As the crowd stood there the last of the blaze 75 yielded to the efforts of the firemen. Most of the building was saved, though the business was bound to be crippled for some time, and Mr. Briggs’ loss would run into the hundreds, perhaps thousands, for all any one knew.
“Listen to him scolding the foreman of the fire company, will you?” demanded Bobolink. “He seems to think a whole hour elapsed after the alarm before the boys got here. Why, it was the quickest run on record, I should say.”
“Here they come this way,” observed Tom Betts, “and the foreman is trying to convince Mr. Briggs he is mistaken. He knows how excited Mr. Briggs is, and excuses anything he may say. Mr. Forbes is a big man in more ways than bulk.”
“Perhaps Mr. Briggs may want to scold us for not getting more stuff out before the water was turned on,” chuckled Bobolink.
“Don’t answer him back if he does,” Jack warned them, “because we know he’s nearly out of his mind just now.”
Still, even practical Jack was shocked when the old storekeeper, coming face to face with the group of scouts, suddenly pointed a trembling finger at Bobolink and exclaimed in a vindictive voice:
“I knew this fire was started in revenge, and there’s the boy who did it!”