"Don't be too sure!" cautioned Captain Bert. "There's lots of fire yet!"
There was, but the three streams of water, even if one was a small one, were beginning to tell. Gradually the flames amid the lumber on the barge began to die away. Once or twice it seemed as if the boat would break loose and go drifting down on the others, but grit told, and the boys held the craft.
"She's out now!" cried Vincent, as only a pall of smoke seemed to hang over the barge, and the boys at the brakes, hearing this with feelings of relief, ceased pumping. No sooner had they stopped than the flames burst out in a new place, and flared up fiercely.
"Jump right on the barge and take the hose with you," cried Bert, for the fire had been extinguished on that end of the barge nearest the flat-boat. "The water will do more good at close range."
The young firemen needed no second order. Dragging three lines of hose with them they leaped aboard the flaming boat and scrambled over the piles of charred lumber to the farther end, where the flames now were.
Then the fire gave up the fight. The last flame was quenched and the boys could take a much-needed rest.
"What'll we do now?" asked Cole of Bert. Every one seemed to depend on the young captain for instructions.
"I think we'd better run the barge ashore below here," he said. "Then there'll be no danger if the fire breaks out again."
"I'll guarantee that fire won't break out again," boasted Cole. "We soaked it too well."
"You can't tell what a fire will do," replied Bert. "It may be smouldering down in a corner where the water didn't reach."