“Tell him,” said Ronnie, “we’ll be out of here before he knows it.”
Phil held the flashlight while Ronnie showed Caldwell the best way down to the culvert. Then the two boys turned back to their work. Phil held the flashlight against the ash box while Ronnie inspected it. The iron door was rusted, but not enough to prevent Ronnie from swinging it open. It squealed and protested and showers of rust flakes fell to the ground.
Ronnie poked the light inside and held his face to the opening. “There’s an opening at the top,” he said to Phil. “It must go all the way up into the fireplace, or else how did the ashes get down to the box?”
Using Bill’s knife, Ronnie shaved some of the kindling wood into tiny splinters. He placed these in the ash box first, arranging them carefully so there was sufficient air space between each piece. Over these, in tepee style, he placed the larger pieces of dry wood. “All ready for the match,” he told Phil, reaching for one.
“Let me do it,” Phil insisted. “They’re my matches, and where would we be now if I hadn’t grabbed a pocketful this morning?”
Ronnie didn’t argue the point. He watched his brother apply the flame to the kindling and saw the fire creep upward into the larger pieces.
“So far, so good!” Ronnie exclaimed. The orange light from the fire was reflected in Phil’s face. “Let’s put all the dry wood on first and get as hot a fire as we can. Then we’ll use the wet stuff.”
Soon they had quite a blaze going in the ash box. It crackled and sputtered, and the metal banged every once in a while as it expanded from the heat. The wet wood dampened the fire considerably after it was applied, but as the pieces dried out from the heat, they too caught and burned fiercely.
“Now we’re ready for the rubber!” Ronnie announced later. He tossed the first piece into the fire. It sputtered for a moment, melting about the edges. A thick cloud of inky-black smoke filled the ash box and crowded into the opening at the top.
Ronnie threw in a few more pieces and then slammed the door shut to keep the smoke inside. “Now all we can do is wait,” Ronnie said to his brother.