"Burn th' map! Git tew th' spring with them pails an' git busy with th' water," and, with a violent swing of his huge body, Ham flung a large gold-pan full of water on top of the flaming roof.
Thure and Bud at once hurried to the spring.
By this time the alarm of fire had raced up and down the gulches and ravines of Hangtown and men were running from every direction toward the burning building. Already a hundred or more men were stretched in a long line from the house to the spring; and down this line buckets and pails and pans of water were passing as swiftly as strong and willing arms could send them. The air was filled with the yells and cries of excited men.
Thure and Bud at once pushed their pails and buckets into service and promptly joined a new line that was forming.
Fortunately the spring was a large one and the water held out; and, in a short time, a great shout went up from the house and rushed along the two lines of bucket men up to the spring and echoed and reëchoed triumphantly up and down through the rocky gulches and canyons of Hangtown.
The fire had been conquered; but not until the larger part of the roof had been burned and the greater part of the interior furnishings destroyed.
The cause of the fire was a mystery. Mr. and Mrs. Dickson were positive that it did not come from the fireplace, that, in fact, it had started in almost the opposite end of the house and nearly directly under their bunk; for, when the heat and the smoke awoke them, the foot of the bunk and the lower end of the bed-clothes were already ablaze. Everything inside the house was too badly burnt to furnish any positive clues; but it was the opinion of nearly all the excited men that the house had been set on fire purposely; and, if they could have but laid their hands on the miscreant, there would have been as speedy a hanging as the one had been that had given the town its unsavory name.
The moment the excitement of the fire was over, Thure and Bud hastened to their fathers and hurriedly told them what had happened on their return to the house and of the disappearance of the map.
The two men at once quietly but quickly gathered the other members of the company and soon all were back again in the house, with the door tightly closed.
"Now," and Mr. Conroyal turned to the two boys, "tell us exactly what happened."