"This gentlemen is going to climb up to the roof for us," interrupted the fireman who had been talking to Mrs. Bunker. He pointed to Captain Ben, who was making some loops in the clothesline that Norah had brought him.
"How's he going to get to the top of the high roof of this house when we can't get up ourselves without long ladders?" asked the fire chief. "And our long ladder is broken. How are you going to get up, if I may ask?" he inquired of Captain Ben.
"You don't need to ask one of Uncle Sam's soldier-sailors a question like that," was the answer. "I was one of the marines in the late war, and doing hard things is just what the marines like. I'll show you how I'm going to get up to the roof without a ladder. Be ready to bend on the hose when I give the word."
"We'll be all ready," the fire chief promised. "I'm ashamed of our department for not being able to put out a simple chimney fire before this, but I didn't know our long ladder was broken. That makes all the trouble."
"The trouble will soon be over when I get up there!" declared the young soldier with a look at Russ, Rose, and the other little Bunkers. They all wondered who he was and how it was their mother knew him from having seen his picture. Not even Russ, the oldest, remembered any relative named Captain Ben.
"Now we're all ready!" exclaimed the former marine, as he had called himself. "We'll have this fire out in no time!"
He seemed to know just what to do, and even the fire chief was waiting for Captain Ben. With the clothesline tied around his shoulders in a knot that could quickly be loosed, the stranger ran to a large copper rain pipe fastened to the side of the house. Near the rain pipe, or leader, as it is called, was also a lightning rod, and there was a strong ivy vine growing and climbing up a wire trellis which was nailed on the wall of the house.
"Up I go!" cried Captain Ben, and in another moment he was going up the side of the house, climbing hand over hand by means of the lightning rod, the copper leader, and the vine. None of these, alone, would have been strong enough to have held him, but by using all three together the soldier-sailor managed to get up to the roof.
The roof of the Bunker house, where the blazing chimney came through, was a peaked one, though it was not of a very steep slant. Russ wondered how Captain Ben was going to climb this peak, which was like a hill, only covered with shingles. But the sailor had on low shoes with rubber soles, and these did not let him slip. Stooping down, and helping himself along with his hands when he reached the roof, Captain Ben made his way close to the chimney.
From it now could be seen coming flames and sparks as well as smoke, and it began to look as though the whole house might soon be ablaze.