“I guess that’s what we’d all better do,” added Nat, for the wintry wind was beginning to make itself felt, now that the exercise in putting out the fire no longer warmed them.
“Come, young gentlemen, get inside,” called Dr. Mead, and the students filed back into the school. The smoke was rapidly clearing away, and after a tour of the building, to make sure the flames were not lurking in any unsuspected corners, the pupils were ordered to bed.
Jack and his chums managed to get a little sleep before morning, but when our hero awoke, after troubled dreams, he called out:
“Say, Nat, there doesn’t seem to be any steam heat in this room.”
“There isn’t,” announced Nat, after feeling of the radiator. “It’s as cold as a stone.”
“Socker must have let the fire in the boiler get low,” went on Jack. “Probably he thought the blaze last night was enough. B-r-r-r! Let’s get dressed in a hurry and go down where it’s warm.”
They soon descended to the main dining-room, where to their surprise they found a number of shivering students and teachers. There was no warmth in the radiators there, either.
“What’s the matter?” asked Jack.
“Ach, Ranger,” explained Professor Garlach, “der fire from der boiler has avay gone, alretty, und dere is no more hot vasser mit vich more can be made yet. So ve haf der coldness.”
“I should say we did,” commented Jack. “Can’t Socker start a new fire and get up steam?”