"We'll do it as we are!" answered the patrol leader, firmly; for he believed that they must soon begin to get the mastery over the hungry flames.
Then Landy came staggering along, bearing with him a huge bucket, which he expected to dash personally on some place where it would do the most good. The farmer's boy had arrived to take his place at the brook, which set him free for sterner duties.
"Go for it, fellers!" he gasped; and then as a wicked looking finger of fire darted out toward him he emptied the contents of his pail in that direction. "Plenty more where that came from. The crick'll hold out all right, if only we can get it up here fast enough. That's the way, Ty, soak it to the measly old thing. We're going to win out yet, see!"
It was the right sort, of spirit to show at any rate; and afterwards his chums had only words of praise for Landy's conduct.
"If we c'n only hold out long enough, we're just bound to knock this old fire into a cocked hat!" Ty managed to cry out, as he seized another bucket, and turned to look for a chance to use it.
Just then he noticed a small girl standing near by, sobbing as if her heart would break. She seemed to be looking up toward the second story windows of the house that was on fire, as though there might be something that she longed to save up there.
Ty was immediately thrilled with the thought that it might be a human being. Nobody had as yet said anything about a missing person, whether a child, a very old man, or a woman; but this might come from the fact that such tremendous excitement held everybody in its grip.
Ty had read about daring feats which lads no older than himself had performed at such critical times. Perhaps within his soul there burned a desire to outshine these heroes of fact and fiction; and do something to make the name of Tyrus Collins go ringing down the ages, on the annals of heroes who have risked their lives in order to save others.
At any rate, as soon as he had emptied the bucket he was holding, he passed it along to the nearest woman, and then whirled upon the little girl.
"What's the matter with you?" he asked.