In a few moments it rumbled over the bridge, leaving a trail of embers, which the breeze caught up and danced merrily along the snow-covered street.
Then the tender, with loudly clanging bell, passed between the crowds which had hastily parted to the right and left.
Bob and his companions felt that their services were no longer needed, so they threw aside their buckets and walked across the street to the engine.
It had taken a position beneath an electric lamp, its polished surfaces glistening brightly. Several firemen were already attaching the suction hose. Another was piling on fuel and the peculiar smell of soft coal smoke mingled with the pungent odor of burning wood from the schoolhouse. A hissing sound showed that the steam had reached a high pressure. It was an interesting moment to the boys.
"Come on with the water!" shouted a voice. Instantly the engineer turned the valve, and a loud puffing began, while a shower of sparks shot upward through the smoky air.
By this time, the fire had worked its way through the central portion of the school and found a vent in the cupola. The windows had been broken by the heat and long streamers of flame pierced the whirling smoke.
An extension ladder was placed against the eaves and a number of firemen ascended to the roof, where, almost hidden by the smoke, they dropped a rope and began hauling up another line of hose.
But the fire in the cupola was rapidly increasing. The flames having united into a solid body leaped furiously upward, presenting the appearance of a gigantic torch surmounted by a column of smoke and burning brands.
Within a few minutes, the scene had wonderfully changed. The entire mass of smoke seemed to be drawn upward by the rush of air, and mingling with that from the cupola, stood out with a deep, sullen red from a background of starlit sky.
The electric lights began to look pale and ghostlike, and a ruddy glare suffused the landscape, while myriads of embers drifted slowly earthward.