Nevertheless he immediately dropped his heavy bulk to where Donald's most persuasive puffing had failed to stir the fire to even the faintest indications of enthusiasm.
"Say," queried Big Jack, when he had taken a long and judicial squint into the dull glow within the grate, "what are you trying to burn in this stove—asbestos? Pity you three poor weaklings couldn't even get a breakfast while I'm doing the early bird stuff, out scouting for the real news."
With which he settled himself in place for the first gusty blast at the grate.
"What is the news? Did you get any? Don't be selfish about it—let the rest of us hear it," they fired at him, almost in unison.
Carew merely grunted. His expanding chest burst a button from his coat, and it went bouncing across the floor to a further corner of the room. He was getting ready to go into action, was Big Jack Carew, and he never did anything half-heartedly.
"What'd you get?" demanded Donald Harlan again, impatient to know of the slightest hint or tip or bit of speculative gossip that might throw the least light upon the all-important question of when they might start upon the first aeroplane journey ever attempted across the Atlantic.
But he had scarcely uttered the query when there was a miniature explosion like the blowout of a 35x5 automobile tire under ninety pounds pressure, followed by a very audible grunt and a reflex cloud of cinders and ashes which for the moment entirely enveloped and obscured the tremendous proportions of Big Jack Carew. The first sound thereafter was a muffled gasp from that person; and when finally the ash cloud had sufficiently settled, the first view the other youths had of Carew he was pawing viciously at eyes, nose and ears with both hands.
"What'd I get?" he repeated, in genuine bad humor for the moment. "I got gas and liquid fire all in one. Don't ask me what I got. Can't you see! I think somebody touched a match to old Vesuvius. Here, one of you fellows pump this old stove. I give it too much energy."
But as he found that he still retained the vision of both eyes, that he could hear as well as ever, and could even breathe through his nose, although with some difficulty, his natural good nature asserted itself and he joined in the no-wise gentle guffaws of Andy Flures and the milder laughter of the other two.
"Holy smoke is right," Jack ejaculated; and then, improvising: