He was a second too late, for Johnny had once more rammed the door. The door went in, and he with it.
The thing he did then would have seemed strange had there been anyone by to see it. The fire, already bursting through the partitions, scorched his face and hands, but into the smoke he plunged, to drag away, not some object of great value, but a very ordinary desk telephone. Gripping the wires of the phone he yanked them free, then with this trophy under his arm he made a dash for safety.
Under the screen of smoke he escaped the eye of the policeman. Having hurried to the edge of some bushes, he examined the thing under his arm for a moment, then with a grumbled: “I thought so,” began coiling the wire about the phone.
Having done this, he shoved the whole affair far under the bushes, then turned his face again toward the fire.
By this time the tumult was appalling. Vying with the shrill scream of approaching fire sirens and the clamor of gongs, was the mad roar of frightened lions and tigers, while above it all sounded the wild trumpeting of the elephants.
“It’s going to be a terrible fire,” Johnny shivered. “Too terrible to tell.”
At that moment he darted suddenly forward. He felt sure he had recognized a familiar stooping figure in the gathering throng. Johnny had decided that it was about time to begin making a few arrests and ask questions later.
CHAPTER VII
THE BURNING OF THE ZOO
One moment Johnny sighted the familiar, stooping figure, the next he had lost him in the throng which appeared to have sprung up from the ground. However, he did not despair of finding him again. As for the fire, it was now none of his affair. Terrible as it promised to be, he could do nothing to stop it. That was the firemen’s part. Already they were stretching their hose. After a single thought given to the safety of the trophy he had hidden under the bushes, Johnny bent his every thought and energy toward the finding of that man.
“For,” he told himself, “it may result in the unravelling of a great mystery and bring to a sudden end a series of great catastrophes.” At that he lost himself in the throng.