“Gee, what a tumble!” came from Fred. “Are you sure you’re all right, Spouter?”
“I—I—guess so,” panted the unfortunate one. “Gee, but I came down awfully sudden like, didn’t I?” he added, rubbing his shoulder and then his hip.
Under ordinary circumstances all of the other boys would have paid more attention to Spouter. But now, when they saw he was not seriously injured, they immediately turned their attention again to the fire.
Pail after pail of water was taken to the roof, and gradually the flames in the chimney subsided and then went out altogether. The last few pailfuls were thrown by Randy, for Jack was almost exhausted, so strenuously had he labored to put out the conflagration.
While the work was going on overhead Fred, followed by Spouter, had reëntered the lodge and they were busy cleaning up the muss on the hearth and on the floor. Spouter limped a little, but refused to take care of his bruises until all were assured that the fire was a thing of the past.
“We were lucky to get it out so easily,” declared Jack. “At one time I thought sure the whole roof would catch fire.” He and Randy had extinguished the flames on the shingles which Spouter had been fighting.
“I don’t know what the owners of the lodge will say to this,” remarked Randy, as he looked at the muss on the floor. “But I don’t think they can claim that the fire in the chimney was our fault.”
“I can’t understand how a few birds’ nests could make such an awful blaze as that,” declared Jack. “The chimney went off as if it was stuffed with wood.”
Later on the boys solved the mystery of the fire. During some previous storm a long branch of a tree had been blown to the roof of the lodge and then settled down into the chimney. Here it had had time to dry and in it the birds had established their nests. Thus when the fire was started on the hearth the dried-out limb with its dead leaves and birds’ nests had acted very much like a huge torch.
It was not until two hours later that the boys had cleaned up the muss. They examined the chimney carefully and it was cleaned out thoroughly so that no more fires of that sort might occur. Then they started another blaze and prepared supper, after which all of them felt better, even though Spouter complained somewhat of a bruise on his shoulder and another on his hip and Jack and Randy exhibited several places on their hands and necks where the sparks had touched them.