“Don’t need you boys,” the building owner called cheerily. “Fire’s out. Thanks to these young fellows here.”
Flash and Jerry waited while the firemen inspected the basement. The odor of gasoline was strong. In poking about on the floor, one of the men found the remains of a rubber bladder which had been used to start the fire.
“I saw how the fellow did it!” Sam Davis revealed excitedly. “The bladder was filled with gasoline. Then he started a little fire beneath it. The heat made the bladder explode, and the flames spread everywhere. It’s a miracle I wasn’t burned.”
Flash took a picture of one of the firemen examining the device, and then with Jerry, slipped quietly away. On the street, they paused to consider their plans.
“You go on home without me,” urged Flash. “I want to run over to the newspaper office and develop these films.”
“Does the paper print tonight?” Jerry asked in surprise.
“The last edition is out. But the Sunday editor will want the pictures, I’m pretty sure. There’s dynamite in this arson story, Jerry! If it should develop that the Elston Apartment fire was set by the same outfit—”
“No evidence to support that theory, is there?”
“None yet. But it’s been rumored that the Elston Apartment fire was a planned job.”
“Haven’t seen anything about it in the newspapers.”