire department, for he came rushing up, and gave orders that the tenement adjoining the one that was ablaze, should be kept wet down.

“You play on the fire itself, Jake!” the chief ordered. “What happened to your engine, and where’s the driver?”

“Pitched off and hurt, I guess. Bad, too. The horses ran away an’ one’s got a busted leg. Jerry Hopkins and his chums pulled the engine here with their auto.”

“Good for them! Well, get busy.”

Jerry ran his car out of the way, and then the engine he had brought to the blaze began pumping. Soon two powerful streams were available, one playing on the blaze itself, and the other forming a curtain of water to 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 got here. I’m much obliged to you. I don’t know what we’d have done if we hadn’t had both engines.”

The fire was a fierce one, and many of the families had hurried out with only a small portion of their possessions. But it was something to have[27] escaped with their lives, for the fire was caused by the explosion of an oil stove a woman was using, and the flames spread rapidly. The woman was badly burned, as was one of her children, and they had been taken to the hospital.

“Think they can save any of it?” asked Bob of Jerry, as they stood watching, having put their automobile in a safe place.

“Not any of the tenement that’s burning, I don’t. They’ll be lucky if the rest of the block doesn’t go.”

“That’s what I think,” added Ned. “Say, hadn’t we better go back to the professor?” he asked. “Maybe he’ll think it funny of us to have gone off 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 trying to catch. The idea of stopping a runaway team of fire engine horses, and not knowing it! Just stopped ’em because he thought they’d trample on some insect! And then you think he’ll feel hurt if we don’t come back 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 place like that, and he[28] wants us to go with him,” said Bob. “We have had some corking times with him.”

“Nothing like that doing now,” observed Ned. “We’ve got to stick on at Boxwood Hall, I expect. Of course it’s a dandy place, and all that, but I would like a trip off into the wilds. And if we could take Professor Snodgrass 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 no introduction to Professor Snodgrass. He was a scientist of learning and attainments, and in the boys he had firm friends. They had taken him with 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 his services as a collector and curator of insects and reptiles were much in demand. He was an enthusiast of the first water, and would do even more desperate and risky things to secure a rare bug than stopping a runaway fire engine.

Of late he had headed a department at Boxwood Hall, and the boys were glad of this, for he proved as good a friend to them there as he had afield on their various trips.

They had left him at Boxwood, about three[29] weeks before, quietly and peacefully cataloging some of his insects, and now they beheld him in the midst of considerable excitement. The professor seldom sent word that he was coming. He just came.

“Look!” suddenly cried Jerry, as he and his chums stood watching the blaze. “What’s the idea over there?” and he pointed to where some firemen were raising a ladder at the still unburned end of the blazing tenement.

“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 end of the structure not yet directly on fire, had either been overlooked in the other rescues, or they had hidden away in fear, and were not seen.

Now some one had either told of them, or the unfortunates had been seen at the windows, and a call was given for a ladder. One was raised against the wall, and two firemen went up. They succeeded in bringing down the woman and the children, who had been trapped when the stairs burned away.

A cheer greeted the plucky efforts of the firemen, for the rescue was not an easy one. Ned, Bob and Jerry joined in the tribute. All around[30] was the crackle of flames, and thick clouds of smoke rolled here and there, smarting eyes and choking throats. The throbbing and puffing of the steamers mingled with the shouts and orders that flew back and forth.

Suddenly a cry arose at the far end of the burning tenement; the end that could not longer be held back from the flames.

The three chums ran to where the cry sounded, and observed, leaning out of a second story window on the end of the house, an old man. Smoke poured from the window back of him, and behind him could be seen the ruddy 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 the whole department out, were busy elsewhere. Some were attending the nozzles, others were helping at the engines and some were still carrying to places of safety the women and children brought down from the front of the blazing structure.

“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[31] a short one that had been thrown on the ground, evidently as of no use in reaching the women and children 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 then part of the house fell in, and the crowd surged back, thinking to get out of danger, so the boys were left comparatively to themselves in making this rescue.

“Hold the ladder at the foot, Bob,” directed Jerry; “it isn’t any too firm. 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 held out his arms to them imploringly.

Bob braced himself against the foot of the ladder to prevent it from slipping, and for once in his life he was glad that he was fat and heavy. He made a good anchor.

“Keep still! We’re coming! We’re coming!” yelled Jerry.

The aged man was excited and fearful, and[32] small wonder. The smoke, pouring from the window around him, was thicker now, and the flames back of him were brighter.

Up and up went Ned and Jerry. When they came closer they could hear the old 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 a foot to spare.

“Never mind about your money and jewelry!” shouted Jerry. “You’ll be lucky 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 back and 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 fire encircled 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 came for it, but I hid some of it away from him. I must get it. I don’t want Crooked Nose to get it! Oh, wait until I get my money!” and he disappeared from the casement.