“Come on!” he called. “There are some pails with water along the wall, and a couple of hand extinguishers!”
They reached the engine-room, to find a blaze in one corner, where Socker kept some waste, cans of oil, old rags and brooms. The fire had been eating toward the storeroom, where the midnight feast had been held.
“Forward the fire brigade!” yelled Jack as he grabbed up an extinguisher and began to play it on the flames, while some of his chums caught up pails of water, kept filled for just such an emergency.
The flames were beginning to crackle now, and the fire seemed likely to be a bad one.
Suddenly Socker, who was running about doing nothing, looked at the boiler and cried out:
“Run! Everybody run! The safety valve has caught, and the boiler will blow up! Run! Run!”
The boys needed no second warning. Jack paused for a moment, for the stream from his extinguisher was beginning to quench the flames, but as he saw Socker fleeing from the room, and as he reflected that it would be dangerous to remain, he turned and fled, carrying the apparatus with him.
“Everybody out!” cried Socker. “Get ’em all out! The boiler will blow up!”
The lads, lightly clad, fled through the basement door out into the night. The snow, which had ceased that evening, had started in again, and the storm was howling as if in glee at the plight of the students of Washington Hall, who were driven from their beds by fire.