“Sam, there’s a fire over here. Looks like Finkler’s house. Come and look.”
Sam was out of bed in a second and leaning across the sill at Jack’s side, rubbed his sleepy eyes into service.
“Fire! I should say so! And that’s Finkler’s place, sure as pop. There’s no other house in that direction for a mile. Hoopla! Me for the fire!”
Jack made a dash for his clothes, overturning a chair.
“But can we go?” asked Jack excitedly.
“Sure! Get your things on. I’ll run down and tell Talcott and he will give the alarm.” Sam was hustling into his shirt and trousers as he spoke, and the next instant he was out of the room and hurrying down the stairs to the Physical Director’s room on the first floor. Jack found his clothes and got into them hastily, watching meanwhile the glow above the orchard. Every moment it grew and brightened. Sam came running back.
“Where are my shoes?” he gasped. “Talcott says we can go ahead, Jack. Are you dressed? There goes the alarm!”
At the head of the staircase the big fire gong was pealing lustily and doors were being thrown open up and down the corridor.
“Come on!” shouted Sam. “Grab a bucket in the lower hall. The others will follow. Talcott says he will send the extinguishers around by the road. That’s Finkler’s as sure as fighting!”
The next moment, evading the excited questions flung at them from open doorways, the two boys dashed downstairs, seized each a red bucket from the rack and sped across the lawn toward the orchard. Shoes and trousers and shirts constituted their attire, and getting through the barberry hedge that lined the wall was a painful operation. But once over and in the orchard the way was easy. They headed straight for the glow of the fire, dodging the trees, but stumbling over an occasional root. They didn’t try to talk, but saved their breath for running. Jack could have outdistanced Sam, who had a good deal more weight to carry, but he resisted his impatience and kept with his chum. Presently the orchard thinned and then they were out of it, with only a little expanse of turf and garden between them and the fire.