Jack Ranger's Gun Club; Or, From Schoolroom to Camp and Trail

by Clarence Young

  CHAPTER X

  SAVING THE FLAGS

  "Telephone for the town fire department!" cried Dr. Mead, who had beenapprised of the fire. He, like all the others, was out in the storm,with a few clothes he had hastily donned.

  "They can't get in the boiler-room to fight the fire!" cried Socker.

  "Why not?"

  "Because the boiler will blow up. Something is wrong with the safetyvalve, and there are two hundred pounds of steam on. The boiler is onlymeant for one hundred."

  "How did the fire start? What made the safety valve get out of order?"asked the principal.

  The group of students and teachers, standing in the storm, could now seethe bright flicker of flames in the boiler-room. "I don't know," repliedSocker. "I was asleep in front of the boiler, waiting to put some morecoal on, when all of a sudden I smelled smoke."

  "How long before the boiler will go up?" asked Dr. Mead anxiously. "Ihave some valuable books I must save."

  He started to re-enter the school.

  "Don't go back!" cried Socker. "It's liable to go up any minute!"

  Dr. Mead returned to the waiting group, his face betraying intenseexcitement.

  "We must get the fire out!" he cried. "Can't some one send word to thevillage?"

  "There's a telephone in Mr. Raspen's house, about half a mile away,"volunteered Sam. "I'll run there."

  He started off, and just as he did so a series of alarming cries brokeout at one of the upper corridor windows of the school.

  "Fire! Fire!" cried a voice. "Der school ist being gonsumed by derfierce elements! Safe me, somebodies! I must get out my German flag! Imust out get quvick, alretty yet!"

  The anxious face of Professor Garlach appeared at one of the windows.

  "Don't jump!" cried Jack, as the teacher seemed about to do so. "You'vegot time enough to come down the stairs."

  "B-r-r-r-r! It's cold!" cried Nat Anderson, as some snow got inside theslippers he had put on, and some flakes sifted down his back.

  "It will soon be warm enough," observed Jack. "The fire is gaining. PoorWashington Hall! It deserved a better fate than being burned down."

  "Look!" cried Sam, who had paused in his run to go to the telephone."There's Socrat."

  The French professor had joined his German colleague at the window, andboth were struggling to climb out of it.

  "Stand aside, German brute zat you aire!" exclaimed the Frenchman. "Imust save ze glorious flag of la belle France! Let me toss it out of zewindow!"

  "I vill nottings of der kind do alretty yet!" responded ProfessorGarlach. "I vos here firstest!"

  "Zen you are no gentlemans!" was Professor Socrat's reply. "Bah! Sacre!Let me out, I demand of you! I am insult zat you should flout zat rag inmy eyes!"

  The wind had blown the German flag, which Professor Garlach held, intothe face of the Frenchman.

  "Rag! Hein! You call dot glorious flag a rag! Himmel! I vill of dermincemeat you make now!"

  Professor Garlach made a grab for his enemy. To do so he lost his holdon his precious flag. It fluttered out of the window and to the ground.

  "Save it! Save it!" he cried, leaning out. "My flag!"

  "I'll get it," shouted Jack.

  With a quick movement the German snatched the French colors from thehand of Professor Socrat. An instant later that, too, was fluttering tothe snow.

  "Oh! la belle tri-color! It is insult! I moost have blood to satisfy myhonaire!" shouted the Frenchman.

  He made a lunge, and clasped Professor Garlach about the neck. The twostruggled at the window. With a quick wit Jack grabbed the two flags,and, waving them, intertwined, above his head, he shouted:

  "See, professors! A German-French alliance at last. Both flags aresaved. They have not touched the ground. Now come on down and get them.Quick! The fire is gaining!"

  "Ach! Dot is goot! Der flag is not sullied!" called Professor Garlach.

  "And mine also--my beautiful tri-color, eet is safe!" added ProfessorSocrat. "Ranger, you are ze one grand gentleman. I salute you!" and theenthusiastic Frenchman blew Jack a kiss.

  The two enemies, reconciled by the flag incident, embraced each other,and as Jack called to them to make haste down the stairway, theydisappeared from the window.

  Meanwhile, the smoke was pouring from the boiler-room, and the flameswere brighter. Sam had raced off through the storm to the telephone tosummon the fire department.

  "Say, I don't believe that boiler's going to blow up," announced Jack."If it was going to, it would have done so long ago. I'm going to take alook."

  "No, no," begged Socker. "You'll all risk your life!"

  "Don't be rash, Ranger," cautioned Dr. Mead.

  "I think Socker exaggerated the danger," replied our hero. "I'm going totake a look."

  He ran back to the engine-room and looked in. He could see the boilerplainly, as the place was brightly illuminated by the flames. His eyessought the steam gage.

  "Why!" he cried. "There are only twenty pounds of steam on! Socker tookit for two hundred. There's no danger. That's a low pressure."

  Then he raised his voice in a shout:

  "Come on, fellows! Help put out the fire! There's no danger! Theboiler's all right!"

  There was an immediate rush. Jack still held his extinguisher, and NatAnderson had secured one. Several other students, hearing Jack'sreassuring news, rushed into the school, and came back with pieces ofhand apparatus.

  "Now to douse the fire!" yelled Jack, again turning on the chemicalstream.

  "Use snow!" cried Bob Movel. "That will help!"

  He scooped up some in a water pail that he had emptied, and tossed themass of white crystals on the edge of the flames, which were in onecorner of the boiler-room. There was a hissing sound, a cloud of steamarose, and the fire at that particular point died out.

  "That's the stuff!" cried Jack, and other students and some of theteachers followed Bob's example. The fire was fast being gotten undercontrol, and Socker, returning to the boiler-room, had attached a smallhose to a faucet, and was playing water on the flames.

  Suddenly, above the noise made by the shouting lads, the hiss of snowand water, and the snapping of the flames, there sounded a cry ofdistress.

  "Help! Help! Help!"

  "Some one is caught by the flames! They must have eaten their way up tothe upper floors!" cried Dr. Mead.

  "It iss dot boy Snaith--he und two odders!" announced Professor Garlach,rushing into the boiler-room, his beloved German flag clasped in hisarms, where Jack had placed it.

  "Quick! Sacre! We must not let zem perish!" added Professor Socrat, ashe caught up a big fire shovel and dashed from the basement. "I willrescue zem!"

  "Und me also," added Professor Garlach as he grabbed up a long poker.

  "There can't be much danger," said Jack. "The fire is almost out. Here,Nat, you keep things moving here, and I'll take a look."

  He ran out into the storm. Looking up at the side of the school, he saw,framed in a window, behind which a light burned, the figures of DockSnaith, Pud Armstrong and Glen Forker.

  "Save us! Save us!" cried Dock. "We can't get out."

  "Catch me! I'm going to jump!" yelled Pud.

  "No! no! Don't!" Jack called. "There's no danger. I'll come and getyou!" and he dashed into the main entrance of the school.