CHAPTER VII

AT RISK OF LIFE

For a moment Bobby’s heart stood still.

The next instant he had slammed the door shut, so as to prevent the spread of the flames as much as possible. Then he raced through the hall, banging on the doors of the various rooms and shouting at the top of his voice:

“Fire! Fire! The school is on fire!”

There was a sound of answering shouts from the startled inmates of the rooms, and doors were torn open, showing frightened and bewildered faces.

Not stopping for a moment, Bobby ran up the stairs to the room where hung the great bell of the school. He grasped the rope and pulled it back and forth with all his might, and the bell sent out its clangor into the night, rousing the people from their slumbers for miles around.

Down the stairs Bobby sprang and rushed to the telephone. He called up the fire station in the town of Rockledge and told the news, getting an answer that the engine would be rushed out as fast as possible.

Then Bobby ran back to his room, pushing his way through the confused and shouting groups of boys who had rushed into the halls in all stages of dress and undress, and began hurriedly to slip on his own clothes, answering as well as he could the questions put by Fred, who was already nearly dressed.

“Are the fellows all out?” asked Fred, as he slipped on his jacket.

“I guess so,” replied Bobby, as he finished lacing his shoes. “I banged on all the doors, and then too the ringing of the bell would wake the dead. I passed most of them already out in the hall. Oh, but there’s Lee!” he fairly shouted, jumping to his feet. “His room is off from the rest and it’s just across from where the fire is! We’ve got to get him out.”

He threw open the door and started down the hall. But just then flames burst through the door of the burning room and swept completely across the hall, barring the passage.

Like a flash, Bobby was back in the room. He seized a towel and thrust it into the pitcher of water that stood on the washstand. Then he wound the dripping folds about his head.

“Take the pitcher and dash the rest of the water over me!” he shouted to Fred. “Quick!”

Fred did so and Bobby darted out of the room.

Down the hall he went and made a flying leap through the flames holding his breath as he did so, in order that he might not inhale the fire. He reached Lee’s door and rushed in.

The room was full of smoke, and Lee, half stupefied by it and hardly knowing what he was doing was staggering about. Bobby grabbed him by the arm and shook him.

“Brace up, Lee!” he cried.

With the other hand he picked up a heavy bathrobe and threw it over Lee’s head and shoulders. Then he started to lead him to the door, but Lee had not been on his feet for so long that his knees gave way under him.

At that instant, Fred, who had also drenched himself from head to foot, appeared at his side, and Bobby heaved a sigh of relief.

“Let’s wrap his head and shoulders in this bathrobe,” panted Bobby. “Then you take his feet and I’ll take his head, and we’ll make a break to get through.”

Fred helped as directed, and closing their eyes when they neared the darting flames, they got through with their burden just in time to deliver Lee into the hands of Dr. Raymond and Mr. Carrier, who had come rushing in half dressed from the adjoining building. The half-unconscious boy was taken to a safe place and ministered to, and then Dr. Raymond and the teachers turned their attention to fighting the fire, first having made sure that all the pupils were accounted for.

By this time the flames had gained considerable headway, and had broken through the partitions into adjoining rooms. Hand grenades were brought into use, but could do little toward checking the fire. Then a bucket brigade was organized, and the boys worked like Trojans in passing the buckets from hand to hand. But the flames were not entirely extinguished until help arrived from the town. Then a powerful stream was turned on and the fire was speedily gotten under control.

It was after midnight before the danger was over, and much later than that when the fire company thought it safe to depart, leaving one of their number to guard against any renewal of the flame from the sodden and smouldering embers.

Then the boys, who were utterly fagged out by the excitement and the hard work they had been doing, had time to take an account of matters. Some of the rooms had been burned out altogether, including that occupied by Bobby and Fred. They had had time however to remove most of their clothes and personal belongings, but the other contents of the rooms were practically a total loss.

Personally they had gotten off with only trifling hurts and burns. Fred’s hair had been singed and Bobby’s hands had some blisters, incurred by that rapid rush through the flames, and some of the other boys had minor injuries, incurred chiefly in the effort to save their belongings. But none had perished and none had been seriously hurt, and in this they found ample reason for thanksgiving.

“Gee, Bobby, but it was lucky that you woke up just then!” exclaimed Shiner. “If you hadn’t, a lot of us might have been burned to death.”

“It’s lucky that I had that nightmare,” replied Bobby with a grin, and he narrated the details of his fight with the alligators in his dream. “If I hadn’t been shocked awake by that,” he concluded, “I’d have been as sound asleep as the rest when the fire broke out.”

“It was an awful plucky thing that you and Fred did when you went through the fire for Lee,” commented Mouser. “A little later and nobody could have got to him and he’d have been a goner sure.”

“I only hope it hasn’t set him back,” replied Bobby. “He wasn’t in shape to stand much excitement.”

Dr. Raymond and the rest of the teaching staff came up just then to make arrangements for the sleeping quarters of the boys who had been turned out of their rooms. Some were doubled up in rooms that had been left intact, and others were taken over in the adjoining wing, where some spare cots were installed for their use. None of the boys felt that they could sleep any more that night, but they obeyed orders just the same, and as a matter of fact all of them were asleep long before morning dawned.

Having seen them all provided for, the doctor went back to his quarters, but not without first having a word with Bobby and Fred.

“Again the school and myself are under a debt to you, Blake,” he said. “You have shown again the quality of which I spoke to you two weeks ago, that of quick thinking. There is no doubt that if you and Martin had not acted as you did in regard to Cartier, he would have died in the flames.”

“I never thought much of nightmares,” Bobby said to Fred, later on, as they crept into bed, “but I sure am glad I had that one. That dream alligator that nearly had his teeth in me was the best friend I ever had.”

“Yes,” agreed Fred, “and I’ll tell the world that he was the best friend Rockledge School ever had.”