In making a last desperate plunge to escape William the fugitive happened to collide with a pair of oars that stood up against the wall in what was believed to be a secure place.
One thing followed another, just as a line of bricks standing on end will bow to the fall of the leading one. Scissors struck the oars and they in turn crashed against that single lighted lamp, knocking it from its cup!
"Oh!" exclaimed William, pausing in sudden horror, as he saw the lamp go down.
There was a crash, and a shriek from Scissors, who had tripped, and plunged headlong. Paul saw a blaze of light; and he knew that the lamp had broken, depositing its dangerous fluid all around. Kerosene in these days is not the same deadly explosive it used to be in other times; still, it will catch fire under certain conditions; and he saw that unless prompt measures were taken the church was doomed!
"Be prepared!"
That scout motto never had a better chance of being lived up to than just at that critical moment, when the oil from the broken lamp began to take fire in various places.
Paul jumped like a flash toward the pile of
blankets, and snatched up several in his hands. Nor was Jack an instant behind him, only he happened to seize upon a tent in the excitement of the moment, when there was certainly no time to change.
Regardless of any injury to the articles they were wielding, both lads swung at the flames, and beat them furiously. Such prompt action was sure to meet with its reward, for it would have to be a pretty hot little conflagration that could stand against such energetic work.
But Scissors was calling out, and beating frantically at his garments, which seemed to be afire in half a dozen places. It was then that William, who had just a brief time before been pursuing the imperiled lad with seeming vindictiveness, proved that there was little of venom in his heart.