As the man asked more questions, Ash explained fully the manner in which they had treated the girl, and then put out the fire.
"You have saved the house; and if you had been a minute later, the little girl might have lost her life. You boys have done remarkably well. You have been brave and resolute, and you have managed the fire with excellent judgment," said the foreman, when he had learned all the facts. "Most boys would have continued to throw water on the fire in the room below; but you went up-stairs, where alone the fire could be checked. You have done well; and the whole fire-department of Genverres, if it had been here, could not have accomplished any more, or done it more neatly."
"Ash Burton was the leader of the party, and he found all the brains," said Chick Penny magnanimously.
"That's so; we followed his lead," added Sam Spottwood; and the others expressed their assent.
"I thank you, sir, for what you have said. I tried to do the best I could, and I am glad we succeeded; for I am sure I could not have done any thing if the other fellows had not worked like firemen. They all behaved first-rate, and did not give up when the smoke had strained their eyes nearly out of their heads," returned Ash, giving his companions the credit they deserved.
"There is nothing for us to do here, and we may as well return to our quarters. I am afraid that child is badly burned, and we will stop at the house where she is," continued the foreman, giving his men the order to return.
The rope of the engine was not very heavily manned, and the six boys were permitted to take part in dragging the machine back to town; and this, to the average boy, is supposed to be fun, however it may be with full-grown men. They were all well rested after the work they had done, and they had even forgotten for the time the unpleasant results of the cruise of the Goldwing. The engine stopped at the next house, where the farmer lived. Ash Burton and the foreman went in to inquire about the sufferer.
"I am keeping her quite comfortable by putting cold water on the burns about once a minute," said the farmer's wife. "I don't know as the doctor will approve of it when he comes, and I should not apply my remedy if the burns were on the head or body. For burns in any other places, cold water is my remedy, because it deadens the pain at once."
"How does the girl seem?" asked the foreman.
"She is pretty badly burned, but she will get over it without any trouble. I always told Mrs. Sankland that she ought not to lock up the children when she went out to work; but the poor woman has a terrible hard time of it, and I suppose she could not help it, for she has to earn enough to get food for her family," replied the good woman.