Sidney was doing all in his power to check the fire which rapidly crept out over the floor, and Mr. Peters shouted as he thus rescued Uncle Zenas:
"The flour! The flour, Sonny! Throw it over the fat!"
The pan in which Uncle Zenas had been mixing the dough was close at hand, and Sidney flung its contents upon the blaze, the sweet, sticky stuff acting like a blanket on the burning fat, but sending forth dense, stifling clouds of smoke.
Delaying only sufficiently long to make certain that the cook was no longer in danger of being burned to death, Mr. Peters ran swiftly to the head of the stairs, closed the door in the floor, and then darted back to open the windows lest all hands be suffocated.
In the meanwhile Captain Eph had made several vain efforts to rise, but each time his left leg bent under him, causing such agony of pain that he could not repress deep groans, which frightened Sidney almost as much as had the fire.
"What is the matter?" the lad cried tremulously, as he knelt by the side of the keeper, giving no further heed to the possibility that the tower might soon be in flames.
"I don't know whether my leg is broken or not," the old man replied as he strove to prevent any sign of suffering from escaping his lips. "Don't spend your time on me, Sonny, but fight the fire, else we're all likely to be burned alive!"
Until this moment Uncle Zenas had not spoken; but continued to roll over and over on the floor as if suffering severely, and Mr. Peters devoted all his attention to him. Now when Captain Eph gave a decided command, the first assistant set about obeying it, and, with Sidney, labored feverishly to extinguish the flames which had already eaten into the floor and around the window.
Fresh water was a precious liquid on Carys' Ledge, where the entire supply must be brought from the mainland; but now it was used freely, and while the two injured men lay upon the floor unable to care for themselves, the kitchen was literally flooded before the last spark of fire had been extinguished.
Not until then did either Mr. Peters or Sidney give heed to the suffering keepers, but when the lad and the first assistant would have attended to Captain Eph, he said hoarsely: