“Cut it and run!” advised Moran, making for the door.
“No, you don’t!” shouted Walter, blocking it. “Guard the windows, Dray—Ed!” he called.
“The papers! The papers!” voiced Cora. “Get them before they burn, or Mrs. Lewis will lose the land!”
“I’ll get them!” shouted Jack.
He flung himself upon Bruce as he had often flung himself upon a player in tackling him on the football field.
“Look out for yourself!” threatened Bruce.
But Jack was not afraid. He twisted himself about Bruce, and sought to reach the papers.
Bruce, to get them out of Jack’s reach, held them high in the air, over his head. The two were struggling. Moran and Kelly were wrestling with Ed and Walter, while the other girls cowered behind Dray, who had caught up a chair as a weapon.
Cora saw her chance. She slipped around behind Bruce, and with a leap that had often enabled her to outwit an opponent in playing basket ball, the plucky motor girl snatched the papers from the man’s hand. Full and clean was her jump, and the smouldering papers came away in her grasp.
“I have them, Jack!” she cried. “Look out for the men!”