“Where are you going now?” asked the doctor. And, when Tom had explained, he continued, “I’ll drive you to the Fraternity building myself, and probably we shall get there about as soon as your troop does. I’m sorry we had to drive that poor woman so far, but the Salem Hospital is partly burnt. She bore the journey all right, however; she had just regained consciousness when I left, and I will call up and inquire about her this evening.”
After another half-hour’s drive, during which Tom was much impressed by the distress of the people and the great amount of work to be done, they arrived at the Fraternity building, and he at once reported to Mr. Miller.
When Tom had bolted toward the crowd surrounding the fainting woman, his absence had not been noticed because so many things were happening on all sides. The main body of boys soon came to a place where they had an unobstructed view of the fire and where the people were standing in a compact mass looking on at the awe-inspiring but brilliant scene. The street, however, was blocked, and the people were not allowed to approach any nearer to the fire. Many of them were excited; and, every now and then, two or three would surge forward in advance of the line, pushing ahead of them a rope that had been roughly secured to bar the way. As the boys approached the scene, they heard a voice calling out: “Stand back! Stand back!” and Jack Perkins a few moments later called out:
“Say, boys, we are not the only scouts here!”
Dick Gray was near the front, behind Jack, and there were two or three rows of people tightly pressed together ahead of him, so that he could not see what was going on in the front, but he ducked down and got through between their legs and saw a Boy Scout, with a patrol leader’s badge in his hat and staff in hand, guarding the line and holding back the crowd.
“Hullo, Bob!” called out Dick from somewhere near the ground. He had recognized Bob Peters of the second Beverly troop, who had made a record for high jumping at the last Boy Scout rally.
“Hullo!” called back Bob, with a grin. “What are you doing there down cellar?”
“Hunting for the fire hose!” cried Dick, quick as a wink, and disappeared behind the legs of the crowd again.
As they could not get through in this direction, it became necessary to find some other and more roundabout way, so they turned off to the right, making a semicircle and avoiding the thickest part of the smoke. Finally they came to the Fraternity building on Central Street, which was out of the path of the wind and fire.
As they entered the building, the smell of cooking attracted their attention first, and they met several boys passing through the hall carrying loaves of bread and pitchers, which they very soon discovered contained soup. While some of the scouts and other members of the Fraternity were patrolling the city in search of good turns to homeless people, others were waiting to carry supplies of food wherever they might be needed.