By the time the first stream of water was turned on the fire the flames were leaping upward, and the entire back part of the store seemed to be doomed. Being a frame building and very old it had been like matchwood in the path of the flames.
“Now watch how they slam things down on the old fire!” exclaimed Bobolink as he stood aside unable to enter the store again since the firemen had taken possession of the premises. “The water will do more damage than the fire ever had a chance to accomplish.”
“Wow! see them smash those windows in, will you!” shouted Jud Elderkin, as a man with a fire 74 axe made a fresh opening in one side of the store in order to put a second line of hose to work.
Everybody was calling out, and what with the crackling of the hungry flames, the neighing of the horses that had drawn the fire-engine to the spot, the whooping of gangs of delighted boys, and a lot of other miscellaneous sounds, Bedlam seemed to have broken loose in Stanhope on this night before Christmas.
“They’ve got the bulge on it already, seems like,” announced Tom Betts.
“But even that doesn’t seem to give Mr. Briggs much satisfaction,” remarked Frank. “There he is running back and forth between the store and the stack of goods we piled up in the street.”
“I reckon he is afraid the police will steal some of the silks,” chuckled Bobolink.
“The fire is going down right fast now,” Tom Betts affirmed. “What’s left of the Briggs’ store may be saved. But Mr. Briggs is bound to lose a heap, and it cuts the old man to the bone to let a dollar slip away from him.”
“To think of such a smart business man allowing his insurance policy to lapse, and to lie unrenewed for a whole month!” exclaimed Bluff.
“Got tired paying premiums for so many years and never having a fire,” explained Jack.