“Yes, and that’s where he gets his liking for magic tricks and for his circus stunts,” added Charlie. “He sure is a great boy, and strong. Why, say! you ought to have seen him on the trapeze I put up in our barn the other day. He did one giant swing and then he slid down a rope in a way that——”
“Look, there goes another building!” interrupted Henry, and the boys, racing for the bridge, forgot, for the time, to discuss Joe and his doings, in watching the progress of the fire, to which they were much nearer now. They could hear the crackle of the flames and the popping of small pieces of fireworks.
Charlie turned back to look at Joe. The young wizard, for such he later became, had waded out until he found himself getting beyond his depth, then he plunged into the water, fully clothed as he was, and began to swim.
Joe was a good swimmer, and he had on a light summer suit and tennis shoes, so he was not as hampered as otherwise he might have been. But swimming in a full suit was nothing for Joe. He had done it before in a camping contest, and he had plunged in once, in midwinter, in a heavy suit, to rescue a little girl from the icy stream.
Joe was a wonderful swimmer, though he could not yet do any fancy tricks. He was just doing the plain Australian crawl stroke, which puts one through the water in wonderfully good time. On and on he swam, gaining the other side, and was very close to the fire before his companions had reached the bridge. That was where Joe’s nerve and daring stood him in good stead.
In the beginning he had no particular object in getting to the fireworks fire in such a hurry. It was just curiosity on his part, as it was on the part of his companions. Then another thought came to Joe.
As he climbed up the bank on the other side, water dripping from every part of him, the youth thought:
“I wouldn’t be surprised but what somebody got hurt in this fire. It came so suddenly they can’t all have escaped. It isn’t going to be any easy job to put it out, either. They’ll need all the help they can get together. There go some of the railroad men to give a hand.”
Joe was out on level ground now, near the railroad tracks, and he utilized them as the shortest way to the fire. He looked back to see his chums who had crossed the bridge and were now laboriously racing onward. Their long run had tired them, whereas the swim Joe had taken had refreshed him, as the day was warm.
The shrill sound of the fire apparatus siren could now be heard, mingling with the whistle of the steamer, for the engineer, seeing the smoke and blaze from afar, and knowing the need, had started a fire under the boiler, ready for quick work when he should have reached the scene of the conflagration.