“It was every man for himself then.”
“Oh, was it?”
“Sure.”
“And in such a case you’d leave a friend lying unconscious to be burned to death, would you?”
“I didn’t know you were unconscious. I was having troubles enough of my own. I didn’t know what happened to you.”
“Well, I’ll tell you what happened. About four of those fellows, including Merriwell himself, jumped on me in a bunch. One of them hit me over the head with a piece of lead pipe or something like that. That was the last I knew until I found myself lying on the floor, almost choked by smoke and nearly roasted by fire.”
“That was a tough situation,” admitted Wolfe. “How’d you get out?”
“How did I? I wish you’d tell me. I crawled among those boxes and bales on all fours without having an idea where the door was. Just by good luck I found it. Only for that good luck, my bones would be lying this minute in the ruins of Dinsmore & Hyde’s old warehouse.”
“It was a mighty bad piece of business,” breathed Bern, shaking his head. “Only for that accidental fire the Merriwell crowd would have had us all pinched. I can see what would have happened to us. The fire gave us a chance to break away, for they had to take care of themselves, and they were all afraid of being nabbed by the police or some one. You see you can’t blame me for leaving you, Mike. I didn’t know what had happened to you, and I don’t think the others did. It was pretty rank of the Merriwell bunch when they skipped out and left you there. Seems to me it was up to some of them to look after you.”
“Well, they didn’t,” lied Mike. “But why didn’t some of you fellows come around last night to find out whether I reached my room or not? Toleman was the only chap who had decency enough to poke his nose in here.”