Bunny frowned. "We'll go right on being Scouts and living up to the Scout law, just as we did before we ever knew Sheffield. Jump and S. S., you two pike down to the fire department and hustle Dave Hendershot up here with the hose cart. Prissler, you chase downtown and rouse people. Roundy, break into the schoolhouse and ring the bell for all you're worth. Nap, you take the school telephone and call Central and the fire department. The rest of us will do what we can right here."
However much the Scouts would have preferred to stay at the scene of action, they hesitated not at all in obeying these necessarily curt orders. Three runners scurried away toward Main Street; two others made a bee line for the janitor's entrance of the high school.
"Oh, all right!" grunted Specs. "Now we can go ahead and be heroes and save dear old Roy's car for him. I'd certainly like to see the blamed thing saved—that is, all except the tires and the motor and the tool box and the lights and a few other things."
Whenever Specs reached this particular mood, it was best to let him talk his way out of it. Bunny ignored him completely and ran toward the burning building.
Grady's barn was the usual two-story structure, its peaked roof topped by an old-fashioned cupola. At the front, two swinging doors were locked by a wooden bar within, a smaller side entrance being used for ordinary comings and goings.
"Locked with a big padlock," said Bunny, testing the side door while Bonfire and Specs hurried to the west side of the building.
Bi returned from an excursion to the rear. "Back door's nailed fast," he reported. "There are iron bars across the inside of that back window, too."
Through this latter opening, Bi had seen the smoke thickening inside, but he had failed to discover any way of breaking through to smother it. It was evident that when Mr. Grady had turned over his horseless barn to Royal Sheffield, he had made it thoroughly burglar proof.
"If I had an ax," Bi muttered wistfully, "I'd smash through that door in a hurry."
With a common impulse, Bunny and Bi picked up a long board, to use as a battering-ram against the sagging double door. Under the blows, the barn resounded, but the doors remained as tightly shut as before.