"Yes, I know you by your picture," answered Mrs. Bunker. "But I never expected to see you so soon. Where did you come from?"
"No time to talk now—excuse me—got to hustle as I did in the army in France!" was the answer. "I'll tell you all about it later. Now, if you'll get me a clothesline, I'll climb to the roof and put out the chimney fire!"
"You can't put out a fire with a clothesline, can you?" asked Violet. "Don't you need a hose?"
"Yes, little girl. I don't know what your name is, but I'll find out later," said the man who had been called "Captain Ben" by Mrs. Bunker. "What I want the clothesline for is to carry it up to the roof with me. I can't take a hose, but I can tie the rope around my waist, climb up, and then the fireman can tie the end of the hose to the line. Then I can haul up the hose, the fireman can turn on the water, I'll squirt the water down the blazing chimney, and the fire will soon be out."
"Oh!" exclaimed Vi. She very seldom had such a long answer given to any of the questions she asked. "Oh," she said again.
"Where's a clothesline?" cried Captain Ben.
"I'll get you one," offered Norah, and she rushed around to the side yard, coming back in a few seconds with a long, trailing length of line she had cut from the posts. Meanwhile more and more black smoke was coming from the chimney, and some was drifting out of the attic window Russ had opened.
"Good! Thank you!" exclaimed Captain Ben.
"Do you think the house is catching fire?" asked Mrs. Bunker of the chief of the department, who came up on the porch just then.
"Not yet; but it may soon," he answered. "What are we going to do?" he went on. "We have no ladder to get to the roof, and——"