"It did wake some folks up," answered Roger, for quite a few boys and men had come up to find out what the flames and noise meant.
"It was certainly some firecracker," was Luke's comment.
"Say, speaking of firecrackers puts me in mind of a story!" burst out Shadow.
"Wow! A story this time of night!" murmured Buster. "I'm going to bed."
"This is a short one," pleaded the would-be story-teller. "A man was giving a celebration one Fourth of July to a lot of children. He had ordered a lot of firecrackers, but they didn't come. So he sent a telegram to the wholesale house in the city. 'Send big and little crackers as ordered at once.' About an hour afterwards he got a return telegram which said, 'Our grocery department is closed to-day. Your order for crackers will be filled to-morrow.'"
"Call that a crackerjack joke?" asked Roger, with a grin.
"Don't crack any more like that, Shadow," added Dave.
"You might get fired if you do," contributed Phil; and then a general laugh went up, after which all of the boys again retired.
In the morning the lads inspected the vicinity of the fire once more, and spent some time in shooting off a pistol and a shotgun which Roger possessed. Then, acting on a suggestion from Dave, they took a walk to the railroad station.
Here an interesting bit of news awaited them, which was to the effect that, owing to some trouble with a bridge about a mile outside of Hemson, two passenger trains and a freight had been held up at the station for several hours.