“Fire! Fire!” he yelled at the top of his voice, dashing toward the street. “Follow me,” he called to Pep. “There’s no good staying here. Send in an alarm!”
Pep paid no heed to the words. By the time Randy had reached the entrance lobby and was half-way down its length, his comrade had run to the lever operating the side exit doors. He gave this a turn. Then he dashed outside.
Pep headed for the rear of the playhouse to see how far the fire had progressed. Turning the corner of the building a great quantity of water struck him in the face.
It drove him back and he dodged out of range. In half a second, however, there came a drenching shower. Then it turned from him again, and Pep descried the cause of the flood.
Half-way down the vacant space between the garage and the playhouse, stood a boy. He held in his hand the nozzle of a large hose, connected with a water plug farther away.
The lad was shielding his eyes with one arm and bending over as smoke and cinders enveloped him. He staggered back as a sheet of flames swept over him. Resolutely, even defiantly, however, he maintained his position.
He would direct the hose at the flaming garage. Then he would sweep the stream around. This was why its cascade had showered Pep. Then the boy would shoot the torrent up and down and across the wall of the playhouse. This was blistered with the heat, and smoking.
Some projecting timbers were ablaze. He extinguished these, turned the stream back of him and directed it towards the garage. There, however, the blaze was too fierce—had gained too strong a headway to subdue. In fact, the lad seemed more anxious to protect the playhouse than the sheds.
“Oh! will he make it? Why don’t somebody come? Fire! Fire!” screamed Pep frantically, and then from the rear of the buildings fronting on the Common their occupants began to pour. Randy must have acted quickly, Pep realized, for he heard clanging bells in the distance.
Suddenly the boy with the hose staggered as a dense cloud of smoke enveloped him. Pep saw him fall, the hose dropping from his hand. Pep ran to where he lay and dragged him out of range of the leaping flames. He darted at the hose, lifted it and began playing the water on the rear of the playhouse, now burning in half a dozen places.