Police and firemen took up the cry, and began shoving the crowds out of danger. Larry and Miss Potter moved to a place of safety.
Hardly had this been done than there came a sharp explosion from the big drug house. It slightly shook the ground.
“That’s only the first! There’ll be more!” cried the man who had given the alarm. “Get farther back!”
“We’d better get out of danger!” shouted Larry in the girl’s ear, for the noise was such that ordinary tones could not be heard. “Come on!”
He took her arm to help her through the crowd. As he did so there came a terrific explosion, and the glass in many buildings nearby was shattered.
“This is fierce!” yelled Larry. “It’s going to make a big newspaper story! We haven’t had a large fire in a long time.”
CHAPTER XIV
PLANNING A SEARCH
Fearing that the next explosion might be even worse, and not only shatter the glass, but throw down some of the surrounding buildings themselves, Larry fairly pulled Miss Potter out of danger.
As he rushed along, surrounded on all sides by a frantic, pushing, shouting mob, the young reporter happened to glance up at one of the structures, the windows of which had nearly all been destroyed by the blast. One floor of this building was occupied by a costumer, who, as an advertisement, had set a figure of a clown, in an odd costume, on the sill of one casement. The explosion had turned this clown upside down.
As Larry was speculating on this odd sight, and making a mental note of it, to be used in the story, his attention was attracted by something else. Owing to the breaking of the glass of the costumer’s windows, many of which were of ground, or painted material, so that the public could not observe his customers trying on suits, a full view could be had into the interior of the shop.