There was a crash of glass and a great volume of smoke and flames burst through a window and roared up the side of the building.
The next instant Joe was running toward the house with the speed of the wind with Jim close on his heels.
CHAPTER II
THE JAWS OF DEATH
The burning house was a frame structure, three stories in height, very old in appearance, and so dry that if the flames got a good hold on it it would evidently burn like tinder.
On their way the ball players had to pass a small store over the door of which Joe saw a pay telephone sign.
“You go in there, Jim, and call up the fire department,” he panted. “Then join me as quickly as you can.”
Jim dashed into the store and Joe kept on, his steps quickened still more, if that were possible, by shrill shrieks that came from the imperiled house.
The thick volume of smoke made it difficult at first to detect the owner of the voice, but as he drew nearer Baseball Joe saw the head and shoulders of an elderly woman hanging out of a window of the third story.
She was evidently frantic with fear and her screams were heart-rending.