He happened to have a bucket full of water in his hands at the time, and with this he dashed straight at the stack. The flames were already having a merry time of it, and given another minute or so of free play, nothing could have been done to save the huge heap of straw.
Indeed, it promised to take all the combined energy of the scouts to fight the inroads of those eager flames, once they had taken hold.
“Beat it, soak it with water, tear it to pieces if you have to, but don’t let it get the better of you!” shouted the scout master.
A number of the boys were attacking the stack wildly. The hired man stood close by and watched operations as though he had never seen anything like it in all his life. Evidently the systematic and determined way in which those energetic lads went at things had made a most powerful impression on him.
Once Hugh, seeing him standing there, called out to him to lend a hand and fetch water if he could do nothing more. The man aroused himself and started to do what he was told.
It was once on the tip of Hugh’s tongue to ask the boys if any one knew the man with the blackened face, for something about him seemed strangely familiar, although he could not take the time to figure it out, nor did it matter. As it happened, something arose to divert his attention to another point, and he speedily forgot all about the unknown man.
Such energy certainly deserved to reap success, and in the end the straw-stack was saved, but it had been a pretty narrow escape.
“The worst of it is,” said Hugh between gasps when he felt certain the last threatening spark had been crushed out of existence, “that if this pile had gone there would have been a slim chance for saving any of the other haystacks; and after all of them got to burning we wouldn’t have been able to hold the barn back.”
“Chances are even the house would have gone up the flue, too,” declared Billy, who had worked like a good fellow to assist in the work.
Billy was a sight by this time calculated to excite the laughter of his chums. What, with his own personal efforts, added to the heat of the fire, he had long been fairly reeking with perspiration. Streaks of black ran across his face and made him look like a Fiji Islander decorated for the warpath.