"Freddie would like to see the fire, if there is one," remarked Nell
Martin.
"Oh, that's so! Where is Freddie?" cried Bert.
Then, for the first time, Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey noticed that the little blue-eyed and light-haired boy was not with them.
But at that moment around the corner of a deck cabin came a man wearing a cap with gold braid around the edge. He was smiling and leading by the hand a little boy. And the little boy was Freddie!
"Oh, there he is!" cried Flossie. "Freddie, where were you?" she asked.
"And did you been to see the fire?"
"Well, I rather guess he did!" exclaimed the man, who was the captain of the boat. "He Was the whole fire himself!"
"The whole fire?" cried Mr. Bobbsey. "Do you mean to say that my little boy started a fire?"
"Oh, nothing as bad as that!" said the captain, and he smiled down on Freddie who smiled up at him in return. "No, all your little boy did was to ring the fire alarm bell and then call out 'Fire!' But of course that was enough to start things going, and we had quite a good deal of excitement for a time. But it's all right now, and I think he won't do it again."
"Just what did he do?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, as Freddie came over to stand beside his mother. He looked rather ashamed.
"Well, on the deck, back of the wheel-house, which is the little place where I or my men stand to steer the boat, there is a fire alarm bell. It's there for any one to ring who finds the boat on fire, and when the bell is rung all my firemen hurry to put out the blaze," said the captain.